ACDIS now accepting applications for Advisory Board members for 2010

The Association of Clinical Documentation Specialists (ACDIS) is now accepting applications for four new advisory board members for a three-year term of service starting in 2010.

Click here to download the application form.

Cindy Basham, MHA, MSCCS, BSN, CPC, CCS
CEO/ Key Consulting, Inc. 
Senior Quality Documentation Improvement Consultant VHA
Maryville, TN
cindy.basham@gmail.com

Basham previously served as a Senior Regulatory Specialist for HCPro and is an instructor for the Certified Coder Boot Camp® - Original Version (covers physician and outpatient hospital coding) and Certified Coder Boot Camp® - Inpatient Version (covers inpatient hospital facility coding). Most recently she served as the lead developer and instructor for the Interventional Radiology Boot Camp. 

Basham works with hospitals, medical practices, and other healthcare providers on a wide range of coding and documentation-related issues with a particular focus on coding, billing, revenue cycle, chargemaster, and compliance reviews/audits.

Prior to joining HCPro, Inc., she worked for a large hospital system as a compliance auditor. Her duties included monitoring and performing audits for coding, billing, chargemaster compliance, and documentation. Her clinical experience includesdirectorship over intensive inpatient cardiovascular surgery, interventional cardiology, coronary care, and emergency room departments.

Basham holds a master's degree in healthcare administration and a bachelor of nursing degree from the University of South Florida. She is accredited as a Certified Professional Coder by the American Academy of Professional Coders and also accredited through the American Health Information Management Association as a Certified Coding Specialist.

Gloryanne Bryant, BS, RHIA, RHIT, CCS, CCDS 
Regional Managing HIM Director
NCAL Revenue Cycle
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. & Hospitals
Oakland, CA
Gloryanne.H.Bryant@kp.org

With more than 28 years experience in the health information management (HIM) profession, Gloryanne is the Regional Managing HIM Director for Kaiser Foundation and Hospitals (N. California). In her new role at Kaiser, Gloryanne has responsibility for the hospital and professional fee coding, documentation improvement, and HIM operations for 21 acute care facilities.

Prior to joining Kaiser in May 2009, Bryant was Corporate Director of Coding HIM Compliance for Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), located in San Francisco. At CHW she was the HIM coding compliance lead for the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) demonstration project.

Gloryanne has conducted numerous ICD-9-CM and CPT coding, DRG and APC (OPPS) workshops for hospital-based coders. In addition she has made an array of presentations on data quality, medical necessity, compliance, and documentation improvement to management executives and healthcare administrators. Over the past three and a half years she has been a guest speaker on compliance issues for several regional, state, and national educational programs and associations. Gloryanne has given presentations on planning and implementing ICD-10 over the past four years and provided testimony in support of ICD-10 implementation for the House Ways and Means Committee in April 2006. In addition, during 2005 and 2006, Gloryanne spoke to HIM professionals in the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii on the subjects of clinical documentation improvement, APCs, charging and meeting compliance in coding, billing, revenue cycle, reimbursement and other related subjects.

Gloryanne serves as a volunteer leader on many levels including for the California Health Information Association (CHIA) as a Director to the state board and has served several national positions for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Gloryanne has served as a Director and Past-Chair for the Society for Clinical Coding (SCC), and served two years on the AHIMA Compliance Task Force. As a Health Information Management Practitioner in the HIM/Coding arena, she was on the AHA Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) on ICD-9-CM for Coding Clinic for two years and also served a three-year term on the Council on Accreditation for AHIMA. She continues to publish articles and agrees to be interviewed for national publications like For the Record, Medical Records Briefing, CHIA Journal, Journal of AHIMA, and Advance magazines for HIM.

In June 2000, Gloryanne received the "CHIA Literary Award" from the California Health Information Association (CHIA) for her many articles and writings related to clinical documentation improvement, compliance, data quality and coding, and in 2003 she received the CHIA award for "Distinguished Member." In August 2005, Gloryanne was appointed to the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) APC Advisory Panel to work on OPPS policy, coding, and reimbursement issues. In November 2006 she was appointed to the RAND Expert Panel on Severity DRGs.

Gloryanne is also a member of the CCDS exam committee, serving as a content developer.

