School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations
Improving identification of homeless patients at GW University Hospital via ICD diagnostic coding
Document Type
Poster
Abstract Category
Quality Improvement
Keywords
quality improvement, homelessness, ICD coding
Publication Date
Spring 5-1-2019
Abstract
In January of 2018, DC's Point-in-Time (PIT) Count revealed 6.904 persons experiencing homelessness in the nation's capital. Many of these individuals receive care at GW University Hospital due to it's downtown location and ease of access via Metro routes. As part of a quality improvement project, we sought to determine how often medical residents were properly identifying patients who were homeless via ICD diagnostic coding. We also briefed medical residents to ask patients about their housing situation. Lastly, we provided homelessness resources to our discharged homeless patients. Quantitatively, we reviewed all ED visits and medicine admissions to determine if our interventions improved ICD coding and if homeless patients were provided with resources on discharge. Our ultimate hope is to increase awareness of homelessness and encouraging medical providers to document homelessness via ICD coding. In the future, more accurate identification of homeless patients can be used to better analyze health care utilization and adopt targeted social or case management discharge interventions.
Open Access
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Improving identification of homeless patients at GW University Hospital via ICD diagnostic coding
In January of 2018, DC's Point-in-Time (PIT) Count revealed 6.904 persons experiencing homelessness in the nation's capital. Many of these individuals receive care at GW University Hospital due to it's downtown location and ease of access via Metro routes. As part of a quality improvement project, we sought to determine how often medical residents were properly identifying patients who were homeless via ICD diagnostic coding. We also briefed medical residents to ask patients about their housing situation. Lastly, we provided homelessness resources to our discharged homeless patients. Quantitatively, we reviewed all ED visits and medicine admissions to determine if our interventions improved ICD coding and if homeless patients were provided with resources on discharge. Our ultimate hope is to increase awareness of homelessness and encouraging medical providers to document homelessness via ICD coding. In the future, more accurate identification of homeless patients can be used to better analyze health care utilization and adopt targeted social or case management discharge interventions.
Comments
Presented at Research Days 2019.