Q: I have a patient with Stage 4 lung cancer that presented with fatigue, cough, and loss of appetite. Initially, the physician documented possible pulmonary nodular amyloidosis (PNA) but following an echo-cardiogram on day one they found a pericardial effusion (malignant). The...Read More »
The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3)¹ as published on February 23 in the Journal of the American Medical Association represents a radical departure from the prior sepsis definitions in 1991² (...Read More »
More than 700 ACDIS members registered to participate in last week’s ACDIS Quarterly Conference Call. The calls, part of ACDIS membership benefits, features members of the Advisory Board who weigh-in on concerns of the day and respond to participants’ pre-submitted questions.
Q:I can’t distinguish between “code first” and “in diseases classified elsewhere.” Both are used with manifestations and both can’t be sequenced as principal diagnosis, and both need etiology codes so what is the difference?
Productivity decreases post-ICD-10 implementation has been a major concern for CDI specialists, coders, and providers alike. However, a recent survey from consulting service, Navicure, found that relatively few respondents have seen a significant decrease in productivity. Read More »
The 2016 ACDIS/AHIMA Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice call on CDI or coding pro- fessionals to query physicians if the documentation:
Describes or is associated with clinical indicators without a definitive relationship to an underlying diagnosis
Editor’s note: ACDIS Advisory Board members Paul Evans, RHIA, CCDS, CCS, CCS-P, and Judy Schade, RN, MSN, CCM, CCDS, in conjunction with former ACDIS Advisory Board member and HCPro Director of HIM/Coding Shannon McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P...Read More »