The data came from facilities across the United States performing as few as 100 cases per month and as many as 850 cases per month organizations both large and small. Here are some of the statistics from the analysis:
1. Average number of forms per patient chart — 22
2. Average number of minutes to prepare one chart — 10
3. Average hourly wage of chart preparer — $15.10
4. Average cost per sheet of “sticky labels” — 0.21
5. Average number of sheets per patient — 3
6. Average annual cost of pre-printed forms — $10,700
—
For an ASC with an average case load per month of 390 cases, here are some costs associated with assembling, storing and accessing charts.
7. Sticky labels
Box of sticky labels — $225
Sheets of sticky labels/box — 1135
4 sheets/chart x 390 cases/month = 1,560 sheets/month
1,560 sheets/month / 1,135 sheets/order = 1.5 boxes/month
1.5 boxes of labels x $225/box = $340 in sticky labels cost/month; $4,050 in sticky labels cost/year
8. Chart folders
Box of chart folders — $130
Chart folders/box — 180
1 folder/patient x 390 cases/month = 390 folders/month
390 folders/month / 130 folders/box = 3 boxes/month
3 boxes of folders x $130 = $390 in total chart folder cost/month; $4,680 in total chart folder cost/year
9. Staff
Part-time employee
Average cost to compile a patient chart (with two employees per facility used to compile patient charts at 3 hours/day):
10 minutes/chart at $15/hour = 6 charts completed/hour
$2.50/chart x 390 cases/mo = $975/month; $11,700/year
Full-time employee
$15/hour x 40hours/week x 4.3 weeks/month x 12 months = $30,960/year; including benefits load (at 24 percent) = $38,390 annual cost
10. Storage
(Using a major national records management and data protection solutions company as an example)
Monthly Remote storage fee — $325
Monthly document retrieval (from remote storage) — $25/retrieval x 5 retrievals/month
Cost of remote storage/month = $325
Cost of remote storage/year = $3,900
Source: Surgical Notes.
Learn more about Surgical Notes.
