Note from the Associate Director: Learn from the best around in CDI

By Rebecca Hendren

One of the tasks I enjoy most in my role as the ACDIS associate director of membership and product development is getting to interact with our book authors and CDI Boot Camp instructors. Many of these talented professionals have been involved in CDI longer than they’d care to admit, but through that experience have developed a keen insight into advancements in the industry along with a desire to share that knowledge with ACDIS and with the larger clinical documentation improvement community.

Once a year, at the ACDIS national conference, we also get to see their expertise in action as they share pearls of wisdom in one of three pre-conference events.

This year, CDI Education Director Laurie Prescott, MSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC, and Shannon McCall, RHIA, CPC, CCS, CCS-P, CPC-I, CCDS, CEMC, CRC, director of the HCPro suite of coding Boot Camps, bring a two-day version of their risk-adjustment record review and coding program.

If you never been in a class with these two, trust me, it’s a blast. I know. I know. As the associate director of membership and product development, I’m supposed to tell you that—but I mean it. As someone who comes from neither a clinical or coding background, diving into something as complex as coding guidelines’ application to CMS-Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) methodology is more than intimidating but these lovely ladies do a tremendous job of providing detailed instruction on the individual HCCs and opportunities for improved documentation with clinical scenarios to demonstrate how these concepts can be incorporated into CDI practice.

As an ACDIS staff member, I’m particularly lucky because I get to bounce around to a number of different sessions. So, I’m also looking forward to catching up with two of my favorite CDI people Richard Pinson, MD, CCS, and Cynthia Tang, RHIA, CCS, co-creators of the beloved CDI Pocket Guide. They’re teaching a pre-conference event designed to help CDI programs break down departmental silos into a collaborative, cohesive team. It’s called “Building a Best Practice CDI Team,” and throughout the program Pinson and Tang will explore the importance of understanding how your medical staff thinks and learns—and adjusting CDI efforts accordingly.

“A successful CDI team is based on engagement of medical staff obtained through effective communication,” says Pinson. “For example, physicians often respond to education using evidence-based literature and consensus guidelines. By collaborating with your team, you will find the methods that work.”

Over the course of the past year, I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of being able to work with Trey La Charité, MD, FACP, SFHM, CCDS, medical director of clinical documentation integrity and coding for UT Hospitalists at the University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC), as he crafted not one but two books—The CDI Companion for Physician Advisors and The CDI Field Guide to Denial Prevention and Audit Defense. That’s in addition to the volume, The Physician Advisor’s Guide to Clinical Documentation Improvement, that he co-wrote with James S. Kennedy, MD, CCS, CCDS, CDIP, president of CDIMD-Physician Champions.

I know how beloved both doctors La Charité and Kennedy are within our community and know how much people love their pre-conference deep-dive into essentially everything a CDI physician advisor needs to know to help CDI programs flourish. The second day of this preconference event includes a second track case study featuring Erica E. Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS, and Kelly Skorepa, BSN, RN, CCDS, corporate manager of clinical documentation integrity for University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland. I’ve heard Remer speak during ACDIS Radio programs, so I’m interested in learning more from her as well.

If you’re already signed up for one of these pre-conference events, I’m sure you’re as excited as we are. If you’re still on the fence about whether these extra courses will meet your CDI program’s educational needs, check out the agendas on the ACDIS website or feel free to reach out to me to learn more.

Editor’s note: Rebecca Hendren is the associate director of membership and product development at ACDIS. If you have any questions, please reach her at rhendren@acdis.org.