Weigh benefits, challenges of OB/GYN and pediatrics review

CDI programs are maturing, moving beyond review primarily of acute care Medicare patients. Two areas some hospitals have chosen to explore are OB/GYN and pediatrics.

All physicians benefit from CDI education, and all specialties need to document severity of illness with appropriate ICD-9-CM terminology, including OB/GYN and pediatrics, says Pamela B. Bensen, MD, MS, FACEP, president of Medical Education Programs, Inc., in Buffalo Junction, VA.

“ICD-9 is not medical terminology, so no specialty is exempt from the need to be educated in clinical documentation for severity-of-illness capture,” Bensen says. But before you plunge into OB/GYN and pediatrics, do your research, she advises. Ask whether it is worth reviewing these records, and if so, which diagnoses should require CDI focus.