Determining when to code a post-surgical complication as opposed to simply considering it to be an expected outcome after surgery can be a complicated task.
A complication is “a condition that occurred after admission that, because of its presence with a specific principal diagnosis,...Read More »
Our hospital serves a higher than usual population with COPD. Most of these cases are chronic and the patient is typically on home oxygen. Blood gases are almost never obtained on admission unless the patient is placed on a ventilator. Is acceptable to query the physician for chronic respiratory...Read More »
by Glenn Krauss, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPUR, C-CDI, CCDS
Too many CDI specialists live for the immediate satisfaction of today. Their primary focus is upon getting a diagnosis documented in the record once and then moving on to the next chart, looking to secure another diagnosis and...Read More »
On June 11, the ACDIS Advisory Board submitted comments to CMS regarding proposed changes to the Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS) and proposed fiscal year 2013 rates, as published in the May 11, 2012 Federal Register (CMS-1588-P). Its comments addressed...Read More »
CMS recently posted two separate sets of data that provide nationwide statistics on its Recovery Auditor program. The first update contains improper payment figures as well as the top Recovery Auditor issue per region. In the second update, CMS provides appeals statistics for fiscal year 2011....Read More »
Does your facility mandate physician participation in CDI orientation?
That’s the question SC ACDIS Chapter leader Rebecca “Ali” Williams, RN, BSN, CCDS, manager of documentation integrity for Spartanburg (SC) Regional Medical Center & Village Hospital asked fellow chapter...Read More »
Current SIRS criteria are insufficient, confusing, and don't indicate whether a patient is truly sick, says Robert S. Gold, MD, founder and CEO of DCBA, Inc., in Atlanta.
Some patients—particularly those who are critically ill—may meet necessary criteria for SIRS and truly have...Read More »
The biggest challenge of being a CDI specialist in my opinion is the education of the physicians. They fly by us like stealth bombers and we have limited face-to-face time to make the impression. Fortunately, the snippets of education we do...Read More »
