Revka Stearns: Eight months later (and wiser)—Part 1 of 2

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

Back in January I hosted newly minted medical coder Revka Stearns. For someone so new to the industry, Revka has made a big impact by the act of sharing–documenting her journey in detailed and open fashion on LinkedIn and Facebook, and a half dozen podcasts and programs.

At the time she was on the show Revka had literally been on her first job for about 3 weeks. Eight months later I asked her to come back for an update and share her successes, challenges, and unexpected side-ventures.

Revka has many strengths—smart, hardworking, diligent–but one of them is effective use of social media, creating a model for how I like to see these platforms used (and unfortunately often aren’t).

But she’s also had her share of struggles. Coding is hard.

This was a bit of a longer interview so I split it into two parts, each about 30 minutes long. On part 1 we cover:

• Eight months on the job as a first-time medical coder
• Specific challenges she’s encountered, including:
  • Making sure the organism causing an infection is clearly linked to that infection through documentation
  • Ensuring documentation is carried through to discharge, beyond the provider just copying and pasting
  • Recognizing query opportunities
• The reality of learning: Taking one step forward and two steps back
• Most rewarding aspects of the job
• What she knows now that she wished she knew back in January