Shelia Bullock, RN, BSN, MBA, CCM, CCDS
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Manager of Clinical Documentation Services
Jackson, MS
sabullock@patacct.umsmed.edu

In March 2007, Bullock had the exciting and challenging opportunity to implement and manage the Clinical Documentation Improvement Program at the University of MS Medical Center. UMMC is the only Level 1 Trauma Center, Transplant Center, and Medical School in MS.

Jean is the Service Line Director for health information services at Roper Saint Francis Healthcare in Charleston, SC. She also serves as the system's Accreditation Coordinator. At Roper St. Francis Healthcare, Jean is responsible for all HIM services, the clinical documentation program (which she started in 2005), and Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) and other regulatory compliance.

She has served on The Joint Commission's Standards Review Task Force and the expert panel for the Information Management chapter, which resulted in sweeping changes for the accreditation process beginning in January 2004. Jean is a past president of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and a past president of the International Federation of Health Record Organizations (IFHRO).

She is a well-known author and speaker on topics related to accreditation, including the HCPro bestseller Ongoing Records Review: A Guide to The Joint Commission Compliance and Best Practice, as well as The HIM Director's Handbook, also published by HCPro. She also served as technical editor for Documentation for Acute Care, published by AHIMA in 2004.

Jean has received several awards throughout her healthcare career, including the President's Award, CareAlliance Health Services, 2002; Distinguished Member Award, AHIMA, 2000; National Volunteer Award, AHIMA, 1998; and Tribute to Women in Industry Award, YMCA of Greater Charleston, Inc., 1995.

Jean received a Bachelor of Health Sciences with Honors at the Medical University of South Carolina, College of Health Related Professions, in Charleston, SC, and is a graduate of the North Carolina Baptist Hospital, School for Medical Record Administration, in Winston-Salem, NC.

Wendy De Vreugd, RN, BSN, PHN, FNP, CCDS
Senior Director of Case Management, West Group
Kindred Healthcare, Hospital Division
Orange County, CA
wdevreugd@ca.rr.com

Wendy is Senior Director of Case Management, West Group (West and Mid-West Regions, 12 states, 44 facilities) for Kindred Healthcare LTAC hospital system. Currently she is helping implement a clinical documentation improvement team across all its facilities.

Wendy has 36 years of clinical nursing experience including the areas of advanced clinical nursing practice, acute hospital management and strategic planning programs, quality management, risk management, infection control, acute and ambulatory care level case management, managed care development and shared risk contract management, disease state management programs, and legal nurse consulting.

Proficient at Medicare, Medicaid, HMO, and managed care coordination and NIPAC regulatory auditing of medical groups, Wendy is thoroughly familiar with The Joint Commission, Title 22, NCQA, and other regulatory agency requirements. Wendy also serves on the editorial advisory board of Case Management Monthly, published by HCPro, Inc.

In past roles, Wendy was part of a team that successfully implemented a clinical documentation improvement program (Bearing Point/3M), and has championed concurrent coders for the past five years, with great outcomes.

Garri L. Garrison, RN, CPC, CMC, CPUR
3M Health Information Systems Consulting Services
Director of Acute Care Services
glgarrison@mmm.com

As a Director in Acute Care Services for 3M™ Health Information Systems, Garrison is responsible for development and management of clinical documentation improvement services, RAC services, HAC services, coding validations, quality outcome services, data monitoring services, and compliance services. Her responsibilities include design of service offerings, content development for educational programs, and content development of software associated to support these services. This software includes data monitoring tools that provide comprehensive case mix index and profiling analysis to assist hospitals in improving quality outcomes, ensuring the accuracy of performance reports, and achieving appropriate reimbursement.

Garrison has more than 30 years experience in healthcare, including extensive experience in clinical documentation improvement initiatives, quality outcomes improvement services, process improvement, coding validations, compliance audits, and litigation support. She has been heavily involved in the development of new consulting service offerings, including services for MS-DRGs, 3M™ APR DRGs, and APCs, as well as physician profiling services to identify cost and length of stay reduction.

Previously, Garrison served as Vice President for HIOB Consulting, which 3M acquired in 1999. She is a registered nurse with a wide-ranging background in critical care, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, and emergency/trauma nursing. Her clinical experience includes the implementation of inpatient and outpatient quality assurance, observation programs, and productivity standards. She was also responsible for JCAHO preparation, product evaluation, disaster planning, resource management, and daily operations.

