All Entries Tagged With: "North Carolina"
Video tool helps facilitate hospital awareness of CDI
Jennifer Love and Abby Steelhammer created this amazing video for Novant Health’s Clinical Documentation Improvement program as a teaching tool to educate various facility personnel about the role of the clinical documentation improvement (CDI) program and its staff.
I’ve dabbled in video production myself. I worked with my local community cable channel on both sides of the camera and editing room. I even played a role in the HCPro Inc., video “Make the Right Call: Ethics Training in Corporate Compliance.” So, I can attest to the enormous amount of work, Jennifer and her team invested in developing this magnificent clip.
Jennifer, Abby, and Todd Krupa wrote the script together and Scarlett Goode from Novant’s audio/visual department shot the video at Forsyth casting existing CDI specialists, coders, administrative, and medical staff from Novant’s hospitals. Novant includes:
- Forsyth Medical Center
- Thomasville Medical Center
- Brunswick Community Hospital
- Medical Park Hospital
- Rowan Regional Medical Center
- Presbyterian Hospital Main
- Presbyterian Hospital Matthews
- Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospital
- Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville
The video takes just over two minutes to view but provides a great explanation of the purpose of CDI programs. As the announcer states: “An accurate medical record is essential and fundamental to delivering quality, safe care.”
Now, considering my above caveat, you may be thinking that you don’t have a fancy video department at your facility and you certainly don’t have time to create your own shoot. Hold on there! With a little bit of creativity you can still develop something like this for those docs that still don’t get why you keep querying them about acute kidney failure.
First enlist the help of a sympathetic associate. This can be your supervisor, a coder, or a kind physician who consistently provides you with clear patient information in the medical record. Determine the goals and message for your video. Do you want to use the video as a basic CDI overview for training purposes or drill down into specific clinical indicators and use it to train physicians? Then you’ll have to draft a short script and sketch out some ideas for interesting shots. Maybe you want to have a video of a sample verbal interaction with a physician or illustrate an example of a coder/CDI interaction.
When you decide to shoot you don’t need expensive equipment. Most digital cameras (and cell phones for that matter) have video capabilities and most post-millennial computers contain simple-to-use video editing software. YouTube allows users to upload videos free of charge and walks you through the posting process in a relatively pain-free manner. From there you can simply e-mail your video link to problematic physicians or show your video during CDI training sessions. One word of caution, it always makes sense to obtain your supervisor’s support before you begin a big project and definitely make sure you get his or her approval before sharing the video with others.
Thankfully Jennifer Love and her facility did approve of sharing their hard work with all us. Take a look and see for yourselves what a great job Jennifer and her team did!
(Editor’s Note: If you facility blocks YouTube, you may not be able to automatically view this. Visit the Web site www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGsiiqJWPms)
NC Chapter offers meeting in the mountains
North Carolina ACDIS Chapter’s next meeting takes place Friday, November 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Appalachian Regional Healthcare Watauga Medical Center in Boone, NC.
www.blowingrock.com
“I love the fall,” Taylor wrote in an e-mail. “It is my favorite time of year.” So she’s particularly excited to be traveling to the mountains for the NC ACDIS group’s final 2009 meeting. “I’m sure many will decide to spend a long weekend in the mountains of Boone and Blowing Rock,” she says.
The scenery makes these locations among the most popular in our National Park System. Doing a little digging I found out that the Crestwood Inn in Blowing Rock has a wine club that meets at 7 p.m. on November 12th, so guess where I’d be staying! But alas! Although Taylor did her best to entice me, I’ll be diligently performing fall’s not-so favorite task of raking up those autumnal vestages this weekend. Hope I can get my nephews and husband to help with the raking!
If leaf-peeping and sweeping vistas don’t encourage you to join the group, rest assured they have a full clinical documentation improvement agenda that includes changes to 2010 ICD-9 codes, and CCDS certification tips and study groups.
Earlier this year the NC Chapter suggested a friendly contest to see which ACDIS chapter could gather the greatest number of CCDS certified professionals among its memberships by the time the 2010 ACDIS Conference rolls around. With current membership around 55, they challenged themselves to see if they could get 20% of their members to take and pass the exam. Taylor and her cohort Jennifer Love aim to facilitate that goal by organizing study groups to help NC members if they chose to take the test.
In 2010, the NC group will alter its meeting format slightly. Instead of meeting quarterly, the group will plan biannual meetings augmented with teleconferences to discuss best practices. The biannual meeting will most likely be an all-day educationally focused event in the spring and fall. The meeting locations will rotate to allow for transportation needs and to encourage greater participation, Taylor says.
For information, e-mail j.love@novanthealth.org or leah.taylor@iredellmemorial.org.
North Carolina Chapter offers credentialing challenge
Good afternoon fellow ACDIS members,
NC ACDIS leaders Jennifer Love, Leah Taylor, and Cathy Dickey (not pictured Abby Steelhammer) challenge others to set certification goals.
The North Carolina ACDIS Chapter is moving forward with a goal — to have 20% of its members become Certified Clinical Documentation Specialists (CCDS) by the next annual conference.
ACDIS estimates that roughly 300 people will have registered to take the exam by the end of 2009. More than 100 CDI professionals took the exam after the ACDIS conference in Las Vegas in May. Since then support for the CCDS credential has grown.
Similarly, the North Carolina ACDIS Chapter has been meeting quarterly over the past year. This summer its members elected an administrative leadership team that includes myself (Jennifer Love) vice president, Leah Taylor president, Cathy Dickey treasurer, and Abby Steelhammer secretary.
We understand the importance of doing quality work and feel honored to be making history. We will be forming study groups soon. We hope that you will join us at your local chapters and engage in this friendly competition to elevate the role of CDI specialist through the value of the CCDS credential.
To learn more about certification, visit www.cdiassociation.com. To learn more about the North Carolina Chapter’s challenge e-mail j.love@novanthealth.org.
North Carolina CDI prepares for February meeting
A North Carolina female cardinal looking for some other birds of a feather to flock with. Maybe she should try the February North Carolina CDI meeting!
A group of clinical documentation improvement specialists in North Carolina held their first meeting in November 2008. The meeting went so well, the group set tentative plans to join up again in February at Gaston Memorial Hospital, in Gastonia, NC. (More details to come.)
- June 5, at Novant Health System in Winston-Salem, NC.
- August 28, a Novant Health System in Charlotte, NC.
I’ve got a friend in the Charlotte area so maybe I’ll be able to make it down there to meet you all! If you’re in the wonderful cardinal state get in touch with Leah Taylor, RN, at Leah.Taylor@iredellmemorial.org and swing by the next meeting.
By the way, did you know that cardinals gather in flocks of up to 70 birds during the winter? Imagine if the NC group could gather that many CDI specialists!