News: CDI role listed among new job titles related to healthcare reform

As healthcare reform bring changes in reimbursement and focus, it also brings a shift in job titles, roles, and responsibilities throughout the industry, James U. King, senior partner, chief quality officer and children's hospitals practice lead at executive staffing firm Witt/Kieffer, told HealthLeaders Media. And clinical documentation improvement specialist falls within this shift, he says.

With the exponential growth of electronic medical records systems, and the ever increasing use of healthcare data created through physician documentation, “it has become necessary” for providers to employ CDI staff to evaluate patients’ medical documents for clarity, completeness, and effectiveness, HealthLeaders Media reported.

Other fast-growing job titles included:

• Chief integration officers charged with driving clinical integration and care coordination
• Chief transformation officers who concentrate on revising care-delivery models focusing on the entire continuum of care
• Chief population health officers or chief innovation officers who look at making care more cost-efficient and cost-effective for patients

Although overall job growth in healthcare is expected to increase in 2015, hospital hiring may not be as robust as other sectors due to the federal government’s hold on reimbursement’s reins, according to a report from Modern Healthcare. In the next 10 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects hospital employment to increase by 815,000, or 17%, and the larger industry growth at a faster rate of 29%.