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Manage admissions

warning

RehabAlpha is still under active development. It is not yet HIPAA compliant and should only be used with dummy data.

An admission records a period of care for a patient at the facility that owns the patient record. Use it to organize the patient's therapy cases and billing episodes, and to manage admission details such as admit and discharge dates, room number, physicians, tags, and notes.

Before you start​

Create the patient under the correct facility and add any needed coverages first.

Understand admissions​

An admission provides the shared context for clinical care and billing during one period at the facility. It can continue through several courses of therapy and changes in payor.

  • The admission records the patient's overall period of care at the facility.
  • A therapy case records one discipline's course of care, such as physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), or speech-language pathology (SLP). It contains the clinical documentation for that course of therapy.
  • A billing episode identifies the primary payor, billing provider when applicable, dates, and services to which the billing setup applies. Services are selected by discipline or by specific therapy case.

Both therapy cases and billing episodes belong to the admission. One admission can have several of each. RehabAlpha matches a case's services to a billing episode using the episode's dates and selected disciplines or cases.

How the dates fit together​

The admission, billing episodes, and therapy cases have separate dates. In this fictional example, one admission continues from January through June. Both billing episodes select PT and OT, and the primary payor changes from Example Payor A to Example Payor B on April 1.

The PT case continues across the payor change; changing the payor does not require a new therapy case or admission. OT ends one course of therapy and starts another later in the same admission. Ending a course of therapy does not mean the patient has left the facility.

A therapy case can also exist before a billing episode is set up. Add the billing episode when you need RehabAlpha to match services to a primary payor and payment model. For more examples, including billing episodes that apply to different disciplines at the same time, use the billing episode guide.

Add an admission​

  1. Open the patient.
  2. Click Admissions.
  3. Click New admission.
  4. Enter the Admit date.
  5. Add room number, physicians, prior hospitalization, or PDPM assessment details when available.
  6. Set up a billing episode if your organization tracks billing setup in RehabAlpha.
  7. Click Save.

RehabAlpha derives the facility, time zone, available service locations, and billing defaults from the patient's facility. The admission form does not let you select or change the facility or time zone.

Update an admission​

  1. Open the patient.
  2. Click Admissions.
  3. Open the admission.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. Update admission details, physicians, PDPM assessments, billing episodes, tags, or notes. The facility remains unchanged.
  6. Click Save.

End an admission​

Use the admission's Discharge date when the patient is no longer admitted at the facility.

  1. Open the admission.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Enter the Discharge date.
  4. Review any billing episodes tied to the admission.
  5. Click Save.

What to do next​

After an admission exists, start a therapy case for each discipline providing care.