I’ve been asked in several classes about the difference between an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and white blood cell (WBC) count and whether they can both be used for evaluating pancytopenia. Let’s take a look at what each of these terms mean and...Read More »
By Candace Blankenship, BSN, RN, CCDS
The role of the CDI specialist is in constant flux. When I started out as a CDI specialist, my hospital wanted me to focus on reimbursement. Having one focus gave me a clear path and little conflict when I was educating and querying providers...Read More »
On February 23, 2016, the Journal of the American Medical Association published new clinical definitions for sepsis and septic shock, dubbed “Sepsis-3.” In the three years since then, a host of analyses and conflicting documentation and coding requirements have caused not only consternation but...Read More »
by Rachelle Musselman, BSN, RN, Jorde Spitler, BSN, RN, Daniel Lantis, BSN, RN, Joseph E. Ross, MD, and Thomas A. Taghon, DO, MHA
When a condition is ill defined and documented by a provider, it renders the CDI specialist, and later the coding professional, unable to capture the...Read More »
Q: We recently had a patient who was admitted with sepsis and the physician documented sepsis, a urinary tract infection (UTI) related to chronic Foley catheter, and pneumonia. Can we code sepsis first instead of the complication code? Or is the complication always first? ...Read More »
by Julian Everett, RN, BSN, CDIP
Sepsis affects more than 1.7 million adults in the United States each year, and it’s estimated to occur among U.S. children at a rate of 158.7 cases per 100,000 children. Sepsis is the 10th leading cause of death among children in the United States...Read More »
According to the 2018 CDI Week Industry Survey, which included an extended section on CDI staffing practices, only 36.56% of respondents said they had HIM/ coding backgrounds represented in their CDI departments. Further, 77.55% of survey respondents said that their organization had a written...Read More »
