CDI Finish Line: Lynne Spryszak on Patient Care and Professional Purpose

Listen to the full episode here: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/qadqA4R6mHb

In 2009 ACDIS was growing. The association’s boot camps were taking off. We were at the point where we needed to hire our first full-time instructor and CDI educator.

That person was Lynne Spryszak.

Lynne had been in CDI since 2002 and volunteered as an inaugural ACDIS inaugural advisory board member in 2007. She married experience (rare in what was then a new profession) with passion and a desire to educate.

It was a perfect fit.

Lynne worked with me for a couple great years and then moved on. But I’ve continued to follow her career from afar—a career that has recently come to a well-deserved retirement. Well, sort of (she’s currently looking for some supplemental part time work).

Lynne is definitely one of CDI’s “OGs” and on this show we recap her career, wisdom, and the true purpose of CDI. We cover:

• Early days working full-time in a grocery store, late start in healthcare, early 90s nursing days in a medical-oncology unit, and transition into CDI
• Most memorable stops of her career including ACDIS, working as a consultant, performing GEM mappings for the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10
• Taking over the CDI boot camp line and transforming it into her own (while working alongside annoying colleagues like myself)
• Surviving a bout with bladder cancer—dark days of diagnosis, aggressive treatment, and cancer free since 2016
• Biggest changes in CDI from 2002 to today—is Lynne optimistic or pessimistic for its future?
• The meaning she derived from CDI work and thoughts on its true purpose: An important part of the chain of patient care
• Retirement plans, grandchildren, part-time work, and her Off the Record Spotify playlist selection