Q: The physician documented mild bronchitis treated with Zithromax in the progress note on day two of the patient’s hospital. I looked for clinical indicators and the only documentation I found in the nursing notes was that the patient had a non-productive cough on admission. ...Read More »
Q: Is it true that a CDI physician advisor/champion cannot be a direct patient care provider?
A: CDI departments are not required to have a physician advisor; however, it is beneficial to have a physician champion. I make a distinction between the two...Read More »
Q:We have a problem getting our physicians to understand what we are querying for (chronic respiratory failure) when a patient is on home oxygen continuously with documented supplementary oxygen (SpO2) of <90% or arterial blood gas (ABG) with hypoxemia documented....Read More »
Q: How are staffing needs expected to change in relationship to ICD-10?
A: I’m not aware of any benchmarks for CDI staffing in consideration for ICD-10. There is so much diversity among CDI departments and their responsibilities regarding ICD-10 that it is hard to establish any...Read More »
Q: I need help identifying the principal diagnosis for the following situation. The patient presented with shortness of breath and hypoxia, and had emergent dialysis which resolved his symptoms. However the patient’s international normalized ratio (INR) was sub therapeutic due...Read More »
Q: Our CDI department is developing clarification forms and I have voiced concern with some of the templates. For example, the anemia clarification lists many possible diagnoses including aplastic anemia. If the listed condition would not be clinically acceptable based on the clinical...Read More »
Q:I am the only CDI specialist in our 150-bed facility. I have held the position for three years, and am the first one to do so helping to build the position from the ground up. Being the only CDI, I am on several committees, responsible for continual physician...Read More »
Q: Our case-mix index (CMI) seems to be dropping and management is putting pressure on the CDI staff to bring it back up, but I have heard that CDI programs should not be analyzed based on the (CMI) alone. Do you have any tips or advice about how I should track the CMI and how our efforts affect...Read More »