Garrison is a frequent speaker and published author on industry issues related to federal and state payment initiatives, quality outcomes, and clinical documentation improvement. She is a Registered Nurse (RN), credentialed Certified Professional Coder (CPC), a Certified Medical Coder (CMC), and a Certified Professional in Utilization Review (CPUR). She is also a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Colleen Garry, RN, BS
colleen.garry2@gmail.com

Colleen implemented and managed a successful CDI program at the Medical University of South Carolina for more than three years. She was most recently an Assistant Director of Clinical Documentation with New York University Medical Center.

Garry graduated from Marist College in New York and has a baccalaureate in Business Marketing as well as a Registered Nursing License. She has a varied background in nursing with more than 17 years of work experience as a critical care nurse, transplant coordinator, ESRD educator and, outpatient  program director.

Prior to her career in health-care, her business resume was accomplished with employment at IBM Corporation and NBC television in NY.

She is a member of the American Health Information Management Association,   American Nurses Association, and serves on the board of the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists.

Garry has written articles for HCPro’s Medical Records Briefing and the Healthcare Finance Management Association newsletter The Business of Caring. She has spoken at various professional organizations about CDI programs.

Robert S. Gold, MD
CEO
DCBA, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia
DCBAInc@cs.com

Robert has more than 40 years of experience as a physician, medical director and consultant. A graduate of Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, he trained in General Surgery in the U.S. Navy where he spent his professional career as a practicing surgeon. Since leaving the service, he has worked as a consultant in the fields of Managed Care Medicine, Locum Tenens, Home Health, Hospital accreditation and licensure and, most notably over the past 15 years, in education of physicians, nurses, and HIM professionals regarding documentation, coding and billing accuracy (DCBA) for healthcare services.

Robert is known nationally for his education regarding the clinical orientation of coding in AHIMA teleconferences and at the National Conferences on aspects of clinical coding. He has spoken at National and State level HFMA and HCCA meetings on the participation of medical staff in programs of documentation improvement. His monthly articles in HCPro publications have enjoyed success with all who read them. His contributions of Clinically Speaking articles in Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies have been valuable to coding professionals and his A Minute for the Medical Staff articles in Medical Records Briefing have demonstrated value to the documentation practices of medical staff members.

Robert is a co-founder of DCBA, Inc, a consulting company that provides physician to physician programs in clinical documentation improvement for the purposes of properly reflecting disease processes in inpatient and outpatient medical records so that proper and accurate code sets can be applied. Several of their clients have already been nationally celebrated for measures of quality that are calculated from MedPar data.

William E. Haik, MD
Director
DRG Review, Inc.
Fort Walton Beach, FL
Behaik@aol.com
DRGreview@aol.com

William is Director of DRG Review, Inc., in Fort Walton Beach, FL, where he has practiced medicine since 1980. He has received board certification in internal, pulmonary, and critical care medicine. William's past professional accomplishments include: Chief of Internal Medicine, Director of Respiratory Care Services, Board of Trustees at his local hospital, President of the Okaloosa County Medical Society, and representative of the Government Liaison Committee for the American College of Chest Physicians.

William's coding background has included AHA's Editorial Advisory Board and Expert Advisory Panel of Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM as well as participation in the preparation of the original CCS examinations. He also served as the expert consultant to the United States Department of Justice regarding pneumonia coding fraud and abuse. William has conducted educational seminars and national teleconferences regarding physician involvement in DRG management, coding, and other related topics in association with HCFA (CMS), AHA, AHIMA, and various state Quality Improvement Organizations. He currently serves on the Florida Quality Improvement Organization's Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP).

Since 1988, William has served as the Director of DRG Review, Inc., a physician-directed hospital coding consultative service. The goal of DRG Review, Inc. is to educate medical and coding staffs in medical record documentation and coding compliance.

Tamara Hicks, RN, BSN, CCS, CCDS
Manager, Care Coordination
North Carolina Baptist Hospital
Winston-Salem, NC
thicks@wfubmc.edu

Tamara currently serves as Manager of Care Coordination at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. In this role, Tamara manages and facilitates quality practice within the department of care coordination, identifies and implements changes that enhance effectiveness of patient care delivery, and ensures compliance with regulatory agency standards.

