Posts by Norwood Staffing
Banner Health’s Jami Woebkenberg: Managing the Constant Changes of Modern Healthcare Delivery
“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” – John C. Maxwell It’s been said that there is no constant in life except for change. Jami Woebkenberg is proof. Jami is the Senior Director of HIM operations at Banner Health. Or at least, that’s her title now.…
Read MoreTelehealth: Unrecognized CDI/coding Opportunity
By Brian Murphy Telehealth is in the news again, not all of it good. Below is a piece on Teladoc, which appears to be on the ropes after suffering a historic ($13.7B) loss in 2022. But before we declare this service dead, let’s review where we are. I believe that telehealth has its place in…
Read MoreCDI Suggestion: Start your reviews off right with ED/EMS Notes
By Brian Murphy There is no one true way to perform a review of the health record. Some CDI specialists prefer to start with the history and physical before beginning, often 24-48 hours post-admit until significant documentation has been generated. Others want to start immediately after admission with a review of the ED record. Regardless…
Read MoreWhat Would Nick Do? On Building Relationships and Rebuilding a Life, with Mike Behringer
When I started Off the Record, I wanted to launch a program that served the broader industry that serves the health record. That means, most of my guests work in the HIM/coding, CDI, case management, and trauma/oncology registry fields. But I also host folks who support the mid-revenue cycle—consulting, staffing, sales, legal, tech, and from…
Read MoreNorwood welcomes CDI expert Deanne Wilk to Solutions team
We’d like to welcome the latest edition to our Norwood Solutions team… Deanne Wilk! If you’ve been involved in ACDIS and/or the CDI profession over the last decade, odds are you’ve seen Deanne. She served on the ACDIS advisory board (2017-2020) where she helped develop industry guidance and white papers. If you haven’t seen her…
Read MoreGood coding, CDI Practices can Reduce CMS Hospital Readmissions Reduction Penalties
By Brian Murphy Is your hospital among the nearly 2,300 dinged for excessive readmissions (“excessive” as defined by the parameters of the CMS Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, or HRRP)? The latest HRRP numbers are out. Kaiser Health News always does a great job covering the details. Link below. Per KHN, CMS evaluated 2.5 years of…
Read MoreCoding Tip: Reporting additional diagnoses in the outpatient setting
Are you one of those coding professionals who anxiously awaits the quarterly release of AHA Coding Clinic? There’s nothing like that feeling when you open the latest issue and read through the latest and greatest nuggets of wisdom. It is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get! Sometimes it’s…
Read MoreChatGPT, problem lists, and Recovery Auditors… oh my!
Three CDI and coding related thoughts … A dark vision of ChatGPT. In case you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a new AI-powered program called ChatGPT that can generate readable (perhaps good? At least usually quite understandable) copy from prompts entered by a human user. This development has generated angst and anxiety, but…
Read MoreBoston strong: Climbing the U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals rankings with CDI Director Deb Jones
Since taking on the CDI director role at Brigham at Women’s Hospital in October 2017, Deb Jones has made big changes with big impact. These include: A deep focus on risk adjustment and mortality reviews. Boston is an incredibly competitive healthcare environment with 25 hospitals operating within the city. Patients have a choice of…
Read MoreAHA critiques Medicare Advantage, makes recommendations regarding sepsis criteria, SDOH, and medical necessity determinations
By Brian Murphy The American Hospital Association’s commentary to CMS on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program CY 2024 proposed rule is a good read … if you are a CDI and coding policy wonk who likes this sort of thing. As I do. Because it offers a candid look into who wields the ultimate power…
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