Practice your handwriting
Oct. 17th, 2008 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennythereaderAnd please write clearly when you're filling out important paperwork.
On the Axis III (physical health) line of a form I just processed, the person's handwriting was so bad that I couldn't tell if they had written HIV or HTN (short for hypertension - high blood pressure). There's a pretty significant difference in how those illnesses will affect the patient's mental state.
I ended up selecting "unknown" and putting a note with the form.
On the Axis III (physical health) line of a form I just processed, the person's handwriting was so bad that I couldn't tell if they had written HIV or HTN (short for hypertension - high blood pressure). There's a pretty significant difference in how those illnesses will affect the patient's mental state.
I ended up selecting "unknown" and putting a note with the form.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 04:27 pm (UTC)I almost want to ask you to pass the story on to your co-workers as a warning.
The thing is, this happens all the time. On almost every form I process I have to make at least one judgment call. The most common question is whether a given digit is a 3 or an 8. Usually I can figure it out from what the doctor/nurse/whoever wrote elsewhere on the form or by trying both possibilities and learning that (for example) 811 is not a valid Axis I code but 311 is.
It gets frustrating, and I can't help but wonder how many of the problems people have with their insurance companies stem from this sort of thing.