HOUSTON – The processes of coding and charge capture are often complicated, time-consuming, paper-intensive tasks more suited to administrators than clinicians.

To make those tasks easier for everyone involved, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is implementing the Infusion Services Model from MedAptus, a Boston-based provider of point-of-care charge capture technologies. The automated system allows nurses to enter infusion services delivered, after which the software translates the input into compliant codes.

Lori English, associate director of patient business services at M.D. Anderson, said the process now – in which nurses charge infusion services rendered and determine codes – is complicated, confusing and inconsistent, leading to inaccurate results and lost time and money. The Infusion Services Module, she said, “allows for a much greater degree of accuracy (and) consistency in interpretation.”

“We’re a huge installation and have so many varieties (of healthcare delivery). Everybody does things their own way,” she added.

M.D. Anderson, one of the world’s top-ranked comprehensive cancer care centers, is currently training about 120 nurses on the new system, which English expects to go live next month.

“The nurses are really, really anxious,” she said.