Wiki Ivpb stop time vs iv discontinued

[tlccovert]

As a current ER coder we are trying to do training with the ER staff on proper documentation for Hydration and therapeutic infusions. We are having a lot of issues with them not documenting a stop time. At the end of patient visit they always make note "IV discontinued". With 14 yrs of coding always told that this cannot be considered a stop time as it doesn't tell me when the infusion was done running. It only tells coders the IV/saline lock was removed from patients vein and in order to use as a stop time it would rather need to say IV infusion discontinued.

Any further opinions on this would be greatly appreciated. I just watched/listened to webinar "Infusion Confusion" from 4/30/14 but did not touch base on this.

 

[SUMMER.CHAMBERS]

I do the infusion charging for the ED at our facility and I understand your frustration. You are correct, the nurse has to document infusion discontinued/stopped/completed or something to that effect in order to use that as a stop time.

 

[GAcoder]

I've struggled with this issue as well. Not much success getting end times documented so I code as push or I don't code hydration at all if not documented end time. I don't understand why they often do not document end time. Seems like a rule could be made to not let the encounter be closed if no end time is documented on EMR or possibly a prompt for end time.