Your attorney-client has provided a link to the medical records of three different providers of the patient. Your assignment: Review the medical records, provide a summary, and give your nursing opinion. You’re going to get paid handsomely for it, but how do you keep track of your time spent on the case?
Attorneys, usually defense attorneys, used to keep a notepad next to them and whenever they performed a task, they’d write it down on “time slips”. They’d include the date, time it took, and short description.
Fast forward to the digital era and attorneys keep “time” electronically. While that’s an option for legal nurse consultants, in my experience the best way to keep track of the time you spend on an assignment is by simply writing it down. Later, when it’s time to create an invoice, you can easily transcribe your time directly onto your invoice for services.
Follow these three steps to make recording your “time” easier
1. Keep a notepad next to you. On your notepad that’s kept next to you while you review a medical record, record the time you start and the time you stop, even if it’s just for a break. Then, record your restart time and stop time. Next to each start and stop time, record the task you performed.
For example, if I’m reviewing the medical bills from a healthcare provider, I would record the date and the start and stop time for those precise medical bills. My entry would say: “Review medical bills from [name of healthcare provider], 17 pages”.
2. Use the page count as a gauge. Once you review medical records and medical bills, you’ll get a feel for how long it ought to take you to review them. Of course, some documents require you to scrutinize them more in which case the page count is not necessarily reflective of how long it should take you to review them.
3. Record the amount of time per task. It’s possible that you could review the medical records and medical bills in a short amount of time, say, in one hour. Still, separate out the time you spent reviewing the medical records, summarizing the medical records, reviewing the medical bills, and summarizing the medical bills.
The reason to separate the time concisely is for your attorney-client’s benefit and, as is often the case, for the insurance company’s benefit. Recipients of your legal nurse consultant services want to know exactly how you spent your time and their money.
Keep it simple sweetheart will be your motto and you’ll find it’ll keep you in good stead.
P.S. Want more? Watch our YouTube videos @JurexNurse on our channel here.
