Sam Antonios, MD, FACP, SFHM, CPE, CCDS
Chief Medical Officer, Medical Director Information Systems
Via Christi Health Samer.Antonios@via-christi.org
Antonios is a board certified internist. He is a chief medical officer, medical director of information systems, utilization management medical director, physician advisor, and HIM committee chair for Via Christi in Wichita, Kansas.
In his role, he serves in planning, implementing, and managing the hospital EHR system and all required updates. In an ever-changing regulatory world, he works closely with the quality leaders to stay ahead of the operational needs to manage and tackle challenging documentation and quality requirements.
He engages with physicians in clinical documentation improvement initiatives and quality initiatives. He works closely with the CDI team across the health system in documentation efforts. He has a large focus on data stewardship and use of analytics to identify opportunities and implement changes needed to improve outcomes. Dr. Antonios is also a practicing hospitalist and sees patients in the hospital.
Elected to the board in 2016; serving through April 2019
Curry’s experience covers 19 years of experience in both nursing and CDI. Her nursing expertise includes cardiovascular, education, and now CDI. In her previous position as a CDI director, she developed program metrics for reporting, monitoring, and distribution. Also, she was responsible for DRG-based denial management, including case reviews and working with the HIM physician advisor during the appeals process. Curry has spoken at both local and national CDI events, allowing her to share her passion and enthusiasm for accurate documentation.
Elected to the board in 2017; serving through April 2020
Paul Evans, RHIA, CCDS, CCS, CCS-P
Clinical Documentation Integrity Specialist
Sutter West Bay Area evanspx@sutterhealth.org
Based in San Francisco, Evans holds degrees in business administration and healthcare information management. He has previously worked as a data quality coordinator, senior internal auditor, a project manager for a national consulting firm, and as the director of various HIM departments.
A member of both the American Health Information Association and ACDIS, he has published or contributed to multiple articles regarding quality and data management and has been a featured speaker for various educational seminars.
Elected to the board in 2016; serving through April 2019
Good is a registered nurse with a clinical background in the ICU and ED. As the lead training materials specialist, she is responsible for the overall development and oversight of both internal and client training materials focusing on documentation improvement across the continuum of care. She works side by side with Enjoin’s physician team to develop clinical, coding, and documentation materials based on the principals of high quality documentation, evidence based medicine and the most up to date clinical best practice guidelines, coupled with clinical coding concepts that are impactful to patient care and value-based outcomes in all settings.
In 2011, Good was tasked with expanding and systemizing a CDI program across facilities. Over the following six years, she gained extensive management and operational experience ultimately designing an operational model of success which improved the accuracy of both payment and quality outcomes while mitigating risk associated with denials. As the CDI program coordinator, she provided comprehensive education to CDI, coding, and medical staff, thorough audits of both CDI and coding, and developed processes to provide mortality, PSI, and HAC reviews.
Good has been a frequent ACDIS conference speaker and is a regular contributor to industry publications and CDI blogs. Her achievements include recipient of the 2-14 ACDIS CDI Professional Achievement Award and the Academic Achievement Award for graduating first in her nursing class in 2006. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from New Mexico State University and is currently enrolled in the Master’s Program in Healthcare Administration from the University of New Mexico.
Elected to the board in 2017; serving through April 2020
Tamara A. Hicks, RN, BSN, MHA, CCS, CCDS, ACM
Director, Clinical Documentation Excellence
Wake Forest Baptist Health thicks@wakehealth.edu
Tamara is a registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience, 15 years in critical care and more than 17 years in CDI and management. She is responsible for all CDI activity at Wake Forest Baptist Health system, an 885 bed academic medical center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She previously had management responsibility for case managers, social workers, and utilization managers. She was a founding member of the CDI team at Wake Forest in 1999, and continues to lead the team expanding its efforts into all-payer reviews, reviews related to HACs/PSIs and SOI/ROM, and the implementation of ICD-10. The team is now expanding into the outpatient arena.
She previously served as a founding member of the Advisory Board and continues to serve on the CCDS Certification Board. She has spoken at several local and national association meetings. She is also a member of AHIMA and ACMA. She is also an AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer.
Hicks earned a diploma in nursing from the Watts School of Nursing, a bachelor degree in nursing from Gardner-Webb University, and a master degree in health administration with a concentration in leadership and organizational change from Pfeiffer University.
