A CDI apology…
CDI RN here… what I really wanted to do is respond to the replying physician but since I am not allowed to do that I am posting here instead 😂
Please don’t assume we want to send stupid questions! I do know that the reference included in some of my queries technically answers my question. However, it is outside my scope of practice to answer it myself as I am not legally allowed to diagnose the patient.
Yes sometimes I do know the answer, I just need it confirmed because the documentation is lacking and they are sticklers for semantics. Encephalopathy is not good enough… I need to know if it is metabolic, toxic, hepatic, other?
Also, sometimes coding, management or even an outside consulting company makes me send queries I would not have bothered you with otherwise.
Please do not ignore queries, they make us hound you until it is answered as we cannot close out the chart without an answer. Also by using a standard reply of “Unable to determine”, ultimately you are hurting the hospital and yourself, as well as the patient sometimes, as coding is unable to accurately reflect severity of illness. Of course, sometimes it is truly unable to be determined… but I mean when I have to ask for class of obesity and provide the BMI with accompanied chart of classification you are definitely able to determine which class that would fall in.
So all this to say… I am sorry! Just trying to do my job here. Please don’t hate us ❤️