All Entries Tagged With: "Florida"
Florida ACDIS regional meeting a success
The Florida ACDIS regional meeting was a great success! Tampa General Hospital hosted the meeting with 25 members representing seven hospitals. Several more tuned in (after technical problems were solved) via the teleconference link.
Darlene Shelffo, RN, Manager, Tampa General Hospital greeted all the attendees and explained the new Florida ACDIS Web site, (www.FLACDIS.com) She also gave a brief description of the TGH CDI program.
Photos were taken outside on the veranda of TGH, with its views of beautiful Tampa Bay and the flagship, Jose Gaspar.
Sylvia Hoffman presented a slide show titled “CDI Physician Education: How to make it interesting and get physician buy-in.” She covered a variety of tactics that can be used to interest physicians and the importance of making the presentation visually pleasing, interesting, relative to the practice of medicine, simple and to the point. She also discussed the need to include dynamic content such as SOI, ROM CMI and E/M Billing.
Dianne Martinez led the group with the business portion of the meeting. A vote was taken on the payment of dues and was approved unanimously. The amount agreed upon was $25 per person/per year. Checks will be mailed to the Secretary/Treasurer and only those members who have paid their dues will be Florida ACDIS members in good standing with the ability to access the Web site and receive the newsletter. Members need not be national ACDIS members to be members of the Florida Chapter. However, Florida Chapter members receive a discount on national memberships.
A vote was also taken to reduce the number of meetings to twice yearly. This was also passed unanimously.
Elections were held and the results were as follows:
- Sylvia Hoffman RN, Tampa General Hospital- President
- Virginia Baily RN, Morton Plant Hospital-Vice President
- Mary Bennati RN, St. Anthony’s Hospital-Secretary/Treasurer
23 ACDIS Local Chapters
Wikpedia says the “23 Enigma refers to the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some permutation of the number 23, or a number related to the
There's 23 local ACDIS chapters can we make it to 50?
number 23.” If that’s true, I wonder what it means for the Association of Clinical Documentation Specialists which now has 23 local chapter groups. We couldn’t be prouder of all the hard work individuals put in at the grassroots level.
There’s just so much going on with ACDIS-Local! (I just made that up: “ACDIS-Local.” Ha, sometimes I think I’m clever. Hey, I’ve got an idea, why don’t you post a comment and let me know if you can think of something a little more stirring than “ACDIS Local Chapters” or “ACDIS-Local.”)
June 19 meetings
First off let me give a shout-out to two group who are meeting tomorrow, Friday, June 19.
First, the Florida ACDIS Chapter meets from 2-4 p.m., at Tampa General Hospital hosted by none other than fellow blogger Sylvia Hoffman. Those who may have not RSVP’d could probably still listen but you’ll have to clear it with Sylvia first. She’s at 813/610-4818 or on e-mail at shoffman@tgh.org. There’s a lot on the agenda including the election of officers, a vote to become an “official” ACDIS Chapter, and the unveiling of the Florida ACDIS Web site.
Secondly, the New Jersey Chapter also meets Friday, June 19, at 2 p.m., at Reimbursement Review Associates, Inc., 385 West Ferris St. Rte. 18 South, East Brunswick, NJ. On the agenda for discussion are clinical guidelines and query policies for chronic heart failure which is always an important topic. New Jersey, too, will take up the discussion regarding whether to become an “official” ACDIS member. Deborah Gardner-Brown has kept a rigorous schedule for the NJ group so far, getting everyone together every month for a discussion of important topics. For the summer, however, New Jersey CDI specialists and Deborah get to take a little break—at least until September, she says. Contact Deborah directly for more information at 732/238-4511 or by e-mail at dgardnerbr@aol.com.
Florida ACDIS meeting scheduled for June
Doesn't Tampa General look beautiful?
The second Florida ACDIS meeting will be held on June 19, 2-6 p.m. at Tampa (FL) General Hospital. This meeting will concentrate on the future of Florida ACDIS and the role of Clinical Documentation. Darlene Shelffo, manager of CDI at TGH will unveil our new Florida ACDIS Web site.
There may be a few more surprises as well with the first ever election of officers. Members will be contacted by e-mail. Look on the ACDIS Web site for more information and updates. Mark your calendars and don’t be left out!
ACDIS: 1,500 members ready to make a difference in healthcare delivery
I joined the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist (ACDIS) as its associate director in November 2008, a little more than a year after its inception. By the close of 2008, more than 1,300 people had joined. In one, seven-day period—March 7-14—54 new members joined ACDIS. During the month of March, nearly 200 people had either become a new member or renewed their membership.
That raises ACDIS’ ranks to more than 1,500 CDI professionals. The growth is overwhelming.
We need to stop for a second and ask ourselves why CDI seems so important. It reminds me of a blog post from New Year’s Day, which considered whether the advancement of CDI might come to exemplify one of the more constructive modifications of our national healthcare system.
“CDI specialists do not merely examine documentation and chastise the errant physician for inappropriate verbiage or a misplaced descriptor,” I wrote at the time. “They facilitate communication across a community that has operated in silos for far too long. They open the door for discussion.”
Please click on this 22-second audio clip adapted from the Florida ACDIS Chapter’s inaugural meeting Friday, March 27. In it, Clare Garrard, RN, DSN,case management manager, at Morton Plant and Mease Dunedin, Clearwater, FL, expresses her belief in the power CDI professionals have to influence the type of healthcare being delivered today.
With a network of like-minded, dedicated professionals all empowered by the great opportunity they now possess it seems impossible that CDI would not impact change. It’s not sentimentality. It’s reality—1,500 members strong.
To learn more about ACDIS visit www.cdiassociation.com or call me at 781/639-1872 ext. 3711.
Reminder: Florida ACDIS Chapter meeting Friday
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see the Florida ACDIS Chapter’s new logo! 
It even earned a “groovy” from our chief operating officer.
As a reminder the group holds its its first meeting Friday, March 27, 2-4:40 p.m. The agenda includes a review of the history of CDI and an analysis of the role of the physician advisor in the CDI program.
If you plan to attend please fill out the survey form and send an email to Kimberly.Richert@baycare.org.
Florida CDI Chapter to meet March 27, RSVP by March 11
When I spoke with Kimberly Richert, RN, about putting together the inaugural meeting of the Florida ACDIS Chapter, she wondered what day and time her fellow clinical documentation improvment specialists might pick. Then Kim struck on an ingenius idea.
She suggested Friday afternoon might be the best day. That way, she reasoned, fellow professionals could take advantage of their collective knowledge during the meeting and afterward enjoy Florida’s varied and beautiful landscapes for the remainder of the weekend.
A post meeting sunset dinner sounds nice.
So to start, the Florida ACDIS Chapter will hold its inaurural meeting Friday, March 27, 2-4:30 p.m., in the Community Room of the Heart and Vascular Pavilion/ Wellness Center at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, FL. I actually just looked into hotels in the area and was thinking about booking my flight, ( it was 4 degrees in Marblehead, MA this week) when my husband reeled me in. . . We’ll be going to Vegas in May, he reminded me.
Those in Sunshine State who can meet on a Friday afternoon to network (and maybe enjoy a nice sunset dinner on the beach) be sure to RSVP by March 11, via email to Kimberly.Richert@baycare.org. Let Kim know if you will attend and how many people there are in your group. She’ll send out the agenda, directions, and other appropriate information as the date approaches.