Tamara is also responsible for staff management and development, and the environment of the department including the oversight of case managers, social workers, medical management specialists, clinical documentation consultants, and support staff.

Prior to assuming her current role, Tamara served as Baptist's Coordinator of Clinical Documentation Management. In this position she participated in building CDMP by adding reviews of all payors and reviews related to capture of severity of illness. Tamara also educated staff and faculty regarding clinical documentation management, provided leadership to staff to promote the departmental goals, and coordinated the daily operations of the department.

Tamara is also a member of the CCDS exam committee, serving as a content developer.

Robin R Holmes, RN, MSN
DCH Health System
Manager of Clinical Documentation Improvement
Tuscaloosa, AL
rholmes@dchsystem.com

Holmes is CDI manager for DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa, AL. The Health System is made up of four facilities and serves West Alabama.

In 2003, DCH Regional Medical Center began a CDI program. As part of this team, Holmes provided oversight for the CDI program across a continuum. DCH’s program began with a focus on concurrent record review and has expanded to include review of records post discharge/pre-bill. Its CDI team also reviews records concurrently for core measures across all payers.

DCH’s goal is to portray accurate severity of illness and risk of mortality through quality data. Last year Holmes was part of a team that created and implemented a CDI tracking system within its Midas software. This system has allowed CDI staff to efficiently and accurately collect data. The new reporting capability has far exceeded DCH’s expectations.

Through its CDI and core measure interventions, DCH is in constant communication with its coding and performance improvement staff. The Midas tracking system stores all of its CDI and core measures interventions and allows the CDI department to successfully communicate with its remote coders and performance improvement staff.

In 1995, Holmes received her BSN from the University of Alabama’s Capstone College of Nursing and began her career in critical care nursing. She also worked with Alabama Organ Center as an organ facilitator. In 2002, Holmes received her MSN for the University of Alabama.

Pam Lovell, MBA, RN
Regional Director, Clinical Intake Team, Case Management
Humana, Inc.
Louisville, KY
plovell@humana.com

Pam is regional director of the clinical intake team in the case management division of Humana, Inc. Previously she served as the corporate senior director of case management for the hospital division of Kindred Healthcare. She supports the case management and health information management programs of Kindred's 84 long-term acute care facilities in 26 states. In this role, Pam assures that the case management program provides for and ensures that appropriate and cost-effective medical and medically-related social services and behavioral health services are identified, planned, obtained, and monitored for individuals eligible for long term acute care hospital services.

Pam oversees division-wide medical centralized coding, medical records, and transcription services. She also monitors compliance with applicable regulatory requirements related to medical coding and HIM activities.

In the past three years at Kindred, Pam has been part of significant evolution in the case management program, particularly with the development of the clinical documentation improvement specialist role. The collaboration between the facility case manager and the coders in the corporate centralized coding department assures the physician's documentation clearly identifies specific diagnostic terms essential to accurate coding, profiling, and compliance, and reflects the quality of care provided. The positive effects of this process are measured through increased quality DRG assignments and case-mix index.

Shannon McCall, RHIA, CCS, CPC, CPC-I, CCDS
Director of HIM/Coding
HCPro, Inc.
Marblehead, MA
smccall@hcpro.com

Shannon serves as the lead instructor for the Certified Coder Boot Camp® – Original Version (covers physician and outpatient hospital coding) and Certified Coder Boot Camp® – Inpatient Version (covers inpatient hospital facility coding). She also is an instructor for the Interventional Radiology Boot Camp. As a member of HCPro, Inc.’s consulting staff, Shannon works with hospitals, medical practices, and other healthcare providers on a wide range of coding-related issues with a particular focus on coding reviews and audits.
 
Shannon has extensive experience with coding for both physician and hospital services. Prior to joining HCPro, she worked for a national medical practice management company, where her duties included serving as a client manager and as an instructor for the in-house coding training. Shannon also previously worked for a national consulting firm focusing on hospital inpatient, outpatient, and ER services.

