CDI Lead Specialist - Saint Joseph Hospital East

Conifer Health Solutions•Lexington, KY

About The Position

Educates members of the patient care team regarding documentation guidelines, including attending physicians, allied health practitioners, nursing, and case management. Assist with overseeing department workflow and metrics. Create reports used to make strategic decisions. Educate and train department staff. Responsible for reviewing medical records to facilitate and obtain appropriate physician documentation for any clinical conditions or procedures to support the appropriate severity of illness, expected risk of mortality, and complexity of care of the patient, by improving the quality of the physicians’ clinical documentation.

Requirements

Must display teamwork and commitment while performing daily duties
Must demonstrate initiative and discipline in time management and medical record review
CDI Subject Matter Expert with Advanced knowledge of Medicare Part A and familiar with Medicare Part B
Intermediate knowledge of disease pathophysiology and drug utilization
Intermediate knowledge of MS-DRG classification and reimbursement structures
Critical thinking, problem solving and deductive reasoning skills
Effective written and verbal communication skills
Knowledge of coding compliance and regulatory standards
Excellent organizational skills for initiation and maintenance of efficient work flow
Capacity to work independently in a virtual office setting or at facility setting if required to travel for assignment.
Understand and communicate documentation strategies
Recognize opportunities for documentation improvement
Formulate clinically, compliant credible queries
Ability to maintain an auditing and monitoring program as a means to measure query process
Ability to apply coding conventions, official guidelines, and Coding Clinic advice to health record documentation
Must be able to resolve issues effectively and provide recommendations and solutions
Effectively explain processes and teach others to follow them
CDS SME with ongoing education with physicians and facility leaders
CDI facility representation for hospital and physician meetings
Local facility mentorship for CDI team support and effectiveness
Facility schedule review to ensure units needs covered per P&P
CDI staff coverage
Gathering additional data as needed for supervisor, manager and director
Conifer requires its candidates, as applicable and as permitted by law, to obtain and provide confirmation of all required vaccinations and screenings prior to the start of employment.
Ability to sit for extended periods of time
Must be able to efficiently use computer keyboard & mouse to perform CDI functions
Good visual acuity
Required: RN, or RHIT, RHIA, and/or CCS

Nice To Haves

Preferred: Three (3) or more years experience in CDI
Graduate from a Nursing program, BSN, or graduate of Health Information Management RHIT, RHIA preferred
Preferred: Two (2) years experience with either HIM/Coding or Case Management experience.
Preferred: CDIP or CCDS

Responsibilities

Record Review:
Completes initial medical records reviews of patient records within 24-48 hours of admission for a specified patient population to: (a) evaluate documentation to assign the principal diagnosis, pertinent secondary diagnoses, and procedures for accurate MS-DRG assignment, risk of mortality and severity of illness; and (b) initiate a review worksheet.
Conducts follow-up reviews of patients every 2-3 days to support and assign a working or final MS-DRG assignment upon patient discharge, as necessary.
Formulate physician queries regarding missing, unclear or conflicting health record documentation by requesting and obtaining additional documentation within the health record, as necessary.
Collaborates with case managers, nursing staff and other ancillary staff regarding interaction with physicians regarding documentation and to resolve physician queries prior to discharge.
Lead Responsibilities:
Provides daily support/mentoring/training to new hires as well as existing staff.
Provides assistance in managing escalated issues and special projects as needed to supervisors and managers. CDI staff coverage
Performs concurrent and retrospective CDI audits
Provides CDI support/mentoring/training to Physicians and hospital leadership as needed.
Completion of scrubbing and submitting monthly data to vendor
Enters facility specific data to dashboards
Resolves problems, concerns and reports issues with Operations Supervisor, Manager or Director.
Professional Development:
Stays current with AHA Official Coding and Reporting Guidelines, CMS and other agency directives for ICD-9-CM and CPT coding.
Attends mandatory coding seminars on annual basis (IPPS and OPPS, ICD-9-CM and CPT updates) for inpatient and outpatient coding.
Quarterly review of AHA Coding Clinic.
Attends Quarterly Coding Updates and all coding conference calls as well as any required CDI education.
CDI:
Communicates/Completes Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) activities and coding issues (lacking documentation, physician queries, etc.) for appropriate follow-up and resolution
Other duties as assigned