Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2019

Analysis of AHIMA’s New Clinical Documentation Improvement Industry Survey


By Tammy Combs, RN, MSN, CCS, CDIP, CCDS


The AHIMA Clinical Documentation Improvement Practice Council (CDIPC) is a group of clinical documentation improvement (CDI) experts that meet once a....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: Journal of AHIMA - Coding Notes

Publication Date: July 2018

By Tammy Combs, RN, MSN, CDIP, CCS, CCDS


Have you ever wondered what it means to be an effective communicator? In his article “Why Communication Is Today’s Most Important Skill,” Greg Satell discusses Michael Faraday, who helped tr....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: March 2018

Untitled Document



A Summary of the AHIMA CDI and Coding Collaboration in Denials Management Toolkit


Healthcare insurance payment structures in the United States have processes in place to monitor for appropriate payments to submitted insurance cla....

Author: Combs, Tammy; Endicott, Melanie

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2017

Physician engagement seems to be the buzzword in healthcare these days. Hospital administrators charged with various clinical improvement initiatives have come to realize that physician engagement is an essential element of success. While physician engagement in clinical documentation improveme....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: November 23, 2016

Have you ever spent hours working on a project, only to find out at a random meeting that another team has been working on the same project? This type of scenario can be frustrating to both teams and lead to distrust in the work process—not to mention wasted time that could have been spent....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: October 27, 2016

Mastering physician engagement can be a challenging process, but it is within reach when you develop a plan of action and have a little patience. During AHIMA’s 2016 CDI Summit: Advancing the Documentation Journey, held August 1-2 in Washington, DC, Dr. John Showalter, MD, MSIS, University....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: September 28, 2016

Have you ever gone to a staff meeting only to hear the news that a process you’ve been following for years is about to change? How does that make you feel? Maybe you love change and welcome any opportunity to improve a process. But maybe you are a creature of habit and the thought of a cha....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: August 25, 2016

The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) Program has heightened hospital awareness of quality outcomes. Under this program, payments made under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) are based on the quality of care that was provided. Quality of care is recognized through the cl....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: July 27, 2016

We talk a lot about the impact of clinical documentation improvement (CDI) on healthcare organizations and physicians. We look at ways to reflect appropriate reimbursement and accurate quality scores, both of which are very important. But do we take the time to look at the true extent of t....

Author: Arrowood, Danita; Bailey-Woods, Linda; Barnette, Erin; Combs, Tammy; Endicott, Melanie; Miller, Jennifer

Source: AHIMA toolkit

Publication Date: July 2016

This toolkit provides many of the necessary tools and documents needed for implementing and/or maintaining a robust CDI program.

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: Journal of AHIMA - Coding Notes | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2016

Illness doesn’t care what country or region a person lives in, and it doesn’t care the race or origin of a person. Since illness is found everywhere around the globe it only stands to reason that providers should also look beyond the boundaries of one country or patient population when re....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: June 23, 2016

Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs are quickly emerging in various areas of the healthcare arena. We now see these programs specializing both prior to and beyond the acute hospital admission. Just as healthcare doesn’t stop when a patient is discharged, health problems begin....

Author: Combs, Tammy; DeVault, Kathryn; Easterling, Sharon; Endicott, Melanie; Isom, Crystal; Lojewski, Tedi; Simmons, Cortnie R.; Wolf, Beth

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2016

Editor’s Note. This Practice Brief has been updated. See the latest version at Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant ICD-10-PCS Query
. This version is made available for historical purposes only.




The complex and highly specific nature of ICD-10-PCS has changed....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: May 27, 2016

Many hospitals that have implemented clinical documentation improvement (CDI) programs have seen a reduction of claim denials and an improvement in appropriate reimbursement payments and accurate quality scores. For these reasons, CDI programs have become very....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2016

When we take a bite of our favorite food we can easily determine the quality by relying on what our senses tell us. The look, smell, and taste are all clues to the quality that was put into preparing the meal. If it looks undercooked or has mold on it, smells foul or tastes bitter, we kno....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: April 27, 2016

If a couple were to decide they wanted to build a house, they would need to communicate regularly to complete the home and make sure it fit the needs of both of them. If one of them were to say, “We need three bedrooms,” and the other one instead said, “No, we must have four bedrooms,” the....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: March 23, 2016

When calculating the productivity guidelines for a clinical documentation improvement (CDI) program it is important to remember both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Sometimes it is very easy to focus solely on the quantity of reviews that are performed. If the quality of those r....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 24, 2016

Understanding clinical documentation improvement (CDI) metrics can be confusing, especially when you first start reviewing them.


Let’s dive a little deeper into the topic and take a closer look at some frequently reported CDI metrics and evaluate how these measures can reflect the....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 27, 2016

When an architect draws up plans for a building, they pay close attention to the details of the foundation. This provides the support to the building and prevents it from crashing down at any moment. If the building later has structural damage it is easy to fix when the foundation is not i....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: January 2016

Editor's note: This brief replaces the 2001 practice brief "Documentation Requirements for the Acute Care Inpatient Record, and the 2013 and 2014 versions of the practice brief "Using CDI Programs to Improve Acute Care Clinical Documentation in Preparation for ICD-10-CM/PCS."