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sticker and puts it on the patient's daily charge card. The
patient's daily charge cards for all departments, except the
operating room and pharmacy, are sent back to central supply
where each item's procedure code is keyed into a hospital
computer terminal which is connected directly with the main data
center at HCA's corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee. The
appropriate charge to the patient's account is made automatically
for a later billing to the patient.
When a medical supply is used during a surgical procedure in
the operating room, the nurse checks the item off on a "charge
sheet" maintained in the name of each patient undergoing a
surgical procedure. After the conclusion of the surgical
procedure, the charge sheet is used by operating room personnel
to key the appropriate item procedure codes into the computer for
posting to the patient's account.
All orders for medications for a patient are listed on a MAR
prepared for that patient and delivered by the pharmacy
department to the attending nurse station. The nurse checks off
each item of medication on the MAR as it is administered to the
patient. A copy of the MAR is returned to the pharmacy
department, which then inputs the appropriate patient charge into
the hospital computer terminal.
Each hospital's computer procedure file contains all of the
hospital's procedure codes for various patient procedure charges,
including those in which medical supplies are used. When
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