Note from the Editorial Director: Share in the CDI joy with Next Steps!
by Melissa Varnavas
The 2021 ACDIS national conference is now in the history books. There were about 450 attendees, 40-plus sessions for attendees to choose from, a thrumming exhibit hall, and amazing keynote speakers. By all accounts, it was a tremendous success. Especially by the accounting that matters most—the reactions and interactions of attendees. “Joyous,” is how Laurie Prescott, RN, MSN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CRC, CDI education director described it. (Read ACDIS Director Brian Murphy’s recounting of the event on LinkedIn.)
Many of us couldn’t attend for a variety of reasons—COVID-19, shortfalls in funding, organizational travel restrictions, family obligations. With a temporarily immunocompromised status myself, I had to stay home. I missed everyone so very much.
Gratefully, I’m blessed to work with some amazing staff within a community of tremendously caring individuals. My colleagues sent me a bouquet of purple and orange flowers on the first full day of educational sessions—traditionally ACDIS pride day, a day where attendees don their brightest, boldest purple and orange outfits to telecast their affinity for their profession—so I could feel a little part of the festivities. Many attendees sent me private emails and ACDIS Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald even created a little video for me of friends and attendees just saying “hi.”
Even though I couldn’t be there in person, I was there in spirit and in my heart.
Although many of you also couldn’t be present at the Dallas event, that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of ongoing education and networking from ACDIS. We’re in the process of uploading all the presentations from the live event to the ACDIS website so all members can review the slides and glean some of the amazing insight and information shared on the ACDIS stage.
And next week, (November 17-19) all those who attended the in-person event PLUS an additional 150 registered CDI professionals will come together again. This time, for our Next Steps: An ACDIS Encore online event. If you haven’t sign up yet, you can still join us!
Now, “encore” might be a bit of misnomer because all of the 21 sessions participants get to choose from are unique to this event—there are no repeat sessions from the October in-person. It’s all original content.
There are sessions for those who might be new to the CDI role such as how to use CMS’ PCS files and how to harness the “Chameleon-Like Powers of ICD-10” which I’m particularly looking forward to. There are sessions on quality and regulatory concerns such as “How NYU Health Incorporated Focus on Quality into CDI Reviews,” and “Clinical Validity Denial Prevention Strategies,” for those with advanced programs and practice expertise. There are also two great networking opportunities in a virtual version of our beloved poster sessions and a live question and answer portion at the close of each day. Furthermore, as with all of our online events, they will be additional networking opportunities within the conference app, opportunities to share your general questions to your CDI peers.
Although not all of us were able to come together in Dallas, ACDIS is proud to have been able to provide so many educational and networking online events throughout the pandemic. Even if you’re not an ACDIS member, the professional development of those working in the CDI field is out paramount objective. Check out the long list of free resources on the ACDIS website, including recordings of some of the online sessions from earlier this year.
We hope we’ll “see” you next week for our final online event of 2021 and look forward to seeing you in person again at our Imagine! in person event next May.
Editor’s Note: Varnavas is the Editorial Director for ACDIS and works closely with our volunteer event planning committee and ACDIS staff on a wide-range of educational and networking events. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org.