Elected to board in 2016; serving through April 2019
Robin Jones, RN, BSN, MHA/Ed, CCDS
Regional Director CDI, West Florida Division
Adventist Health Care, Tampa, Florida Robin.Jones@ahss.org
A registered nurse, Robin has clinical experience in Med/Surg and NICU, and began her CDI career in 2004 with Mercy Health in Cincinnati, Ohio. She began as a CDS and through growth was promoted up to a AVP of CDI and Revenue Integrity. In her AVP role she had direct oversight of 24 facilities. Her most important work was increasing physician awareness regarding CDI as well as collaborative work processes within the health care team including; Coding, Case Management, Quality, Revenue Cycle and Ancillary departments to ensure the documentation is accurate for the care provided.
Most recently, Robin has relocated to Tampa, Florida where she is working as the Regional Director of CDI for the West Florida Division of Adventist Health Care. In her role, she will have direct oversight of nine facilities and will work to instill that same collaborative approach to make a positive impact for the patients and healthcare organization.
She received her RN Diploma from Christ Hospital School of Nursing in 2000, BSN from University of Phoenix in 2008, and MHA/ED from University of Phoenix in 2013. Robin presented at the ACDIS conference in 2016 and has been on ACDIS radio discussing her passion for CDI and healthcare of the future.
Elected to board in 2016; serving through April 2019
Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS
Vice President of Clinical Innovation
Iodine Software fran@iodinesoftware.com
Jurcak has been a nursing professional for more than 30 years with 12 years in the CDI profession. She currently uses her clinical knowledge and expertise to create and implement healthcare technology that supports documentation integrity. An active member of ACDIS for the past 11 years, Jurcak is past ACDIS Advisory Board member, having served from 2011-2014. She is also serving on the CCDS certification committee as well as the newly created outpatient CCDS (CCDS-O) certification committee; she is also the author of the CCDS Exam Study Guide. In 2017 Jurcak earned the ACDIS Professional Achievement Award and has spoken at multiple ACDIS national and chapter conferences and the national AHIMA conference. Jurcak is passionate about the CDI profession and works daily with CDI professionals throughout the country.
Elected to board in 2018; serving through April 2021
Jeff Morris, RN, BSN, CCDS
Supervisor, Clinical Documentation Improvement
University of South AL Health System jwmorris@health.southalabama.edu
Morris is the supervisor of CDI at the University of South Alabama Health System in Mobile. He has more than 20 years of nursing experience in adult critical care, medical-surgical/telemetry, and emergency department. Currently, he leads the CDI program at USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital and USA Medical Center where he was the originally hired as its first CDI professional An active member of ACDIS, Morris is a co-leader for the Alabama ACDIS chapter, presented at the 2017 ACDIS Conference in Las Vegas, served on the 2018 ACDIS Conference Committee, contributed to the 2017 book Pediatric CDI: Building Blocks for Success, and is scheduled to present ACDIS 2018 in San Antonio. He is also a member of AHIMA and has presented at local and regional events.
Elected to board in 2018; serving through April 2021
Prescott is the Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) Education Director with HCPro, a division of BLR. Prescott serves as a full-time instructor for the CDI Boot Camps as well as a subject matter expert for the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement (ACDIS). Prescott is a frequent speaker on HCPro/ACDIS webinars and is the author of the CDI Complete Training Guide.
Prescott started her nursing career in 1985 as a graduate of the University of Vermont School Of Nursing. Since that time she has worked at a variety of organizations including academic, large and small community hospitals. She has worked in a number of nursing roles including as manager in the areas of medical/surgical, ICU, PACU and endoscopy. Her experience also includes specialization as a compliance officer.
She completed her MSN with a focus in nursing education at the University of Phoenix and taught nursing as an adjunct instructor to ADN students. She continued her focus of nursing education in various roles. In 2007, Prescott left this role to develop and implement a CDI program and remained in this role until joining HCPro in August of 2013.
Serving on the board since January 2017
Erica E. Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS President and Founder
Erica Remer, MD, Inc. eremer@icd10md.com
An emergency physician for 25 years with expertise in documentation and the professional side of billing, Remer became the CDI physician advisor for University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland in 2012. Tasked with training 2,700 providers in ICD-10, she additionally closed hundreds of CDI queries and appealed numerous DRG clinical validation and medical necessity denials. After transitioning to independent consulting in July 2016, she authored multiple articles on CDI topics, serves as course director of a medical documentation through Case Western Reserve University, co-hosts Talk Ten Tuesdays, and has been a featured guest on ACDIS Radio. Remer has provided deep dives into clinical topics in presentations on the national, regional, and local level. She serves as the American College of Physician Advisors CDI education subcommittee chair and on its board of directors.
