By Melissa Varnavas
I’m a third-generation Varnavas. Back when my great–grandparents emigrated here from Greece, good old doc Fullerton used to come around and care for the family when they were sick. Back then, no doubt, he’d soothe their aches, offer advice, and prescribe what...Read More »
By Anny Pang Yuen, RHIA, CCS, CCDS, CDIP
Because healthcare is changing so rapidly, many CDI programs recognize the importance of expanding their existing programs to cover areas that may be new to the majority of CDI specialists. As healthcare reimbursement shifts from fee-for-...Read More »
For many, outpatient CDI is still a new frontier. An outpatient CDI effort might be kicked off by success on the inpatient side and some preliminary wins with outpatient record reviews for ambulatory or emergency services. Programs with full-blown CDI efforts into system-owned physician...Read More »
“HCCs [Hierarchical Condition Categories] aren’t just an ambulatory focus. This is inpatient and ambulatory, so it’s really important for [CDI professionals] to be tuned into this model,” said Brett Senor, MD, physician associate for Enjoin CDI on ...Read More »
By Cathy Farraher, RN, BSN, MBA, CCCM, CCDS
At a recent meeting, my facility coders discussed that our special care nursery (SCN) patients were an outlier for length of stay (LOS). This surprised CDI staff—the reputation of the unit was very good, so how could it be an outlier?Read More »
By Amy Sanderson, MD
The term “dysphagia” has many synonyms used by providers in medical documentation. However, not all of these symptoms are able to describe, with specificity, the real problem so it can be translated into its corresponding code assignment.Read More »
"I remember talking to some of the folks who work in CDI at conferences, and when I would ask them about psych units, none of them had CDI working on those units at all,” says Suzanne Dennis, CTRS, CCDS, director of clinical services/documentation specialist at Acadia Healthcare...Read More »
By Karin Killenberger, BSN, RN, CCDS
Working as a remote CDI specialist can be either totally fulfilling or a bit difficult. If you’re a people person, you will miss the camaraderie of working in the hospital setting, the ability to problem-solve by bouncing ideas off your...Read More »
