Billing of level II wound treatment and records: Nursing contributions

Abstract

Objective: to verify whether an educational action developed with nurses contributed to improved documentation on wound treatment, thereby enabling more accurate billing related to level II wound treatment Methods: exploratory, descriptive and quantitative study. Data were collected from the prescription and evaluation sheets of the clinical record, and from the hospital data processing center, before and after the educational action focusing on the importance of nursing records. Among 532 events reviewed, 266 were before and 266 after the intervention. The variables were analyzed according to frequencies and percentages, namely: prescription, evaluation, schedule time, documentation, professional category of the prescriber and the person performing the procedure. The associations between variables were analyzed using the Chi-square or the test for the difference in proportions. Results: the amount of prescriptions, schedule time, and documentation increased after the educational action, which directly influences billing for the procedure; costs were R$ 9,201.60 before and R$ 25,142.40 after the action. No significant change was identified in the nursing evaluation related to the procedure. Conclusion: an increase in prescriptions after the educational action was verified, which, in turn, resulted in an increase in billable services. Further studies involving billing as a result of nursing records of interventions are necessary, as well as the investment of the managers in educational actions.