ACDIS update: 47% of CDI professionals say they have a concurrent coding process

According to a recent survey conducted jointly by ACDIS and its partner 3M, 47% of 575 total respondents indicated they have a concurrent program in which CDI specialists and coders work together on cases prior to discharge, 9% indicated they’re planning to create one, and another 40% are not planning to at this time.

As CDI professionals increasingly interrogate the medical record for documentation regarding a host of complicated measures (think patient safety indicators, mortality, and clinical validity) along with DRG assignment, concurrent coding efforts aim to more closely align CDI and coding in real time, allowing each member of the team to focus their distinctive skill sets and work together on difficult cases, says Diana Ortiz, JD, RN, CCDS, CDI product owner at 3M Health Information Systems in Murray, Utah.

“CDI is being asked to take on more, to review more cases, and to review more cases for more things,” says Ortiz, and facilities need to determine the best way to handle these demands.

As the survey shows, not all respondents have full-blown concurrent coding efforts, but results show increasing collaboration and an interest in improving code assignment. In fact, when the data was sorted by those who either do have a concurrent coding program in place or were planning to do so, 76% of respondents listed “better coding of cases concurrently, resulting in more relevant queries, and better final documentation and coding” as a goal, followed by 58% who listed “better collaboration between coding and CDI so that final coding is faster, [and] more accurate” and 53% who listed “better coding of potential quality indicators (such as PSIs, HACs, PPCs) to improve concurrent quality workflows.”

The survey also investigated software and workflow shifts, concurrent coding implementation, physician and leadership buy-in, review prioritization, and more. Click here to download the report.