Sepsis is diagnosed through clinical judgment. One of the forums I monitor recently saw a question about sepsis and SEP-1, which elicited this article. SEP-1 is the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program measure titled “Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: Management Bundle.” The issue that Dr. Todd Brown raised was that…

In practice, doctors may use these terms synonymously. We are in the midst of a COVID-19 global pandemic that is changing the world as we know it. Most COVID-19 patients may not need acute inpatient care admission. Only the sickest will. These are the patients who undergo a cytokine storm…

Seven coding challenges reveal a new compliance landscape in 2020. It’s here: 2020! This past year in healthcare, as in many years before, was full of changes, challenges, and some surprises as well. When trying to foresee the key future challenges in clinical coding, the following topics came to mind…

Sepsis is a clinical diagnosis, and clinicians should be permitted to make the diagnosis appropriately. When I step up onto my sepsis soapbox, people often refer to New York State and tell me how they are not allowed to accept Sepsis-3, pursuant to state regulation. Full disclosure: I hail from…

The criteria and definitions for sepsis are presented to help medical staff better understand sepsis. I popped on LinkedIn to repost the details of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) listening session regarding complication and comorbidity (CC) and major CC (MCC) comprehensive analysis after a recent edition of…

Electronic alerts for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Erica Remer reported this story live during the Sept. 24 edition of Talk Ten Tuesday. The following is an edited transcript of her reporting. Dr. Ronald Hirsch recently brought an article to my attention, and I felt compelled to share…

If there is no organ dysfunction, it is not sepsis. EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Erica Remer reported this story live during the Sept. 10 edition of Talk Ten Tuesday. The following is an edited transcript of her reporting. Apparently, I am not done pondering and pontificating about sepsis, which is apropos, considering…

All sepsis now is the condition formerly known as severe sepsis. EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Erica Remer reported this story live during the Aug. 13 edition of Talk Ten Tuesday. The following is an edited transcript of her reporting. I’m the co-chair of the American College of Physician Advisors CDI Education Subcommittee.…

Semantics aside, clinicians must recognize sepsis and treat it aggressively, to save lives. A few weeks ago, I had a fascinating discussion with Tim Brundage, a physician friend, and fellow clinical documentation improvement (CDI) expert, my co-chair on the American College of Physician Advisors (ACPA) CDI committee,  and I’d like…

Which definition of the deadly condition will be applied in the Empire State has been a hot topic of late. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is partial transcript of remarks made by Dennis Jones during a recent RACmonitor-produced Monitor Mondays broadcast. First, let me remind everyone that I am in the…