Volume 2

Step 4: Asking

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Asking involves soliciting feedback from the physician participants in a specific manner and at a specific time. The ability of physicians to speak to their concerns about what they are being asked to do is essential. While coaching addresses the physicians’ ability to improve their clinical documentation, asking addresses their willingness to do it.

Asking is designed to improve the physicians’ documentation by helping them feel comfortable with the process. Physicians need to feel that their clinical documentation is not a forced process, but rather something they control. The ability of the physicians to provide open feedback about their concerns with the clinical documentation process will help to develop higher self-efficacy by confirming their desire to produce high quality documentation. The higher the physicians’ self-efficacy, the more in control they will feel, and the more likely they are to sustain their high quality clinical documentation practices—an important goal for every healthcare organization.

The details of the asking component and timing for asking activities in the training program are included in this chapter and in the appendices of volume 2 of A Compelling Case for Clinical Documentation.