Shannon is accredited as a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) and a Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) by the American Health Information Management Association. She also holds the Certified Clinical Documentation Specialist (CCDS) certification from ACDIS. She is also accredited as a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) and is an approved instructor of the Professional Medical Coding Curriculum by the American Academy of Professional Coders. Shannon holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Administration degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.

Lynne Spryszak, RN, CCDS, CPC-A
Manager
Precyse Solutions, LLC
lspryszak@comcast.net
Wayne, PA

Lynne is a manager with Precyse Solutions, LLC, based in Wayne, PA. Her areas of expertise include clinical documentation and coding compliance, quality improvement, physician education, leadership and program development.

Prior to joining Precyse Solutions, Lynne was a Senior Consultant with FTI Healthcare’s Clinical Documentation and Coding Integrity Program, assisting with Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) Program implementations. She has several years’ experience as the Manager of the CDI Program at Alexian Brothers Medical Center, a 400-bed acute care facility.

Lynne has over 16 years of health care experience with more than six of those years in the clinical documentation improvement arena. Prior to joining Precyse Solutions, Lynne held positions as manager of a CDI Program; as a Certified Case Manager with a privately-held case management firm specializing in catastrophic case management; as a home hospice case manager; and as a staff nurse with positions on medical/surgical and oncology units. 
 
Lynne has provided interviews and written articles on the topic of clinical documentation improvement for several healthcare industry publications, including the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s newsletter, Just.Coding.com, and the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists' (ACDIS) CDI Journal. In addition, she is a periodic contributor to ACDIS Blog. In January of 2008 she co-presented an audio conference on the topic of clinical documentation improvement program best practices, published by HCPro, Inc. She co-authored the Physician Queries Handbook: Guide to Compliant and Effective Communication, published in August, 2009 by HCPro, Inc. Lynne is also a member of the CCDS exam committee, serving as a content developer.

Colleen Stukenberg MSN, RN, CMSRN, CCDS
FHN Memorial Hospital
Clinical Documentation Management Professional
Freeport, IL
cstukenberg@fhn.org

Stukenberg has over 20 years of nursing experience in a variety of areas. She has worked as a nurse in medical, surgical, orthopedic, intensive care, and in a hospital-based skilled nursing facility as a MDS care coordinator. In this role, she served as resource in PPS (prospective payment system), RUGS, and long-term care regulations. Stukenberg was involved with QA and QI (quality assurance and quality improvement) in the SNF and the ICU settings.

Stukenberg’s roles have also included health management (as a case manager) and professional development as a (clinical development specialist, or CDS). In the case management role, Colleen worked with a physician-based model and case managed adult inpatients. In addition, she reviewed patient’s charts and care for pay-for-performance and quality indicators along with accurate documentation. As a CDS, Colleen assisted with developing orientation plans for new employees and new graduate nurses.

In 2007, Stukenberg piloted a Clinical Documentation Management Professional (CDMP) position at FHN Memorial Hospital. While the name is CDMP, it is based on accurate documentation as a clinical documentation specialist. As a CDMP, Stukenberg has presented educational sessions for physicians on accurate documentation, coding, POA (present on admission), and RAC (Recovery Audit Contractors).

Stukenberg’s educational background includes an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science in Nursing from Highland Community College in 1985, a second Associate’s Degree in 1987, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northern Illinois University in 1991, and a Master of Science in Nursing, Specialization in Health Care Education, from the University of Phoenix in 2008.

Stukenberg is a certified medical surgical nurse and was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Beta Omega. She graduated from the University of Phoenix Summa Cum Laude and is a member of ACDIS. In addition, she attends the regional quarterly meetings for clinical documentation specialists in the Chicago area.

Heather Taillon, RHIA
Manager, Coding Compliance
St. Francis Hospital
Beech Grove, IN
Heather.Taillon@ssfhs.org

From 2005 to the present, Heather has been Manager of Coding Compliance at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, IN.

In that role, Heather has assisted with the implementation of document imaging system, developed a home coding program, and has provided oversight of the hospital's clinical documentation program.

Prior to taking her position at St. Francis, Heather served as Health Information Manager at Westview Hospital from 2002-2005. At Westview she oversaw implementation of a new transcription system with electronic signature, and hospital-wide computer system.

Heather currently serves as secretary of the IHIMA Executive Board, a role she has held since 2006.