ACDIS update: Welcome to the new Advisory Board members

Last week the ACDIS membership spoke and voted for our new Advisory Board members.

The ACDIS Advisory Board plays an important role in the leadership of the association. They help create industry guidance in the form of white and position papers, serve as expert voices on our quarterly conference calls, participate in panel sessions at the conference, and collaborate with other associations in the healthcare industry. They also provide advice and guidance on matters of governance of the ACDIS membership.

Before we introduce our four new Board members, please also join us in saying thanks to our outgoing board members for all they’ve done over the last three years:

• Fran Jurcak, RN, MSN, CCDS
• Jeff Morris, RN, BSN, CCDS
• Erica E. Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS
• Irina Zusman, RHIA, CCS, CCDS

Without further ado, please welcome our four new Board members who will be serving on the board from April 2021 through the end of March 2024!

Christopher Petrilli, MD, SFHM, CCDS
  Medical Director, Clinical Documentation Improvement
  NYU Langone Health
  New York, New York

Petrilli is an assistant professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He serves as clinical lead of the Manhattan campus for value-based management and medical director for CDI for NYU Langone Health. He has authored 30 peer reviewed publications, including a first author manuscript in the British Medical Journal, which was one of the first major papers describing the risk factors for COVID-19 in the United States.

In his role as medical director for CDI, he takes great pride in strengthening the collaboration among health system leaders, CDI team and providers to improve documentation efficiency and effectiveness. He achieves this through education and novel electronic health record solutions. His work has been featured in the CDI Journal, CDI Strategies, and on The ACDIS Podcast: Talking CDI. He has a true passion for teaching, methodologically implementing rigorous process improvement strategies, and tracking process, as well as outcomes metrics to assess for sustained improvement over time.

  Autumn Reiter, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CCS
  Director, CDI
  CorroHealth
  Plano, Texas

Reiter transitioned into CDI nearly 10 years ago. She served as a CDI specialist and eventually as the clinical coordinator for a CDI program in Chesapeake, Virginia, before coming to CorroHealth (formerly TrustHCS) in May 2015. She performed CDI inpatient and outpatient audits as well as concurrent CDI reviews and interim management before advancing to her current role. She is now the director of CDI services, where she works with clients from multiple facilities of various sizes across the country to serve in their CDI needs. She provides assistance with concurrent staffing needs, clinical denial reviews, and auditing for the clients she works with. She has developed a CDI review solution for the emergency department and leads the CDI hierarchical condition category review process with her team. Additionally, she performs GAP analysis for new program start-ups as well as improvement and rebuilds of existing programs. Reiter delivers education sessions to all levels of CDI specialists through bootcamps remotely and onsite.

During her time at CorroHealth, she has created a quality assurance program as well as multiple policies to promote continuity and guidance for the team. She served as the Virginia ACDIS local chapter leader from 2015-2016 and presented at the ACDIS and AHIMA annual conferences. She has authored several articles regarding CDI concerns and expansion, participated on the ACDIS Podcast, spoken at multiple state conventions, and contributed in the creation of the CDI Outpatient Pocket Guide for 2020.

  Kelly Sutton, RN, BSN, MHL, CCDS
  CDI Educator West Florida Division
  West Florida Division, AdventHealth
  Tampa, Florida

Sutton has 27 years of nursing experience with six years in the CDI profession. Her CDI career started in 2015 as a front-line CDI specialist in a suburban 170-plus-bed facility in Sebring, Florida. The transition to CDI was enjoyable as Sutton was able to utilize her clinical knowledge and experience to drive the quality-based reviews in the CDI role. Navigating through a rapidly changing financially based program as it transitioned to a quality-based program was a challenge which excited her. She achieved her CCDS certification in 2018 and was promoted to a newly created CDI educator role in January 2019 as the CDI program transitioned away from facility-based to a divisional lead program.

The educator role allowed Sutton to participate in the creation of the policy and process for the division. Her current responsibilities include oversight of the onboarding process for all new employees. Additional responsibilities include creating and implementing education for 40+ employees and multiple physician groups across 11 facilities. She facilitates weekly lunch-and-learn education presentations for the division. Her professional organization memberships include ACDIS, the Florida ACDIS local chapter, and the National Association of Healthcare Revenue Integrity (NAHRI) Leadership Council. Sutton's passions include education and lifelong learning. She jumped at the chance to participate in the success of her organization's three recent emergency department CDI pilot projects. It was an energizing experience to present during the ACDIS Virtual Education Curtain Call in 2020.

  Lena N. Wilson, MHI, RHIA, CCS, CCDS   
  RCS Specialized Manager–Clinical Documentation Integrity (Inpatient & Professional Operations) and ICD-10 Clinical Education
  Indiana University Health
  Indianapolis, Indiana

Wilson began her career as an inpatient coder and continued to grow from there, expanding her skills into quality auditing and then into various leadership roles in HIM/coding/CDI. She now has almost twenty years of HIM, coding, and CDI experience and has been at IU Health for the last 16 years. During her tenure, she has worked in various roles supporting the CDI team from direct leadership/program oversight as well as solely focusing on physician documentation education leading up to and through the ICD-10 code set conversion.

The IU Health inpatient CDI program was implemented in 2005/2006 and she has been involved since the inception of this program in every aspect and its continued growth. Over the last 15 years, the program has expanded to cover 16 inpatient and critical access facilities across the health system with 24 team members and one team lead. She has worked with others to support the implementation of a computer assisted CDI tool as well as a production and quality monitoring programs. The IU Health CDI program is continuing to expand into the professional space. The professional CDI program will focus on the documentation of HCC diagnoses in the physician office. This is currently still in the pilot stage and will continue to evolve over 2021 and beyond.