Clinical Documentation Specialist; RN

Clinical Documentation Specialist

Advocate Condell Medical Center

Full Time

This is not a remote position, requires 3 days per week in office.

Adult Critical Care Experience strongly preferred.

This role will facilitate the modifications of clinical documentation through extensive initial and concurrent interaction with physicians and other members of the healthcare team, to support appropriate documentation of the clinical severity and risk of mortality captured for the level of services rendered to selected inpatient populations. It supports timely, accurate, and complete documentation of clinical information used to measure and report physician and hospital outcomes and provides education to all members of the health care team on an ongoing basis.

• Improves the overall quality and completeness of clinical documentation by performing chart reviews using clinical documentation guidelines based on accepted standards, evidence-based practice, and current regulatory requirements.
  • Responsible for the day-to-day evaluation of documentation by the Medical Staff and healthcare team in accordance with the hospital’s designated clinical documentation policies and procedures.
  • Provide daily clinical evaluation of the medical record including physician and clinical documentation, lab results, diagnostic information, and treatment plan.
  • Confers with physicians, face to face or via clinical documentation inquiry forms, regarding missing, unclear or conflicting medical record documentation to clarify the information, obtain needed documentation, present opportunities, and educate for appropriate identification of severity of illness.
  • Communicates with appropriate healthcare team members to ensure accurate and complete documentation is in the medical record.
  • Conducts follow-up reviews of clinical documentation to ensure points of clarification and agreed upon documentation have been recorded in the patient’s chart.
  • Identifies the most appropriate principal diagnosis and complications including date to accurately reflect clinical acuity and risk of mortality in compliance with government regulations.
  • Reviews clinical issues with coding staff to assign a working DRG, follows up with physicians if appropriate.
  • Gathers and analyzes information pertinent to documentation findings and outcomes.
• Educates all internal customers on clinical documentation opportunities, coding and reimbursement issues, as well as performance improvement strategies.
  • Demonstrates knowledge of DRG payer issues, documentation opportunities, clinical documentation requirements, coding and policies and procedures.
  • Develops educational strategies for physicians and other members of the healthcare team regarding identified documentation opportunities to help support clinical acuity and risk of mortality within the medical record and to understand the significance of appropriate documentation.
  • Coordinates education to all internal customers related to compliance, coding, and clinical documentation issues. Acts as a consultant to coders when additional information or documentation is needed to assign the correct DRG.
  • Participates in continuous performance improvement and completes all required educational programs for hospital and medical staff.
  • Maintains knowledge of current standards of care via literature review and participation in educational offerings.
  • Research literature to identify new methods for development and overall documentation enhancement.
  • Completes required contact hours based on FTE status within the time frame.
• Maintains the integrity of databases, tracks and trends response to clinical documentation and measures for performance improvement.
  • Completes documentation on reviewed cases in the database.
  • Completes the DRG and query indicators for each reviewed case, as appropriate.
  • Promotes patient safety by reporting issues through established channels and participating as requested in safety initiatives.
  • Identifies patterns, trends, variances and opportunities to improve documentation review and process.
  • Assists site CDI leader in the development and reporting of performance measures to the medical staff and other…