Barbara J. Hanssen “Beege”

Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist

Responsibilities:

  • Daily record review for inpatient admissions to ensure the medical record accurately reflects the severity of illness and intensity of service, resulting in the appropriate MS-DRG assignment
  • Extensively collaborates with physicians, medical records coding staff, hospital administration, and other patient caregivers to improve accuracy and completeness of acute inpatient documentation.
  • Completes education for all members of the patient care team on clinical documentation opportunities, hospital coding and/or reimbursement issues, as well as performance improvement methodologies.
  • Conduct record reconciliation with hospital coding staff to assign a working DRG.
  • Maintains thorough and current knowledge of clinical care and treatment of assigned patient populations to critically assess appropriateness of documentation.

Education:

  • MSN
  • RN

Special Interests and Activities:

  • Spending time with my children and grandchildren
  • Traveling
  • Photography
  • Hiking
  • Kayaking
  • Scuba Diving/ Advanced Open Water Diver

Contact:

Office address: C41-H GH
Email: Barbara-hanssen@uiowa.edu

When asked “What inspires you?”

“Kindness. People doing the right thing whether someone is watching or not. “