Hi, this is Cindy Johnson. I wanted to go over the Syllabus with you. I am an
adjunct professor so that means I do not have an office on campus but I'm very
happy to meet with you if we set a time to meet. It can either be in person or
using WebEx so that I can see your screen. The best way to contact me is
through email. My ACC email address is listed here. You may also contact me
through D2L's email system. I go into some explanation of that. Important dates
are listed, our start and end dates for the semester. You can withdraw from
coding class with the refund, September 6 is your deadline and if you do not
withdraw by September 6 and choose to withdraw later in the semester the
deadline for doing so is November 14. Then I go into an overview of the course.
I talked at some length about what it's like, what it covers, how it's set up. I
make a point here to tell you a grade of 0 will be given if there's no attempt to
assign a code. Sometimes the student will submit a blank document in order to get
the answer key to be released and then they would paste from the answer key
into a document and call that "graded". That is not "graded". That is cheating. So
you would get a 0 for that effort. So please make every attempt to show that
you have attempted to find a code. I've spent a lot of time in this course
revising it from how it used to be taught. Now we use a lot of podcasts where
I go through exactly how a code is found and then I also have you cite guidelines
and instructional notes, things that helped you arrive at your answer and you
understand that more as you get into your coding exercises. I then go into the
competencies that are covered in this course and the goals for the course. AHIMA
as you know is our professional organization and CAHIIM is the accrediting body
that accredits programs and according to CAHIIM and AHIMA, these are the competencies
that we must be teaching in our coding classes. I just go through those.
We're required to put these in our syllabus and explain what we're doing so
that tells you what that is. The Topical Outline goes to the different body
systems and what we'll be covering. Your required textbook and code book are here.
You notice I did order the one "with answers", the textbook with answers.
I want you to be able to check yourself as you work through those
exercises and in my podcast I also go through many of the exercises in the
coding handbook as well as exercises that are not in the coding handbook
because I want you to be able to apply the guidelines as much as possible.
The last thing is the Official Guidelines 2017. You can download two
PDFs in the Content page, week two and I'll go into some explanation of that. It
is optional for you to have a medical dictionary or an A&P book but I think
it'd be very helpful . You can also use Google images to see different body
parts and body systems and many YouTube videos talk about various disease
processes and procedures. We will not be covering procedures in this class but I
think sometimes it's helpful when you're looking at a procedure to look at the
anatomy, at the different codes that might be assigned as far as a diagnosis.
I talked here about internet access. If you're this far into the HIT program, I'm
sure you're very familiar with online courses and internet access but things
are outlined here for you. I will reach out to you through the ACC assigned
email addresses. That's the official means of communication. If you email me
through the Outlook system, ACC email system, I will answer you there. If you
email me through D2L, I will answer you in D2L. Those two systems, email systems,
do not talk to one another so you have to expect an answer in the system where
you sent your email. If you have not already done so, you should activate
ACC email account and this goes through how to do that. You should have already done
that since you're this far into the program. I will make every effort to
answer your emails within 24 hours Monday through Friday. Coding is, it can
be very frustrating so please start your homework early in the week so that if
you have questions you can ask them early in the week and we can get some
answers. You will also see when I talk about
Discussion Board, that I tell you that if you are asking for help, you have to show
me the path that you've attempted to find a code. I do that because it's too
easy to say I don't know how to get this code. You've got to show me how
you tried to find the code. What was the main term you started with? What were the
subterms under that main term that you used? Did you go to the Tabular to look
up the code that the Alphabetical Index gave you? When you got to the Tabular,
were there instructional notes or guidelines that would apply for the
assignment of that code? So you see there's a multi-step process to finding
a code. What you have to show me is how you've attempted to find a code before
you tell me I don't know how this person got this answer. (The answers are
given in the coding handbook.) For your exercises, you will find I do use answer
keys. If you've had me (as an instructor) before, I'm sure you remember that. I'll go over that in a
minute. You also see here there is a 10% point penalty for each day an assignment
is late so for one day that's 2.5 points if it's a 25 point exercise and then it
just accumulates from there so it's to your best interest to do your homework
and submit it on time. You will see in the Coding Handbook it talks about
ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. ICD-10-CM are the "diagnosis codes". Those are used in
any setting in healthcare. The procedure codes, ICD-10-PCS codes are only for
inpatient hospital, CPT codes are for outpatient procedures.
