Responding to recommendations from the Stroudwater Associates report, the Barnwell County Hospital is examining its revenue cycle and setting targets for it business office and updating software.

Stroudwater is a medical consulting firm that delivered a operational and financial assessment of the hospital to board members last month.
During a Feb. 25 meeting, the board passed a motion to update the hospital's Chargemaster system.

Chargemaster is a complex database computer program that charges for medical services and procedures, said Don Alexander, the board chairman.
The charges are derived from medical codes which come from medical records, said hospital CEO Mary Valliant.

Stroudwater will do the Chargemaster update and provide Chargemaster training for business office personnel, said Alexander.

Glitches in the program have led to problems and delays in the hospital's revenue cycle, said Alexander. Chargemaster is unique to each hospital it serves.

It is tailored to each hospital's needs and procedures with charges based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines, said Valliant.

"We have seen improvement in the business office and we appreciate their efforts - this is a way to give the business office tools and training to do the job effectively," said Alexander.

Interim Chief Financial Officer Paul Sheler has identified specific performance targets for the business office.

Sheler has been tracking and compiling data on the revenue cycle and has set the goal of collecting $1.1 million dollars a month in cash, said Alexander.

He has also set a goal of closing a bill in five days, said Valliant.

Right now, the process is taking six days, said Alexander.

Medical coders can't close the bill until it is coded, Valliant explained, when it's coded it is sent to Meditech.

Meditech is a software billing program that is partly connected to Chargemaster and that is where some of the problems are coming from, said Valliant.

The following business was also coducted during the board meeting.

•Announced the hospital will use a Columbia-based collection agency, Pricewater House, on a trial basis.

The agency will collect on bills that are over 60-days old and keep 15 percent of the collections, said Valliant.

•Valliant said she signed the contract for the hospital's Web site. Alexander said the hospital has held off from signing the contract until its finances had improved.

A Charleston-based company will design the Web site and work will begin on it soon, said Valliant.

• Because of an increase in psychiatric patients acting out, Valliant said the hospital has increased its security from Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The hospital now has safety officers working seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

The average waiting time for a psych bed is three days, said Valliant.

•Columbia-based doctor Stephen Lloyd will start colonoscopy screenings in the county at the end of March, said Valliant.

Lloyd will be working with local physicians and teaching them colonoscopy screenings.

The colonoscopy screenings will be available for people without medical insurance, said Valliant.