Meet a Member: ‘Learning from each other’

Catherine Pesek Bird, DO, MBA, CHCQM-PHY ADV, is a physician advisor at Lakeland Regional Health in Florida.

ACDIS: What did you do before entering the field?
Pesek Bird: Prior to becoming a physician advisor, I was an academic cardiologist.

ACDIS: What has been your biggest challenge?
Pesek Bird: My biggest challenge has been trying to bridge the gap between coding and clinical documentation.  

ACDIS: What has been your biggest reward?
Pesek Bird: My biggest reward has been in teaching.  We have 70 first year residents, and I have the privilege of introducing them to the world of CDI so that they document for all stakeholders—including the patient and their physicians—in a way that relieves the query burden for all.

ACDIS: How has the field changed since you began working in CDI?
Pesek Bird: The advent of the electronic health record and the world of “copy, paste, and clone,” has added new challenges to the CDI world, the changes in ICD-10 codes have brought their own challenges, and COVID has isolated so many. I enjoy working on-site, providing at-the-elbow support; with so many CDI specialists and coders working remotely, we have lost a sense of comradery.

ACDIS: Can you mention a few of the “gold nuggets” of information you’ve received from colleagues on The Forum or through ACDIS?
Pesek Bird: The biggest “gold nugget” of ACDIS-provided information has to be the Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice—2022 Update. I quote those guidelines frequently.

ACDIS: Have you attended any ACDIS conferences? If so, what are your favorite memories?
Pesek Bird: So far, I have attended four ACDIS conferences. For me, the best parts are attending the physician advisor meetings, seeing old friends, and meeting new ones, all while learning from each other.

ACDIS: What piece of advice would you offer to a new CDI specialist?
Pesek Bird: I would advise a new CDI specialist to spend time shadowing an experienced veteran and rounding at the hospital, meeting the physicians and other providers. 

ACDIS: If you could have any other job, what would it be?
Pesek Bird: If I was not a physician advisor, I would be a college history professor, with a special focus on the world between 1918 and 1945.

ACDIS: What was your first job?
Pesek Bird: My first job was as a candy striper. As a surgeon’s daughter, I was tasked with circulating the operating room schedule throughout a sprawling academic level 1 trauma center.

ACDIS: Can you tell us about a few of your favorite things?
Pesek Bird: I consider myself quite a connoisseur of green teas, with a goal of finding ones that do not taste like lawn clippings, but rather are the “Earl Greys” or “English Breakfast” teas of the green variety.