2024 "Best of the Best" in Clinical Documentation

Supporting the highest quality in patient care, the following Ochsner Health Network clinical champions exemplified best practices in clinical documentation, recognized through the Circle of Excellence awards program. As shown in medical literature, when structure and standardize notes and coding practices, quality scores rise, safety improves, and medical errors decline. Additionally, excellent documentation enhances communication between and among healthcare professionals, patients and their caregivers, and supports data collection, analysis and future research. And OHN believes in prioritizing quality care and diligent documentation is the right thing to do for our patients. 

Congrats to Ochsner Health Network’s “Best of the Best” for Clinical Documentation in 2024:

Fourth Quarter 2024 CDE Winners:

Cassandra Pillette, MD

Dr. Cassandra Pillette is a primary care physician at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Doctors. From the initial education in June 2023, Dr. Pillette was very interested in virtual education sessions. She remains engaged, inquisitive and has continuously improved with documentation best practices and key performance indicators, as she strives to be the best she can be for her patients. Her reconciliation rate at the end of Q3 2024 was over 94%, far exceeding the year-end goal of 90%. She is nearly 8% above the system reconciliation rate of 86.4% through Q3 2024. Even more impressive is her CDE Encounter Action Rate - over 95% - and a BPA Action Rate of nearly 63%, which is 20% above the system average.

Chung Pham, MD

Dr. Pham is a senior physician at Ochsner Health Center - West Bank Pulmonology. In January 2024, Dr. Pham leveraged the BPA tool into his current workflow, making a concerted effort to improve his Encounter Action Rate. Throughout the year, his Encounter Action Rate improved significantly to over 84% with a BPA action rate over 76%, confirming his commitment in January. Dr. Pham, at that time, had no unaddressed BPA opportunities noted in the performance dashboard from February through present.

Angelique Torres, NP

Angelique Torres is a nurse practitioner at Ochsner Health Center - Lockport. The Ambulatory CDE team has been working with Angelique over the years. Recently she embraced making improvements that detail the most accurate health status of her patient’s current health condition into her clinical documentation. During a regional work group meeting for the Bayou Region, Angelique was recognized as a top performer, achieving and an Encounter Action Rate of 99.84% on over 600 point of care alerts. That rate also puts her in the top 1% of clinicians across the system throughout primary care, specialties, and all levels of clinicians.

Mohammad Nawaz, MD

Dr. Nawaz is a senior physician at Ochsner Health Center - Raceland. Dr. Nawaz began participating in the Ambulatory CDE Program for risk adjustment in 2015 and continues to strive for excellence today. For the month of August 2024, his Reconciliation Rate was over 91%. During a regional work group meeting for the Bayou Region, he had an aggregated Encounter Action Rate of over 82% on over of 1,600 point of care alerts this year. His year-to-date HCC Reconciliation Rate is over 92%, exceeding the system goal of 90%.

Salima Qamruddin, MD

Dr. Qamruddin is a senior physician at Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans Cardiology and works extensively with echocardiograms and imaging of the heart. During the first quarter of 2024, Dr. Qamruddin’s Encounter Action Rate was 66%. Since she began the Specialty Evaluation, Education, and Development (SPEED) Program with her CDE nurse, her Encounter Action Rate is nearly 94%, with a BPA Action Rate is over 87% currently.

Isabelle Hatfield Tutor, PA-C

Isabelle Hatfield Tutor is a physician’s assistant at Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans Cardiology. The retrospective chart reviews completed on her patient encounters indicated no missed coding opportunities and excellent supporting documentation for the diagnoses coded on the visits. Isabelle maintains a 97% Encounter Action Rate, which is among the top performers in the entire system for all levels of clinicians, and she is interacting with the OPA HCC BPA tool 66% of the time.

Oluwakemi Adeyanju, MD

Dr. Adeyanju is a primary care physician at Ochsner Health Center - Destrehan Family Health and St. Charles Parish Hospital Primary Care. CDE began the FocusEducational Program with Dr. Adeyanju in August 2023. As she progressed through the program, she began to implement the point-of-care tools and workflows suggested by the CDE team. Her 2023 performance scored an HCC Reconciliation Rate of nearly 94%, almost two points above system average and nearly four points above goal. She continued that trend in 2024, achieving a 90% HCC Reconciliation through November. Additionally, Dr. Adeyanju achieved over an 88% Encounter Action Rate and 76% BPA Action Rate.

Thanh M Nguyen, MD

Dr. Nguyen is a senior physician at Ochsner Baptist, and an Interventional Cardiologist with over two decades of experience. Dr. Nguyen achieved a nearly 99% Encounter Action Rate year-to-date through November 2024, far exceeding the 50% Goal and the 89% Cardiology average.

Johnathan Smith, NP

Johnathan is a Supervisor – Nurse Practitioner Site Lead at Ochsner Medical Center - West Bank. His focus on capturing the Advanced Care Planning CPTII code for Enhanced Annual Wellness Visits resulted in outstanding KPIs, such as an Encounter Action Rate of over 98% in V28 and over 99% in V24.  His BPA Action Rate was above 97% in V28 and 100% in V24, and he is a strong advocate for BPA utilization within his team.

Clint Lincoln, MD

Dr. Clint Lincoln is a senior physician in primary care at Ochsner CHRISTUS Health Center - Grand Lake. Dr. Lincoln began his sessions with CDE in November 2023. His Reconciliation Rate was over the system by 5% at that time. He does very well with diagnosis capture and supporting documentation. He advanced quickly through the phases of the FOCUS program and continues to have reconciliation rates above the system average. As of December 2024, his Reconciliation Rate is above goal and system rate, standing at over 94%.

Melissa Spera, MD

Dr. Melissa Spera is a senior physician and site lead for Gastroenterology at Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans. In 2023, Dr. Spera’s Encounter Action Rate was 11%. She started the SPEED program on May 15, 2024. Dr. Spera’s commitment to quality documentation was evident during her first session. She was proactive in using the Epic tools and information provided during CDE sessions. As a result, her Encounter Action Rate increased to 97%! During her second SPEED session, it was noted that she acted on all but one alert in the OPA tool! Dr. Spera maintained an outstanding Encounter Action Rate of almost 98% throughout 2024.

Leslie Stephens, PA-C

Leslie Stephens is a physician’s assistant and director in the Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Clinic at Ochsner Health Center - O'Neal. Based on her Encounter Action Rate, she is capturing 98% of the HCC diagnoses open and applicable to her specialty at the time of the encounter. Her BPA Action Rate of over 70% shows that she is interacting with the OPA tool while in the encounter. She is easy to schedule with, responsive, and engaged during the CDE meetings. She consistently supports the diagnoses coded on her patient encounters with appropriate clinical indicators, treatment plans, and education for the patient going forward.