Introduction
Hospital stay coding is an essential step within healthcare institutions. It ensures accurate billing, improves the quality of medical data, and contributes to more efficient hospital organization. In an era of increasing digitalization, optimizing its management has become a strategic challenge.
1.1 What is hospital stay coding?
Hospital stay coding consists of translating all medical and administrative information related to a patient’s hospitalization into standardized codes. This process not only ensures accurate billing but also helps improve the reliability of healthcare data. In addition, it guarantees compliance with regulatory requirements, making it an essential lever for healthcare institutions.
1.2 Why it is essential for healthcare institutions
Essential in both medical and surgical care, hospital stay coding plays a central role in hospital management. It directly impacts the quality of medical follow-up, data transparency, and the financial performance of healthcare organizations.
2. The current hospital stay coding process
Today, hospital stay coding is often handled by specialized administrative teams or authorized external service providers. These professionals rely on various medical documents, generally digitized and archived using solutions such as Therefore.
The coding is then entered into dedicated applications such as Opale or 3M Kodip.
While this approach remains effective, it nevertheless has certain limitations: restricted access to the complete medical record, heavy reliance on manual processes, and the multiplication of documentary sources. These constraints can slow down workflows and increase complexity for the teams involved.
3. Towards better hospital stay coding management with ClevEHR
To address these challenges, healthcare institutions are increasingly turning to integrated digital solutions.
Data centralization
With tools such as the ClevEHR Electronic Health Record (EHR), all medical and administrative information is consolidated within a single system. This centralization simplifies access to the documents required for hospital stay coding and limits data fragmentation across multiple applications.
Workflow automation and monitoring
Through automation, the system streamlines repetitive tasks and reduces the risk of errors. Teams can track coding workflows in real time, providing clear visibility into the status of each case and improving overall work organization.
Document justification and traceability
Hospital stay coding must always be supported by precise documentation: surgical reports, prescriptions, medical forms, and more. Digital solutions make it possible to categorize these documents (required, useful, or not useful), ensuring improved traceability and stronger regulatory compliance.
4. Benefits of optimized hospital stay coding with ClevEHR
Optimizing hospital stay coding within ClevEHR delivers tangible benefits for healthcare institutions:
- Time savings for teams: by reducing manual tasks, staff can focus on higher value-added activities.
- Improved quality and compliance: adherence to standards and reliable coding enhance the overall quality of medical data.
- Positive impact on hospital management: more accurate billing, optimized administrative follow-up, and better resource allocation.
Conclusion
The future of hospital stay coding lies in digitalization and automation. Hospitals and clinics that adopt modern solutions such as ClevEHR and document management platforms improve both operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.
Far more than a simple administrative task, hospital stay coding becomes a true lever for performance and quality, serving healthcare institutions and the patients they care for.