Elected to board in 2018; serving through April 2021
Susan Schmitz, JD, RN, CCS, CCDS, CDIP Regional Director of Clinical Documentation Improvement
SCAL Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California susanschmitz59@yahoo.com
Schmitz’s experience includes 36 years as a Registered Nurse and 19 years in the CDI field – from consulting, to managing hospital-based CDI programs, to serving as regional CDI director over 14 SCAL Kaiser Permanente medical centers. She is one of the authors of the CDI Reference app published by Elsevier and is considered one of their subject matter experts for their online CDI course. Additionally, she has been an ACDIS member since 2009, taking the second CCDS exam ever offered.
Elected to the board in 2017; serving through April 2020
Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCS
Manager of CDI
Penn State Health in Hershey, Pennsylvania dwilk@hmc.psu.edu
Wilk’s experience spans 35 years in the healthcare field. Her primary nursing background includes Telemetry and Home Health nursing, transitioning into an education role and then CDI. From her original CDI role, she transitioned into consulting and management. Over the years, she has worked on numerous educational projects, articles, contributed as a subject matter expert to CDI and coding coursework, and spoken at numerous national and local conferences. Since 2015, she has been the co-host and founder of the Central Pennsylvania ACDIS chapter.
Elected to the board in 2017; serving through April 2020
Irina Zusman, RHIA, CCS, CCDS
Director of HIM Coding and CDI Initiatives
NYU Langone Health izusman@gmail.com
Zusman has more than 25 years of HIM experience where she used her blend of clinical and CDI skills to advance data analytics and validate the importance of documentation and coding. Zusman designed two new programs at NYU School of Professional Studies—a diploma in coding, developed in collaboration with the senior director of HIMand a CDI diploma program in collaboration with the director of CDI. She has contributed as a subject matter expert on a variety of focus groups regarding coding concepts, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety indicators and hospital acquired conditions, among other topics. Zusman currently serves on the CCDS certification committee. She has presented at AHIMA and ACDIS national and local conferences and several Vizient (formerly University HealthSystem Consortium) annual CDI pre-conference meetings.
Elected to board in 2018; serving through April 2021
CCDS Certification Committee
Task:Maintaining and updating the CCDS Certification Program, including the exam and its prerequisites.
Task: Selecting all speakers and sessions for the 2018 ACDIS Symposium: Outpatient CDI.
Committee Members: Wendy Clesi, Rita Fields, Lisa Garrett, Jennifer Grubb, Tamara Hicks, Ellen Jantzer, Cheryl St. Onge, Anny Pang Yuen, Rebecca Hendren (ACDIS Associate Director of Product Development)
Task:Reviewing materials donated to the ACDIS community for publication in the Forms & Tools Library for accuracy, compliance, relevance, and effectiveness. Click here to download the committee scope of work.
Task:Serving as liaisons between local chapter leaders and ACDIS national administration by participating on chapter leadership conference calls, promoting best practice, and providing guidance to leaders across the country.
Board Members:Deb Dallos from Florida, Lillian Dickey from Washington, Karen Elmore from Missouri, Lori Ganote from Kentucky, Lori LaFaver from Pennsylvania, Kerry Seekircher from New York, Molly Seibert from Oregon, Aimee Van Balen from Massachusetts, and Alma Yap from Arizona.
Task: To define and publish best practices for the CDI profession and provide feedback on ACDIS’ offerings to ensure the association delivers premiere materials suited for today’s CDI professional.
Task: Reviewing regulatory policy and coding and clinical updates, commenting to agencies on behalf of ACDIS, and providing summary, interpretation, and analysis to the ACDIS membership.
Committee Members: Valerie Bica, Candace Blankenship, Lori Drodge, Faisal Hussain, Jeannie Kelly, Lisa Kelly, James Kennedy, Cesar Limjoco, Ruth Lutes, Kevin Morrow, Angelica Naylor, Joan Oliver, Howard Rodenberg, and Allen Frady (committee chair).
Sam Antonios, MD, FACP, SFHM, CPE, CCDS
Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS
Jeff Morris, RN, BSN, CCDS 
Laurie Prescott, MSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC 
Erica E. Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS
Susan Schmitz, JD, RN, CCS, CCDS, CDIP
Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCS 
Irina Zusman, RHIA, CCS, CCDS