Build Accountability in Your Revenue Cycle

Stephanie Smithson, CHAM, the patient accounts director, says the facility implemented best practice key performance indicators (KPIs) for the entire revenue cycle. KPIs are metrics that illustrate how to improve your revenue cycle.

Dunn's patient access benchmarks include:

• 2% or less error rate at time of billing


• 95% pre-registration rate

Dunn creates action plans for areas below benchmark, Smithson says. Dunn also implemented ED point-of-service (POS) collections.

"ED POS collections is a new area for us, and we are actively working through the issues with ED Nursing Management to resolve," Smithson says. "We are actively using our performance matrix to assign shifts and for evaluations."

Each revenue cycle team reports numbers monthly to the hospital finance committee and the hospital board. A core group meets weekly to complete and report outstanding issues for the entire revenue cycle.

What has the revenue-cycle-wide initiative done for Dunn?

• Allows staff members to meet and interact on all points of the revenue cycle


• Educates staff members how each area interacts within the revenue cycle and what issues they have


• Gives team leaders a voice and chance to showcase their team's improvement


• Exposes leaders to other leaders' strategy on handling problems within their own areas