You'll go into that more as you move through the course but I just want to
make sure you understand that this course, HIT220/ 221 is only "diagnosis
coding", ICD-10-CM so you will skip over any questions that ask for procedure
codes. The information that you are taught in this course prepares you for
the national RHIT exam. You would have to keep going and study more in order to
pass the CCS, which is a national coding credential. If that's something
you're interested in, I strongly encourage you to do that. This is just a
course that gives you the foundation to know if you like coding and to kind of
go off on your own knowing how you want to proceed with this field. Coding is a
specialty. You'll hear me talk a lot about Coding Guidelines. That is so
important in any course, whether it's this one, PCS coding or CPT coding.
Guidelines are like the rules of the road. You have to follow them in order to
know that we are all assigning codes the same way. The exercises that I have built
in this course require you to cite not only the code that you have assigned but
any coding guidelines or instructional notes that you referenced. When you
start looking at the answer key, you'll see what I mean. Let's talk a little bit
about the answer key. You see here there will be a main term, which in this
example is "malformation" right here, sub term "aorta", sub term "ductus
arteriosus" and that gives you your code there Q25.0. Your answer keys will then,
based upon this, these indentations, will look like this, where the indentations
are indicated by a dash or a comma, more commonly a comma. If we're looking at
patent ductus arteriosus, this is the diagnosis that I would have given you,
"malformation of aorta, in parentheses, patent ductus arteriosus."
The code, the correct code that would be assigned and then when I talk about the
pathway, this is the pathwa. Malformation is your main , aorta your next sub
term, patent ductus arteriosus your final subterm with a code of Q25.0. If
you decide to use a specific guideline, that would be quoted as well. So if we go down
a little bit, here's an answer key showing you a diagnosis that would need
to have a guideline cited. The scenario is screening for HIV infection at the
request of an asymptomatic patient with no prior diagnosis of HIV infections, He
just wants to determine his HIV status and then I have the guideline quoted
right here 1 C 1 a 2 H and that guide lines is for encounters for testing for
HIV telling you if the patient is being seen to determine his or her HIV status
you're going to use code Z11.4 and use any additional codes for any associated
high-risk behaviors. All we've been given in this particular diagnosis is the
screening so "screening" would be our main term, sub term "disease", the next sub term
the "human immunodeficiency virus or HIV infection". Final code Z11.4. Once you
have found this in your Alphabetical Index, you're then going to go to the
Tabular, under the Z codes which is Chapter 20 and find this code and see if
when you read it, does exactly match what you're trying to code here. There
are times when you are sent to the Tabular with a code from the Index that
I call it getting you "in the neighborhood". It's not exactly right but
when you read the codes above and below it, you may find a code that best suits
what you're trying to describe. Also you'll see in your reading that the
first 3 characters are called your category code. In this example, Z11 is
your category code. You always want to go to the top of your
category to be sure there are no instructional notes or Excludes 1 or
Excludes 2 notes that you need to be paying attention to. In this example up
here, Q25 would be your category code. A category code is not complete in itself.
You have to have all the characters that are needed for the code to be complete.
Then I go into how you submit with an answer key. If you had me in class before,
I'm sure you remember this.You will attempt your exercise showing me
the path you've attempted to find a code. You will then submit that as your
"ungraded" document. Be sure you identify which exercise it is. Once you've
submitted your "ungraded" document, this releases an answer key in D2L which you
will find under the Content page for that week. S go to the Content page, open
up the answer key, grade your work. Don't simply grade it as right or wrong. I want
you to actually retype or copy and paste the exact path you should have used and
the guidelines. I do that because the redundancy of doing things over and over
helps us remember them so I'm hoping by providing you these answers, you get
immediate feedback as well as the opportunity to improve your own
retention of concepts by repeating what you're doing. If there are no corrections,
please type "No corrections" in a red font so I will know that.
