In March, I started a conversation on CDI Talk entitled “Failed Programs,” hoping at the time that there might be someone willing to divulge a first-hand account of how and why their program “failed”...Read More »
When evaluating overall compliance within a CDI department, Lynne Spryszak, RN, CCDS, CPC-A, CDI education director for HCPro, Inc., in Danvers, MA, says that CDI department managers should:
Try not to confine your reviews to a particular payer. Although everyone
One analysis I particularly like is a metric I refer to as chart value. I calculate for the entire program as well as for the individual CDI specialist. I believe it helps to partially level comparison among different clinical areas. For example,...Read More »
When it comes to tracking CDI program data, many facilities fall back on the information provided by their consultants,. But other CDI programs often rely on homegrown data systems. Mary Cooper, EVP, of ChartWise Medical Systems, Inc., in Wakefield, RI, suggests a few items to consider for those...Read More »
Retaining written, templated, and verbal queries in document form is necessary to ensure CDI compliance. In the current climate of regulatory agencies (e.g., recovery audit contractors and Medicare administrative contractors), it’s a good practice to maintain queries as part of the permanent...Read More »
When the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) hired Melanie Halpern, RN-BC, MBA, CCDS, CCRA, to implement a clinical documentation and coding integrity (CDCI) program, administration allotted three full-time positions to staff the 550-bed academic medical center....Read More »
A recent ACDIS survey available to members shows that most CDI programs require specialists to conduct between eight to 12 new reviews per day per staff member and between 12–20 re-reviews daily.
The Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) includes a wealth of information regarding MS-DRG outliers that might otherwise go completely unnoticed. That’s what happened at Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. until the 15-hospital health system began analyzing its...Read More »