A Note from the Associate Director: Growing the CDI profession

As you read this, the ACDIS administrative team may likely be ensconced in a conference room examining data from its members and discussing plans for products and services for the coming months.

 

A good piece of that data comes from a membership survey earlier this year in which members offered their thoughts about their daily challenges and association offerings.  Regarding challenges CDI professionals face, physician engagement, education, and pushback (lack of buy-in and support for documentation improvement efforts) topped the list at numbers one, two, and three of the top 10. The next problematic grouping stemmed from CDI staffing with retention, recruitment, and training tagged as trouble spots. The final group essentially focused on CDI program management concerns such as proving return on investment, setting productivity and quality benchmarks, meeting the challenges of growing and evolving expectations.

 

Although we can’t be in the halls with you talking to physicians, persuading administrators, and helping your CDI staff learn the ropes, we’re with you in spirit, with you in community. More than 73% of respondents to the survey have been ACDIS members 1-6 years and 56% say they come to the ACDIS site at least once a week or more frequently with some coming to the site multiple times per day.

Members indicated that they value the CDI Journal, Forms & Tools Library, this email newsletter, and the Quarterly Conference Calls most. It doesn’t surprise me (although it’s great to hear) how much these tools are appreciated given the challenges faced in the industry today.

 

We often discuss the exact challenges described within the pages of the Journal, during the Advisory Board Members’ Quarterly Conference Call, and in the email dialogue of CDI Talk. We often share sample PowerPoint presentations, tip cards, and physician education items in the Forms & Tools Library and the forthcoming (May 2016) edition of the Journal delves into a variety of methods to help improve physician support.

 

One respondent said she reads the Journal the moment its posted and called the bi-monthly publication “awesome.” Another respondent said the Forms & Tools Library is her “go-to” spot on the site and loves the fact that the community “all shares our best practices and documents.”

 

Healthcare changes rapidly (look no further than the Sepsis-3 clinical guidelines released last month) as do the rules and regulations governing payment for that care (read the article about MS-DRG changes in today’s edition) and CDI specialists need a trusted resource to get the latest information, distilled in a manner that identifies the most pertinent information for the profession.

 

I’m looking forward to today’s meeting. We have an amazing story to tell and tremendous opportunities to continue to help grow this profession.