The key to be successful in this class is just simply doing the work. I do not
punish a student for wrong answers. If you do the work, showing me that you have
attempted to find the code,s then you've graded your work and submitting the
"ungraded" and the "graded" documents, you get the full point value of that
exercise. You're not punished, no deductions for wrong codes but you have
to show me an effort that you've attempted to find that code. Occasionally
there will be something without an answer key but I will grade those and
give you any feedback if they applies in this class. There are exams. They are
posted in the Assignment Schedule for the availability. If you miss an exam, you
may take it for 1/2 the original point value but only up to one week late. As in
all courses, coding (education) is cumulative, a cumulative way of acquiring
information so you want to stay on top of everything. Take your exams on time and
in the order in which they've been given to make it make a lot more sense. There
is a Syllabus Quiz that you would take after listening to this podcast and reading
through your Syllabus. You'll see here in my grading scale, the quizzes count for
47% of your total points. The exercises for 53%. I weigh the exercises very heavily
because I believe it's in the exercises that you are actually learning to code.
That's why this is set up this way. The total points for the semester is 570 and
what I'm giving you here is when you calculate your points at the end of the
semester, if you have a cumulative point values between 524 and 570 you're going
to get an A. now you see here in the table how that
is I very rarely offer extra credit I don't think you need extra credit if you
do the work I spend a lot of time building content building exercises and
writing exams that I think students can use to be successful I very seldom give
you opportunities for extra credit I going to learn our expectations to be
sure you understand this is a five credit class so a minimum of 15 to 20
hours per week is required to complete all the reading and the exercises that's
a lot I realize that but you have to realize if you were coming to class and
sitting in the seat for a five credit course a land-based course you would be
spending just as much time as you're spending in this online course to
complete a coding course I give you a link here on AHIMA website that talks
more about coding credentials if this is something that you're very interested in
I talked about class announcements because occasionally things will come up
that might change an answer for example you'll learn more about coding clinic
coding clinics the publication from the AAA American Hospital Association that
is like our Bible in the coding world that tells us how we're all going to
code specific scenarios so it's very possible that an answer key might be
changed to reflect that information in the coding clinic or I might have missed
something I make mistakes too I try so carefully to not make them but I do
occasionally make them and I want you to bring it to my attention when you think
something is wrong when you tell me that something is wrong I want you to tell me
how you know where did you get your information and that allows me to go
back and research it and to correct the answer key or whatever needs correcting
professionalism is very important to me if you know me you know this everything
you do as a student is reflective of how seriously you are taking this profession
so I expect you to address your classmates and me with that much respect
to ask questions for anything that we're covering in class
and just to be very careful and how you present yourself both in the classroom
and outside bathroom because you're also
representing the college but more importantly you're representing the
profession the h-i-m profession I talk a bit about learning to code is like
learning a foreign language can be so frustrating so please do not allow that
frustration to build as soon as you think you are not able to figure this
out let's schedule some time together if you know someone is a coder you can
certainly ask him or her for some hints of how they learn to code but nothing
replaces you actually getting in that codebook and finding out how to find a
code I have some explanation of how you would be eligible for an incomplete
grade that rarely applies to my students but it is there if you have any
questions about it I don't have to tell you how important honesty is you are
allowed to use your coding handbook and your code book in this course for your
clearance the reason why that is different is that when you are a
professional coder you have all your resources right there in front of you
what is not possible is for you to memorize the guidelines you have to just
remember that there is a guideline that has to do with HIV for example and go to
chapter 1 you have to remember that HIV is in Chapter 1 and you know there's a
guideline and then you would go there read the guidelines and find the one
that you're looking for so familiarity with the material it just comes from
spending time in the material but there's no memorization needed I'm not
sure you could memorize actually everything that has to be not learned so
you would use your coding handbook and your codebook to take your exams you do
have time to find your codes and I do think I've been pretty liberal about
that but I will let you know if I think you're taking way too long on an exam
there will be an online course evaluation that I would like to hear
from you within the semester what look what worked right for you what didn't
and there in the syllabus I have the weeks and the different exam
and exercises that are due but be mindful of that I have here in bold font
all of the reading which is considerable and any requirements like watching
podcasts are all going to be in the assignment schedule which is a separate
document hopefully this has been helpful please let me know got any questions you
can either email me or post them and discussion board now I will answer them
for everyone and I wish you a very successful semester