By Cathy Farraher, RN, BSN, MBA, CCCM, CCDS
At a recent meeting, my facility coders discussed that our special care nursery (SCN) patients were an outlier for length of stay (LOS). This surprised CDI staff—the reputation of the unit was very good, so how could it be an outlier?Read More »
By Amy Sanderson, MD
The term “dysphagia” has many synonyms used by providers in medical documentation. However, not all of these symptoms are able to describe, with specificity, the real problem so it can be translated into its corresponding code assignment.Read More »
"I remember talking to some of the folks who work in CDI at conferences, and when I would ask them about psych units, none of them had CDI working on those units at all,” says Suzanne Dennis, CTRS, CCDS, director of clinical services/documentation specialist at Acadia Healthcare...Read More »
By Karin Killenberger, BSN, RN, CCDS
Working as a remote CDI specialist can be either totally fulfilling or a bit difficult. If you’re a people person, you will miss the camaraderie of working in the hospital setting, the ability to problem-solve by bouncing ideas off your...Read More »
By Sharme Brodie, RN, CCDS
So, the first AHA Coding Clinic for 2018 is out, and I must admit, I was surprised at its length. At only 26 pages, it is one of the shorter editions of late. Some of the questions covered within its few pages, however, were ones I often discuss...Read More »
There are 12,400 home health agencies which provided care to 4.9 million patients in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In light of efforts to keep patients from being readmitted to hospitals, and to keep the hospital stays they do undergo as short as possible,...Read More »
By Drew Siegel, MD, CCDS
One of the more interesting aspects of CDI is taking on the role of a detective to identify and evaluate clues in the medical record that suggest the presence of an undocumented diagnosis, then using these clues to write a compliant and clinically-...Read More »
By Steve Robinson, MS-HSM, PA-O, RN, SSBB, CDIP
When building a successful proactive clinical documentation approach in any patient care venue—inpatient, outpatient, or professional—the effort of setting up communication dynamics is essential and should certainly be a priority.Read More »