This experience not only gave me a hands-on view of what a coder does, it also gave me a front- row seat as to what an HIM director does on a typical day. Jo Ann assigned me a project entitled “E/M Levels for Comparison of Acuity” that she and I would complete for the hospital. The project in a nutshell: conduct an audit of a sample size of E/M (evaluation and management) code levels assigned for out-patient visits to the emergency department from last year (2018) and pro-fees (provider-side) compared to the same sample size of E/M code levels assigned for out-patient visits to the emergency department from this year (2019) and pro-fees, count the levels, and make charts and graphs showing the comparison. My project was unique in that my class PowerPoint for the project would also be used at the facility for the purpose of physician education. To me, this meant that the pressure was on- as the physicians at Bell hospital would be viewing my PowerPoint presentation, I had to make the presentation as accurate and professional as possible!

I completed my Capstone UP Health System-Bell under the guidance of my supervisor, Jo Ann Wendt, who is the HIM Director and Privacy Officer for the hospital. My capstone was a very well-rounded experience. Besides working on the project, during the course of the semester I did many different things, including job-shadowing Jo Ann, practicing coding cases, participating in a HIPAA walk-through, sitting in on conference call meetings, etc.