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Welcome to DeVry Creative!  This LibGuide has been created for faculty, students, alumni and DeVry Colleagues to share their creative works.  Submit the form below along with your work to DeVryCreative@devry.edu.

Carol Dietrich - Professor

Deborah Helman - Professor

Kathrine Henson Mack  - Professor

Julie Hagemann - Professor

Michael Dufresne - Professor

Clues

By Janet Grace, DeVry University Student

Have you ever played Clue? Was it Colonel Mustard in the Observatory with the rope? How about Mrs. White in the Library with a gun? All were answers to the clues we received to solve the mystery of “who-dun-it’?

Coding is like that, especially ICD-10-CM. We get a clue, and it is up to the coders to solve the mystery. Our first clue comes from the physician, and from there we need to figure out the case for the patient’s insurance claim. We cannot just put patient has “measles.” We have to know what kind of measles? With complications or without?

Health care professionals document the patient encounter in such a way that we can read and eventually provide a code that identifies what is happening with the patient—all without using words. The ICD-10-CM is the universal language of health care professionals.

If we follow the ten steps to correct coding, we are sure to solve our mystery:

1. Identify the reason for the visit or encounter.
2. After selecting the reason, consult the alphabetic index.
3. Locate the main term entry.
4. Scan sub-term entries.
5. Pay close attention to index instructions.
6. Choose a potential code and locate it in the tabular list.
7. Read all instructional material in the tabular section.
8. Consult official guidelines.
9. Confirm and assign the code.
10. Sequence the codes correctly.

Once we follow those rules, we are able to document for the insurance company the diagnosis for reimbursement. The mystery is solved:  B05.9 – Measles without complications.

My classes in medical billing and coding have gotten two steps harder, but with the help from clues to professors who show us how to sleuth, I intend to overcome each coding enigma with perseverance, practice, and patience.

As you can see, there is a lot to learn from a clue game that has become a critical part of our contemporary healthcare system. I am ready for the challenge and am preparing myself each day to maintain my own academic code: an A average!

In spring of 2022 Prof. Tim Hibsman got to travel with Semester at Sea to 12 countries.  Here are a few highlights…

Semester at Sea

Starting the trip in Naples, Italy

Submitted by Mandy James

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