"Don’t let the relative quiet fool you,” says James S. Kennedy, MD, CCS, CDIP, president of CDI MD-Physician Champions in Smyrna, Tenn., “there are big changes in this year’s IPPS final rule, changes that represent a paradigm shift in the way CDI programs work.”Read More »
by James P. Fee, MD, CCDS, and Garry L. Huff, MD, CCS, CCDS
Certainly, the alphabetical and tabular index of the ICD-9-CM codebook assume the “postoperative” relationship as causal, but a CDI specialist should investigate this further within the specific clinical context.Read More »
It was around the time of the ACDIS annual conference when Bonnie I. Epps, RN, MSN, manager of CDI for Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, started researching the effect of expanding her CDI program to include pediatric and neonatal units. When asked why she was interested in expanding...Read More »
CDI initiatives often focus on inpatient documentation to ensure that the documentation accurately reflects patient severity. Capturing that documentation and specificity will be even more important as ICD-10 preparation and implementation efforts get underway. Yet ICD-10 implementation will...Read More »
by Dan Catalano, MD, FACOG
Is hypertension an important diagnosis in childhood? According to Nelson Pediatrics, 19th Edition, there is a less than 1% prevalence of infant and young childhood hypertension. Given this relatively low incidence, should we be concerned about capturing...Read More »
When you think of a travel nurse, perhaps you picture a fresh-faced RN graduating from college and setting off to see the country. Maybe you think seeing different cities would be great but feel like it has been too many years since your feet fit into those traveling boots. And being an interim...Read More »
We asked ACDIS members to explain what it takes to be an exemplary CDI specialist, to excel at not only medical record reviews, but also at incorporating the underlying purpose of CDI efforts into even seemingly mundane, everyday tasks. We heard from quite a few folks who shared some sound, sage...Read More »
