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Conference Update: The final countdown; Speaker Q&A

CDI Strategies, May 14, 2015

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Where has the time gone? The annual conference is only a few days away, and we’re sure you have a number of things left to do! But that’s okay—we’ve been rolling out a series of helpful hints on the ACDIS Blog to help you out with final preparations, including:

• Things to do in San Antonio
• Airport shuttles and other local transportation
• Tips and tricks for the conference app

As you put the final touches on your conference itinerary, we’re continuing to preview some of speakers to give you a feel for this year’s sessions. Here’s a sample from last week’s interview with Kelli A. Estes, RN, CCDS, who, along with Cesar M. Limjoco, MD, will present, “Go After the Truth, the Clinical Truth—That’s What Matters at the End of the Day.”

Q: Why is it important for CDI specialists and coders to capture conditions based on clinical truth?

A: At the end of the day, the clinical truth—the documented evidence within the medical record regarding the patient’s conditions—will be what helps the facility stand up in the face of auditor scrutiny. Although metrics and productivity are very important, CDI specialists must use caution when allowing those things to dictate the overall quality of their performance when querying providers. For example, if two out of the four Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) criteria are satisfied, we all too often see CDI specialists’ query for sepsis, even though it may not be clinically supported. The SIRS criteria are to be considered a screening tool, not a diagnostic tool.

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