Gather a harvest of networking opportunities
Time to harvest local chapter knowledge.
Up here in lovely Massachusetts the past few evenings there’s been a sweet chill. I’m talking about the kind of cold that actually makes us grumpy New Englanders happy. It’s also the kind of cold that gets the yellow jackets, especially those that hum around the orchard, buzzing.
Let me make another harvest-time allusion to say its not just the Cortland trees bearing fruit this fall. All the grassroots gathering and the local hard work seems to have generated a plethora of networking offerings for ACDIS members. I just thought I’d take a moment or two to let you know about a few of them.
Oregon
This coming Friday, September 18, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Oregon holds its first local ACDIS meeting. We are very excited and grateful to Linda Haynes, RHIT, CCDS, a documentation specialist at Meridian Park Hospital in Tualatin, for organizing what looks to be a very robust meeting. Registration and continental breakfast begin at 9 a.m., followed by welcome and introductions from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Haynes scheduled two presentations, one in the morning and one after lunch (which is on your own). The group adjourns at 2 p.m. If you do plan to attend, please let her know as soon as possible by phone at 503/692-8864 or by e-mail at lhaynes@lhs.org.
Maryland
The Maryland CDS Workgroup meeting is also slated for Friday, September 18, 1:30-3 p. m., at the Maryland Hospital Association Headquarters in Elkridge, MD. For information contact co-chair Christine Mobley, RN, by e-mail at Christine.Mobley@dimensionshealth.org, or call 301/618-6507.
New Jersey
The NJ ACDIS Chapter meets September 25, 2 p.m., at Reimbursement Review Associates, Inc., 385 West Ferris St. Rte. 18 South, East Brunswick, NJ. But Deborah Gardner-Brown requests participants register by this Friday, September 18, so she can plan for the meeting. Contact Deborah directly for information at 732/238-4511 or by e-mail at dgardnerbr@aol.com.
New England
New England Regional CDS meeting will be Wednesday, September 23, 1 p.m., at North Shore Medical Center’s Union Hospital campus in Lynn, MA. Susan E. Raviv, MBA, RHIA, director of Health Information Management will host. For information, e-mail Susan at sraviv@partners.org or call her at 781/477-3281. NE Regional CDS co-chair Adrienne Gmeiner RN, CCS, Clinical Documentation Specialist at Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, MA, is also available by phone at 978/683-4000 ext. 2261 or by e-mail at adrienne.b.gmeiner@lawrencegeneral.org. Her co-chair, Patty Spry, RN, Clinical Documentation Specialist at Emerson Hospital in Concord, MA, by phone at 978/369-1400 Beeper No. 572 or by e-mail at PSpry@emersonhosp.org.
NY/Penn
CDI specialists in the northern region of Pennsylvania along the border of New York really enjoyed a packed program earlier this year. We’re sure Susan Tiffany RN, CDS, supervisor of the clinical documentation program at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, PA, won’t disappoint when she gathers colleagues again Friday, October 9, 12-4 p.m. Feel free to give Susan a call at 570/882-6094 if you have any questions or e-mail her at Tiffany_Susan@guthrie.org.
Illinois
The next Northern IL CDI Networking meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 5, 1- 3:30 p.m., at St. Alexius Medical Center, 1555 Barrington Rd., Hoffman Estates, IL. For information, contact Linnea Thennes, RN, BS, CCDS, Clinical Documentation Specialist Northwest Community Hospital by e-mail at lthennes@nch.or.
Florida
Many kudos to Florida ACDIS President Sylvia Hoffman, RN, clinical documentation improvement specialists at Tampa General. She’s put together a newsletter for the group and given us permission to post it on our ACDIS Forms & Tools Library. In it she offers a couple documentation tips and interesting information regarding Florida ACDIS Chapter goings on. Its next meeting will be November 13, at Shands Healthcare in Gainesville. Contact Sylvia by e-mail at shoffman@tgh.org for information.
All these meetings take us right through pumpkin picking season and on into turkey time but this schedule isn’t the only thing growing on the local networking vine. Next time, I’ll tell you about efforts in Kentucky, Georgia, California, and elsewhere. Hope all your summer fun and CDI hard work helped you build up an appetite. Now, who wants apple pie?
About the Author: Melissa Varnavas, CPC, ACDIS associate director, editor for CDI Strategies, CDI Journal. She has several writing awards from various newsletter and newspaper organizations.
