Dolbey launches DocAssist Documentation Guides for hospitals

From the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference, Dolbey introduced DocAssist™ Documentation Guides to help hospitals train their physicians to document patient reports according to the upcoming ICD-10 PCS requirements.

The transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 places new requirements on physicians as they document patient procedures. "The gap between how physicians document today is so vastly different from how they will need to document with ICD-10. Without training before and during the transition, hospitals risk a revenue impact as coding and billing will ultimately be slowed," states Chris Casto, Vice President of Dolbey.

DocAssist provides a physician with a short question and answer session, or Guide, as they begin documenting a patient's procedure. These DocAssist Guides are built from a proprietary and patent-pending process that is based on a combination of coding guidelines and the words and expressions that physicians use in identification of devices, anatomy and methods.

Integrated with Dolbey's speech recognition and dictation products, DocAssist works in all the modalities that physicians use to dictate and document. If using a computer or speech recognition, DocAssist provides visual menus. When dictating over a telephone, DocAssist provides an interactive voice response with language understanding and optional SMS text messaging to prompt the physician toward an accurately coded ICD-10 PCS code. "Our research found that as much as 60% of the documentation in a patient's chart is still dictated and transcribed. By providing DocAssist using the telephone for dictation, a hospital can provide this unique technology to their entire physician staff," states Robert Sintic, Chief Technology Officer for Dolbey.

Casto states, "Reaction from the HIMSS attendees has been outstanding. Many have indicated that they are finalizing their ICD-10 transition strategy and recognize that physician training is still a void in their final plan. For a successful and revenue-neutral transition, the physicians must be included in the process. DocAssist can fill that training void. We feel we are uniquely qualified to provide our customers with an end-to-end solution for documentation that encompasses traditional dictation, speech recognition and computer-assisted coding solutions."