Even experienced and consistently accurate acute care hospital coders may not be familiar with pediatric diseases. Age is not a factor for some conditions (e.g., appendicitis). Others are age-specific or have age-specific diagnosis, healing, and treatment...Read More »
Q: Do you recommend carving out time for outpatient [documentation] review, or dedicating someone to this role?
A: We actually carve out time for outpatient review. We started with two initiatives in our ED. One was injections/infusions and documentation...Read More »
While the majority of CDI programs report to the director of HIM, a good number (27%, according to the 2010 CDI Program Benchmarking Report) fall under the supervision of the director of case management (CM). CDI programs that report to CM face a number of...Read More »
I feel like saying a little bit about why we do what we do, or at least why I do what I do. In the course of my 26-year nursing career, I worked in many venues. For about 14 years, I was an ICU nurse, and although many patients have...Read More »
If you are from the South, football is all that matters. I grew up in Alabama and now live in Mississippi. You have to understand that this time of year all we care about is tailgating and football. So my advice is to weave an analogy...Read More »
Historically, the limitations of the traditional paper health record have made data extrapolation a difficult, time-consuming process. Deciphering handwriting and digging through volumes of information after discharge was an inefficient and error filled process...Read More »
I have a question for all of the CDI professionals who feel they have achieved a genuine level of expertise (be it after two, three, or even five years): What do you consider as avenues for continued professional advancement, satisfaction, and development...Read More »
What can you can do to improve your program? How can you put some of your CDI strengths into better practice and re-examine your weaknesses to determine what you can do to tweak it and make it a more successful program? There are numerous...Read More »
