Q&A: Onboarding new CDI specialists

Q: At our organization, we’re struggling to effectively onboard new CDI specialists that have limited prior CDI experience. What vendors, technology support, or boot camps have you used for effective onboarding?

A: “We use a combination of a couple things for training new CDI staff with limited prior experience/knowledge,” says Caryl Liptak, MSHAI, RHIA, system director of coding and CDI at Baptist Health in Louisville, Kentucky. “We have an internal team of auditor/educators” who have developed a boot camp for new staff, along with having a contract with HCPro for their PROPELCDI Services which allows us to have full access to their eLearning courses , the CDI Apprenticeship, and many other education programs available for staff to take in a self-paced fashion.”

“Due to the size of our state and location, we rarely ever get a new CDI specialists with experience so we have developed our own bootcamp,” adds Karen Frosch, CCS, CCDS, CRC, CPHQ, CDI project manager at Christina Care in Newark, Delaware. “It is a combination of reading, selected CDI related articles, web-based Elsevier CDI and other pertinent modules, and one-on-one training on query writing, ICD-10/coding guidelines, review of the reading, and module information,” she says.

After their first week of training, new CDI professionals are paired with experienced staff members for job shadowing and mentoring, according to Frosch. The CDI educator checks in periodically with the mentor and the new staff member on their progress regularly.

“We are service-line oriented,” she says, “so we initially try to pair the new CDI specialist with the service-line he/she is most comfortable with.” This helps to build their comfort level faster than if they were placed in a specialty they have limited experience with, she says.

“I do the training for all new staff,” says Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP, CCDS-O, CCS, CDI manager at Penn State Health in Hershey, Pennsylvania. “Training encompasses a two-week bootcamp and then weeks of one-on-one reviews of their work and rounding with providers. […] ACDIS has some wonderful bootcamp trainings as well that they can provide externally or onsite.”

Editor’s note: This question was answered by members of the ACDIS Leadership Council. For more information about the Council, please contact Linnea Archibald (larchibald@acdis.org).