Meet a Member: CDI takes former nurse overseas

Prior to taking a job as a CDI specialist at United States Navy Hospital in Okinawa, Japan, Jedida Wachira, RN, CDIP, worked for a company that experienced a major Medicare audit. Everyone was in a frenzy about documentation, she says. As a nurse working on the floor, she’d always focused on quality patient care, and never paid much attention to reimbursement, or how quality tied into the revenue cycle.

“On the floor, all I needed to know was that [my patient supplies] would be where I needed them,” she says. “The profound penalties the company faced prompted me to look into the documentation side of the medical field.”

One thing stuck with Wachira from her Medicare audit experience—her interest in improving clinical documentation, where she’s worked for nearly six years.

Married to her high school sweetheart, Wachira and her husband have three boys—one on high school, one in elementary school, and one still in diapers. She enjoys spending quality time with her family and relaxing.

ACDIS Blog: What did you do before entering CDI?

Wachira: My last floor nursing job was for a local hospice house, where I worked for more than three years. While I was working on the floor, I assisted coordination of care and documentation for change in level of care as well. It was incredibly rewarding to provide this direct clinical and emotional support to these patients.

ACDIS Blog: What has been your biggest challenge?

Wachira: My biggest challenge was learning all the coding guidelines, conventions, and DRG concepts. I was so happy when I started to master some of the ICD-9 codes—and then the transition to ICD-10 occurred! Keeping up with the constant code changes and regulations is always a challenge for me.

ACDIS Blog: What has been your biggest reward?

Wachira: The leaps and bounds in knowledge that I have acquired and continue to acquire and pass on to others. The ability to discuss cases with physicians and learn, as well as teach, is great. I have started two programs and educated staff members that had no knowledge of coding, DRGs, severity of illness/risk of mortality, or case mix index. To see staff as they begin to understand the bigger picture and change their documentation habits is so rewarding.

ACDIS Blog: Why did you join ACDIS?

Wachira: It simply makes sense to have a forum that allows fellow CDI specialist to discuss and share knowledge. One can never truly know it all in this field—there is always room for networking and learning from each other.

ACDIS Blog: What piece of advice would you offer a new CDI specialist?  

Wachira: Stick with it, don’t give up, give yourself time to learn the concepts, and allow yourself room for error. Don’t expect that you will know everything about coding and records review from the beginning. Expect to make a coding error every now and then and, when you do, learn from it and move on.

ACDIS Blog: Tell us a few of your favorite things?

Vacation Spots: Anywhere with a beautiful beach and clear water.

Hobbies: Reading and watching movies with the family.

Favorite non-alcoholic beverage: Coconut and passion juice over pistachio flavored ice-cream.

Favorite food: Anything my husband makes—yes I know it’s cliché, but he is a really good cook!

Favorite activity: Lounging on the couch with the family. Nothing beats those moments of love, where we get to spend time together.