The authors of the original CDI Pocket Guide partner with Uplift Group Australia to create the first International Edition of the CDI Pocket Guide for ICD-10-AM and AR-DRGs

CDI Pocket Guide ICD-10-AM

The First International Edition of the CDI Pocket Guide

September 11, 2020: Uplift Group Australia are pleased to announce the new CDI Pocket Guide ICD-10-AM, the latest edition of Pinson & Tang’s CDI Pocket Guide series—and the first designed specifically for Australia.

The original CDI Pocket Guide, first published in 2008 and updated annually, is a clear, concise, user-friendly resource for coding specialists, CDI specialists, and physicians alike. Co-authors Richard Pinson, MD and Cynthia Tang distilled their decades of experience in medical practice and clinical documentation into the Guide, explaining the principles behind the diagnostic criteria and providing insight into the main coding and documentation challenges for the 55 conditions that crop up most frequently in their consulting practice.

CDI is an emerging field in Australia, and Sam Heynemann and Jenny Fitzpatrick of Uplift Group recognized the need for such a resource. When they found the original CDI Pocket Guide, they were impressed and realized adapting it for the Australian context would immediately help the hospitals they work with. They reached out to Richard and Cynthia, and together these four seasoned experts created the new CDI Pocket Guide for ICD-10-AM and AR-DRGs.

This new guide retains all the clinical content that made the original CDI Pocket Guide the “CDI Bible” for so many U.S. hospitals, but it has been revised for the ICD-10-AM classification and Australian-Refined DRGs (AR-DRGs). 

ICD-10-AM and AR-DRGs are the respective coding and DRG classification systems used not only in Australia but in New Zealand, Ireland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Bahrain, Lithuania, Bulgar, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia.

Clinical coding professionals and clinicians around the world will find this a useful tool in addressing the daily complexities of coding and clinical documentation with the ultimate goal of not just more accurate coding, but improving data quality and outcomes for both clinicians and hospitals.

“We were very pleased to partner with Uplift Group to create the CDI Pocket Guide ICD-10-AM,” said Cynthia Tang, co-author of the original CDI Pocket Guide “While there are many similarities between the U.S. and Australian systems, there are also differences that needed to be carefully considered for this new guide. Sam and Jenny of the Uplift Group brought their considerable expertise and experience within the Australian healthcare setting to ensure this new Guide meets the needs of Australian hospitals. They were delightful to work with.” 

“The CDI Pocket Guide has been the ‘go-to’ resource for over 13 years in the U.S. for good reason, said Sam Heynemann of the Uplift Group: “it is an authoritative source of information for clinical coding specialists and clinicians who are responsible for the integrity of the clinical documentation at their organization. We are so excited to have this new guide tailored to our specific needs.”

Richard Pinson added, “The CDI Pocket Guide is simple and easy to use but contains exactly the information needed to ensure the completeness, consistency, and accuracy of the medical record. Documentation needs to truly reflect the clinician’s clinical judgment and medical decision-making.”

“For those who feel they have been ‘spinning their wheels,’ our new CDI Pocket Guide is the tool you need to approach the CDI function in an organized and rigorous manner,” said Jenny Fitzpatrick. “By focusing on the diagnoses that provide the greatest opportunity, the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire coding and clinical documentation integrity effort can be improved.”

For more information on the CDI Pocket Guide ICD-10-AM, see  www.upliftgroup.com.au or email director@upliftgroup.com.au.  

About Pinson & Tang

Richard Pinson, MD, FACP, CCS, is a physician, educator, administrator, and healthcare consultant. He practiced Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine in Tennessee for over 30 years. Dr. Pinson is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and former Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Vanderbilt, and has assisted hospitals as a physician consultant for the past fifteen years.  Dr. Pinson’s understanding of the mindset of both doctors and managers allows him a unique vantage point from which to promote cooperation between clinicians, hospital staff, and administrators toward achieving beneficial and practical changes.

Cynthia L. Tang, RHIA, CCS, brings over 30 years of experience in health information management, coding and clinical documentation, and clinical resource management. For the past 25 years, she has traveled to hospitals throughout the country to assess their processes for managing health information and clinical documentation and to provide her much sought after expertise in redesigning operations to promote better patient care and hospital financial health. Cynthia’s focus is on workflow design and improving clinical documentation with a view to optimizing reimbursement, ensuring compliance, and improving quality and pay for performance measures.

About Uplift Group Australia

Uplift Group Australia leads the way across the country in health information management, with our outstanding auditing, consultancy, and clinical coding support services. Now with a team of over 20 and still growing, Uplift also works internationally to support public and private hospitals.

Uplift Director Jenny Fitzpatrick has worked with Victorian hospitals for twenty years as a qualified Health Information Manager and is a proud member of the Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA). A major part of Jenny’s career involves creating a learning and development culture that attracts and retains high-quality staff. Jenny’s professional experience and expert knowledge of clinical coding, casemix analysis, and HIM have enabled both private and public healthcare organisations to optimize their coding practices and improve their revenue.

Sam Heynemann is a qualified Health Information Manager with deep expertise in health classification development, casemix analysis, and its application to health care funding. He has produced comprehensive audit reports and educated both non-clinical and clinical staff and executive teams in extracting useful information from their data to improve both hospital revenue and patient care. Recently, Sam facilitated the implementation of a pilot CDI program in Australia’s second-largest private hospital network. He shares his frontline experience in Clinical Documentation Improvement programs to increase their impact on hospital clinical coding and reimbursement opportunities.