It’s often said that to be a good CDI or coding professional you have to roll up your sleeves and get clinical. If you code just what is explicitly documented you will miss opportunities; if you don’t understand A&P and pathophysiology, you will make mistakes.

But what about those who take the opposite path?

Katie McLaughlin became a registered nurse at age 23, then went back to school to earn her doctorates before becoming a nurse practitioner in 2007.

Today—at least until very recently, when her organization opted to discontinue accepting Medicare Advantage patients and shuttered its risk adjustment program—she became Population Health Clinical Advisor: Clinical Documentation Integrity, Risk Adjustment, and Epic Informatics, for Scripps Health.

A clinical path, to coding and CDI.

Today she is looking for the next opportunity. But given her clinical foundation, coding expertise, EHR savvy, and above all, passion and vision, she will be landing very well, and very shortly.

Katie joined me for this week’s episode of Off the Record, where we discuss:

• Her path into nursing, clinical medicine, and ultimately risk adjustment

• Prospective chart reviews—a 2 a.m. vision, and implementation

• Leveraging Medicare annual wellness visits

• Scaling risk capture by customizing EPIC

• Building dedicated Internal Wellness Clinics focused on screening and risk capture

• Unexpected free time and plans for her next career move