An Interactive Multimodality Curriculum Teaching Medicine Residents About Oncologic Documentation and Billing

Physicians recognize the importance of clinical documentation for accuracy of coding and billing, but it is emphasized little in residency curricula, with an even smaller emphasis on oncology-specific documentation. We developed an educational curriculum to teach residents about clinical documentation for cancer patients. Our tool kit includes didactics, simulated history and physical (H&P) documentation, and personal feedback.

A preintervention survey was first administered to gauge baseline knowledge. A simulated H&P was developed that required participants to complete their own assessment and plan. We delivered a 25-minute lecture regarding billing and coding along with documentation tips and tricks specific to hematology/oncology. Thereafter, we handed out a second H&P, and participants had to once again complete their own assessment and plan. These H&Ps were graded by three reviewers using a rubric. We then gave residents personalized feedback using the above data and administered a postintervention survey.

The postintervention survey revealed that 100% of the residents surveyed found this activity helpful, 83% noted that further knowledge of diagnosis codes was helpful to their learning, 100% noted that that this activity taught them to improve documentation, 91% said they were more likely to use cancer-specific diagnoses, and 91% said they would benefit from direct feedback-based education.

Didactic and formal education is more effective when combined with hands-on examples and direct personalized feedback.