flynn043

The last few weeks have been more than the usual crazy.  I knew going into September that I was going to have to take every rare opportunity I found for a little relaxation.  Since August, I have spent more weekend nights away than at home and while most of my trips have been for fun and not work, I am a person who relishes a routine schedule and values downtime - probably like a lot of coders out there. My September travels began with a trip to North Carolina for a wedding followed closely by a work trip to Kansas City for training.  The whole time I had my eyes open, considering ideas for my blog and looking for inspiration in the normally mundane daily grind.  I have a few ideas that will take more thought before putting to paper - er, PC - so stay tuned.  But it was something quite literal that inspired today's code for the day: a heavenly day spent at the spa with coworkers. I know what you're thinking. A relaxing day at the spa with coworkers is an oxymoro...

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In case you haven't been paying attention lately, there are a few things happening in the health care industry.  We have Obamacare, the insurgence of accountable health organizations, implementation of electronic health records (EHRs), and a firm date for ICD-10.  If you google "fastest growing industries" you will find many of the top 50 jobs are within health care.  And according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for a medical records/health information technician (including coding) is projected to grow faster than average at 21% by the year 2020. For a lot of people pondering a change in careers, these statistics might seem like a no brainer, yet the transition to ICD-10 has a lot of people wondering:  is now a good time for a Z56.1 ( Change of job) ? A selection of my codebooks - note the ancient green SNODO book! I do get email from people asking me this very question.  Is now the right time to become a coder, or should I wait?  Th...

I am that geek who asks for copies of my operative reports.  My doctors usually look at me a little weird and tell me how boring they are, but nonetheless, I collect operative reports.  I have certain friends, family, and coworkers who have joined the cause and will ask for copies of the report for whatever procedure they had done recently.  In fact, I recently acquired a tonsillectomy. While this may seem to be a rather strange collection, for me it's purely educational.  I like to teach from real operative reports, so I collect them and use them in training materials.  A couple of weeks ago, I dusted off one of my previous procedure reports in preparation for ICD-10-PCS training.  It was for a septoplasty and turbinate reduction after what one of my doctor's not-so-lovingly referred to my as my "100-day cold."  When I finally saw a specialist, she determined that I had trouble due to a deviated septum, which was caused by an old fracture - probably d...

It hardly seems possible, but Labor Day weekend is upon us and September is only a few days away.  As the unofficial end of summer, that means one thing in Colorado - all of the pools will be closing this weekend.  It's my last chance to get to the pool before they abruptly drain it and cover it over.  The only time it will be appealing until next Memorial Day weekend is when it snows enough to partially coat the pool cover and make it look like a picturesque iced-over pond.  So this weekend I'm hoping the super hot weather we're having this week carries over through Monday without any thunder storms. You see, I'm old school when it comes to swimming.  All those rules that seemed so ludicrous when I was a kid now make perfect sense.  Don't run around the pool because it's slick and having suffered my share of skinned knees from falling pool side, I get it.  Don't eat right before you swim because you might get a cramp and drown.  And finally, the ...

I've been hanging out in a room with other coders most of the week with piles of cases and lots of discussions about how to code them in ICD-10.  I wanted to get at least one post out this week with a code for the day, but there was really not much I felt inspired to write about.  While many of our discussions did revolve around coder humor, nothing really jumped out at me. I was about to let it go. It is Friday, after all.  Perhaps something inspiring would happen over the weekend.  Or perhaps the Final Rule for ICD-10 would be published on Friday morning. Wait... What? The Final Rule? We've been through a roller coaster with this whole ICD-10 thing.  When I started as a coder in the 90s, there were rumors that ICD-10 was coming any day.  It was already overdue at that time - it should have been implemented in 1989.  And we waited.  And waited.  We went to countless presentations once the draft code sets were underway and in January 2009, ju...

As I mentioned in my last blog posting, I recently returned from Oregon.  The trip was conceived while catching a repeat of a favorite movie from the 80s - The Goonies. The Goonies house with its signs & the jail with getaway Jeep If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it.  In short, it's about a group of misfit kids living in Astoria, Oregon, who are in danger of losing their homes to the rich set, who plan to tear down their houses in exchange for a golf course.  The kids find a treasure map in the attic that leads them on an adventure complete with the bumbling Fratelli gang of crooks, pirates, scary caves, and - of course - hidden treasure obscured by Oregon's natural landscape and pirate booby ("that's what I said, booby") traps.  And if they can find the treasure, they can save their homes, which they lovingly refer to as the Goondocks.  The movie was written by Chris Columbus, produced by Steven Spielberg, and directed by Superman's R...