Documentation with a Pulse: Erin Kreider on ethics, CDI advocacy, and ambient listening

Erin Kreider gives me hope for the future of the CDI profession. That’s a pretty positive first impression for someone I recently met. Why do I say this? Erin is a newly-minted clinician who returned to medical school after nursing and CDI to become a nurse practitioner (NP), and now sees patients once a week. Her “welcome mat” on LinkedIn lists her core passions, which include clinical honesty and ethical integrity in the final code set, advocating for patients’ rights and best interests, and education and thought leadership. Today the majority of her work is with a technology company, Ambience, where she is helping build out ambient listening technology that assists with documentation and coding. Prior to that she had lengthy stop at Kettering where she was a CDI professional and a case manager. How’s that for achievement—and purpose? We get into all this on this episode of Off the Record, covering: Erin's first day on the job as an NP and what becoming a clinician taught her about documentation/coding/the mid-revenue cycle that she didn’t know or fully appreciate prior. CDI in the ED: Missed opportunity to improve documentation for admitted patients and strengthen Medical Decision Making (MDM) Best practices for leveraging APPs: Support system for MD physician advisors, second level chart reviews, educators, and more—a topic she recently wrote about for ACDIS’ CDI Journal UR/UM synergies with CDI and coding CDI pet peeves: Queries for the sake of metrics, and perception of CDI as an easy retirement job for fatigued bedside nurses How ambient listening can help with documentation, provider burnout, and surface additional missed diagnoses/HCCs