All Entries Tagged With: "local chapter"
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.
Looking for locals: CDIs sought for conversation, coffee
“The mechanism underlying human moral conduct
is the desire for attachment or affiliation.”
-J. Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense
If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in New England. If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time (and say pah-kah), you live in New England.
My sister-in-law sent me this joke. . . it gets more and more “local” as it goes on-like If you fondly look forward to seeing the orange T-Rex or the leaning tower of pizza, you’re from Massachusetts. (No kidding, the T-Rex is a North Shore Massachusetts landmark. Look how the local media handled the news when vandals toppled it!)
A Massachusetts icon!
Many of us form our sense of self through our surroundings. Over time, the simple geography of a place seeps into our thoughts, our words, our actions. Perhaps that’s why it’s so important for CDI specialists to connect with each other face-to-face, in local communities. As the above quote states, we need to affiliate ourselves with like-minded people. It guides our actions and informs our behavior both professionally and personally.
So, we’re very excited and proud of the many CDI specialists across the country who are networking on the local level. Right now (so far) CDI groups meet in Louisiana, New York, New England, North Carolina, and Northern Illinois. (If you are a member of one of these groups and would like to “blog” about your meetings please let me know.)
Washington/Oregon
And we have a number of people interested in forming organizations in their areas. For example, Linda Haynes, RHIT, a documentation specialist at Legacy Health System hopes to gather a group in the Oregon/Southwestern Washington area. She has her eye on a summer 2009 start and wants input/feedback for meeting topic ideas. Leave a comment here or e-mail her directly at lhaynes@lhs.org.
Texas
ACDIS members may know Leticia Culbertson, MSPHN, BSN, RN, CCS, Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, TX, from the CDI Journal article that featured her program. She’s hoping to get an ACDIS chapter started in the Lone Star State. Again, feel free to comment on this blog or e-mail her directly at Leticia.culbertson@valleybaptist.net.
Florida
Down in Florida, Kimberly Richert, RN, CDS, lead clinical documentation specialist at BayCare Health Systems, in Clearwater, offered to take the lead and be the primary contact person to get the proverbial ball rolling. Contact her directly at kimberly.richert@baycare.org.
Every Day You Write the Book
Have you heard that Elvis Costelo song Every Day I Write the Book? It compares a couple’s love story with the imagined characters of a romance novel.
While the story of ACDIS hardly mirrors a sordid affair, we certainly have started to write the proverbial book of the association. Which brings me to the point of my pun, we need your “chapters” to fill our “pages”. By which I simply mean that we’re stepping up our search for those starting local CDI chapters.
But getting to the point. . .you might have noticed this emphasis in a few places around the ACDIS Web site-there’s been a bit of chatter on CDI Talk, in the next issue of the CDI Journal we’re featuring a photo of the New England chapter, and Director Brian Murphy blogged about meeting the New England members during that group’s inaugural get-together.
If you are currently a member of a local group of CDI professionals we’d love to hear from you. Personally, I’d like to know how your group came to be, how long you’ve been around, and what difficulties you’ve managed to overcome since banding together. If you are interested in creating a local group of CDI professionals or hosting a local meeting of your own, we’d love to hear from you, too. We’re in the process of compiling a list of interested ACDIS members and existing state and regional chapters to increase your ability to network and learn from each other.
Send me an e-mail at mvarnavas@cdiassociation.com. I look forward to meeting you.
Melissa