Guest post: 2019 CDI leader reflection and planning

By Barbara Anderson, RN, MSM, CCDS

You may be considering what you want 2019 to look like—personally and professionally. Since “tis the season,” you may also be formulating some New Year resolutions.

As a CDI leader, you may be evaluating 2018 successes and challenges, your team strengths and opportunities and re-examining your own career goals. To look forward, it is good to first look back. This is a great time of year for reflection and planning that helps you re-invent yourself; helps you step out into the New Year with courage, determination, and optimism.

Self-reflection to analyze where you have been sets the tone for creating something new.

Set aside at least an hour and take some time to sit quietly, somewhere where you won’t be disturbed. Examine those goals that you set early last year and determine where you are on a scale of 1 to 10 for each goal. Look at your individual goals, and team goals. If goals weren’t reached, identify any barriers that kept you and your team from being successful in achieving goals. Were the barriers self-inflicted or were they from outside? If you had been aware of the barriers sooner, could you have made more of a difference? Were obstacles to your success due to a lack of full support from the team, from leadership, from other environmental factors? Are you heading into the new year with the same obstacles on your path ahead?

Be honest with yourself here and write down your thoughts. Be sure to also capture those successes that did come to fruition, and any insights as to why those goals were reached and others were not. Next bring forward any goals that carry over and will need to be addressed this year. Identify goals that speak to the newness and freshness you hope to carry into the new year. Remember you have a whole year’s perspective when looking back and there is a lot to be said for hindsight. What can you do differently and how can you be creative in devising new ways of setting yourself and your team up for success?

As an example, if you had a goal of fully engaging the cardiologists but you find yourself no further ahead with their cooperation a year later, you may consider surveying them to find out what they suggest for a better working relationship, what documentation challenges they see, how best to communicate queries to them and how they might want to get education such as tip sheets or educational sessions. Sometimes we forget to just ask—or a few years go by and it is time to ask again.

The idea is to look for new ways to forge the path forward.

Editor’s note: Anderson is an RN by background, having worked in various roles and settings. She has worked in performance improvement consulting for more than seven years, specializing in CDI, and currently is a Manager at Huron Consulting Group. Contact her at baanderson@huronconsultinggroup.com. Opinions expressed are that of the author and do not necessarily represent HCPro, ACDIS, or any of its subsidiaries.