Wiser Wednesday - Experience Speaks

CDI - Building Upon Fundamentals with Tisha Titus, MD, MPH

Mike Kertes is the National Director of Clinical Documentation Improvement Australia.

CDI Partnering with Physicians Working Smarter Not Harder with Chandrasekhar Dinasarapu, MD, MPH, Physician Advisor & Hospitalist

Physician Challenges to Good Documentation with Tisha Titus, MD, MPH and Paula Wineland, MD, FACP.

Melissa Rodriguez, CCS, CCS-P, CDIP, CPMA works for Salem Health as documentation and coding specialist, where her role is to provide education for both the coding and CDI team. She works in clinical validation denials and deals with varying audit functions such as queries and coding. She strives to continually educated herself and her team on the latest coding and clinical validation guidance. Since her time at Salem Health, she has helped implement a query policy and a regular audit schedule for both the coding and CDI teams. She has implemented a denials tracking method that highlights high risk areas with solutions to minimize risk. Melissa is an avid motorcyclist and a kayaker. 

Noelle Dale-Brown is an experienced RHIA and RMA in both post-acute and acute care. She is Scrum Master/Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified, and skilled in record management workflow assessment and redesign using methodologies to achieve productivity and efficiency.

Mary-Claire is dedicated to her passion for health care & medicine. She has a unique background in health care. Over the years, she has contributed to clinical research & assumed leadership roles. She is currently completing her graduate medical education. Here she aims to obtain excellent medical & professional competencies. She considers herself a lifelong learner & is committed to engendering a culture of excellence wherever she goes.

Eric Rubenstein is a seasoned federal law enforcement officer (25 years), specializing in white-collar crime investigations. Wide-ranging experience involving federal healthcare programs, with an emphasis on crimes involving the Medicare and Medicaid programs by health care providers, including physicians, pharmacies and health care entities. He is currently the Director of Litigation Fraud Waste and Abuse Support for Advize Health. 

John Zelem, MD, FACS is the president and owner of Streamline Solutions Consulting, Inc. He is a  Board-Certified general surgeon with more than 25 years of clinical experience, has transitioned out of clinical practice into Healthcare Executive Leadership. Dr. Zelem is a renowned industry author who has published many books and is a well-known motivational speaker and presents often to professional and public/patient audiences on health and wellness, personal development, and leadership and success.

Joe Crea, DO is the medical director for Advisory Services for Sound Physicians. He brings a decade of physician advisory experience to this position as well as extensive experience in both clinical and academic settings. He holds a Health Care Quality & Management Physician Advisor certification. Dr. Crea considers himself an "amateur chef," and loves to cook in his spare time. He is an avid traveler who loves to experience new places and is looking forward to becoming a part of the Harlan, KY community.

Terrance Govender, MD is currently the Vice President of Medical Affairs for ClinIntell, Inc. He has many years of clinical and healthcare management experience that goes beyond the borders of the United States, having also practice in the United Kingdom and South Africa. After being introduced to the concept of CDI early on in his non-clinical career, he realized that we still have a lot to accomplish as an industry. Terrance’s passion lies in the ability to empower physicians, who want to do the right thing, by providing them the shortest distance between two points with regards to CDI. This approach can take on many forms and the exact solution may vary depending on different cultures, but Terrance believes that its time to leverage data, advanced analytics and performance monitoring to affect long term change in physician behavior.

Heidi Hillstrom is a highly accomplished revenue cycle professional with a wide variety of experiences and accomplishments in clinical documentation improvement, case management, utilization review and coding. She is currently Clinical Documentation Improvement Manager and Denials and Appeals specialists at St Luke’s Medical Center in Duluth, MN.