2016 ACDIS Conference: A behind-the-scenes preview
Anyone who has participated in the ACDIS Conference knows that there’s a lot going on—and trust us, it’s a lot of work. But what you might not know is that the entire agenda of speakers and sessions isn’t selected by the ACDIS administration alone—we recruit a team of 12 volunteers to serve on our Conference Committee.
The committee reviews all speaker applications, sets the conference agenda, reviews submitted materials, and chooses recipients of the ACDIS Achievement Awards. Its work is invaluable to the success of the annual conference. Now that the speakers have been selected and the agenda has been finalized, we caught up with a few of the committee members to talk about their experiences and what you can expect at this year’s conference.
The tracks
The conference committee had its first meeting last June. Members evaluated the 2015 event and started brainstorming new ideas for tracks and sessions. The first step was to develop the speaker application, which required the group to identify the focus for each educational track and determine a list of must-have session topics. The call for speakers, which went out in July, garnered more than 100 applications.
When the application period closed in September, the committee quickly realized that the number of top-notch sessions and speakers could not be crammed into just four tracks, so the group decided that a fifth track was warranted for this year’s lineup.
Tracks include:
- Clinical and coding
- Management and leadership
- Quality and regulatory
- CDI expansion
- Innovative CDI
“Each year, [the ACDIS Conference] keeps growing and the competition [for speaker spots] is really difficult,” says Peggy Reap, RN, who is serving on the committee for the second time. “There’s more people coming out and wanting to present, and we tried our best to include as many of the terrific speakers as we could.”
The speakers With the applications in hand, the committee, led by ACDIS Director Brian Murphy, began the review process. The speakers were categorized by session topic and divided into groups for review at weekly committee meetings.
Each member had the opportunity to review the applications ahead of time and bring his or her feedback to the meetings, says Shiloh A. Williams, MSN, RN, CCDS, CDI specialist at El Centro Regional Medical Center in Holtville, California. Williams reviewed each speaker’s topic and presentation outline, and looked at the applicant’s skill level and presentation experience.
“We wanted the presentations to appeal to various skill levels and ensure that everyone, whether they were new to CDI or a veteran, had something that would interest them at conference,” she says.
During the weekly meetings, the committee went through each presentation individually, sorting them by yes, no, and tentative.
“As a committee, we were able to quickly focus on those presentations that interested the group as a whole and start placing them in potential tracks,” says Williams.
Of course, rejecting an application was the biggest challenge, especially in a pool of such qualified candidates, but Williams says the committee felt confident in its decisions.
“There were several really good presentations on the same topic, and it was difficult to start weighing the minute details of each presentation against each other,” she says. “There were a couple of presentations that we could not quite let go of as a committee, so thankfully we were able to expand to five tracks.”
Between September and October, the group met seven times to finalize the speaker lineup. This year’s speakers include outpatient CDI specialists, CDI managers, pediatric CDI specialists, an attorney, and more than two dozen physicians.
The sessions
The ACDIS Conference always aims to include a diverse range of sessions, and this year will be no different. Attendees will enjoy dedicated tracks on expansion and innovation, highlighting such topics as outpatient CDI and risk-adjusted payments, postacute CDI, readmissions, and medical necessity.
CDI managers will have sessions tailored to their needs and interests. The conference will also offer three special panel discussions: two with the ACDIS Advisory Board, and one focused on physicians’ perspectives on ICD-10. When asked what session they’re most looking forward to, most of the committee members couldn’t choose just one.
Williams will be checking out the tracks dedicated to program management and leadership and CDI program innovation.
“There are CDI professionals presenting that have already blazed the trail and would love to share their experiences and lessons learned,” she says.
The large number of physician-led sessions will offer an opportunity to learn from providers’ clinical expertise, says Tracy Boldt, RN, BSN, CCDS, CDIP, CDI consultant at Enjoin. “I find it a blessing to learn and grow from the multitude of knowledge from others in the CDI arena,” she says.
This year’s conference will also offer sessions on remote CDI, which Michele E. Thornton, RN, BSN, CCDS, clinical documentation specialist at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, is eager to check out.
She also plans to attend the pathophysiological/disease process sessions.
“Aside from the incredible educational opportunities, what I’m most looking forward to is networking with other CDI team members,” says Thornton.
The awards
As we head into the final months before this year’s conference, the committee still has one more task to complete: selecting the recipients of the ACDIS Achievement Awards.
This year, the ACDIS Advisory Board made some significant changes to the awards, and so the committee will review nominations in the following categories:
- CDI Professional of the Year
- Recognition of CDI Professional Achievement
- Excellence in Provider Engagement
- Rookie of the Year
The committee will be responsible for reviewing the nominations and, along with ACDIS administration, voting on four recipients, who will be honored at the conference during a general session.
“I think the committee did a great job of giving our attendees options and variety to make their conference experience unique and rewarding, and I’m excited to head into our next task of reviewing and selecting our award recipients,” says Williams. “It will be awesome to get to acknowledge and honor our hardworking colleagues.
Editor’s note: The 2016 ACDIS Conference will be held May 23–26 in Atlanta. For more information, visit http://hcmarketplace.com/9th-annual-acdis-conference. This article was originally published in the March/April edition of CDI Journal.