Conference Corner: ACDIS honors achievement award winners at annual conference
ACDIS honored the nation’s top CDI professionals at its 10th annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 10, including:
- Nicole Kosiba, RN, BSN, CDI specialist at Advocate Health Care – Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago, with the Rookie of the Year award
Nicole Kosiba, RN, BSN
- Nicole Fox, MD, MPH, FACS, CPE, medical director of CDI and of pediatric trauma at Cooper University Health System in Camden, New Jersey, with the Excellence in Provider Engagement award
Nicole Fox, MD, MPH, FACS, CPE
- Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS, director of clinical innovations at Iodine Software in Austin, Texas, with the Recognition of CDI Professional Achievement award
Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS
- Rita Fields, BSN, RN, CCDS, regional CDI manager at Baptist Health in Louisville, Kentucky, with the 2017 CDI Professional of the Year award
Rita Fields, BSN, RN, CCDS
ACDIS Director Brian Murphy presented the four awards in the morning’s general session to kick off the 10th annual conference. The awards were presented in front of an audience of more than 2,000 of the winner’s peers.
The Rookie of the Year award (a 2016 addition) recognizes the rapid growth of the CDI profession by awarding an outstanding CDI professional on the job less than two years at the time of nomination. The Excellence in Provider Engagement award (a 2016 addition) recognizes a professional who has made measurable impacts engaging providers (physicians, nurses, and others) in the need for accurate and complete documentation in the health record. The Recognition of CDI Professional Achievement award recognizes a professional who has made outstanding achievements within his or her facility, and the CDI Professional of the Year award is ACDIS’ top honor, given to a CDI professional who has made significant contributions within his or her organization and to the broader CDI community.
“We had a very impressive pool of candidates this year. The 2017 Conference Committee had some difficult decisions to make. But in the end they selected four winners who exemplify all the qualities that make for great CDI professionals—the initiative to step outside their comfort zones and advance the profession, the ability to lead others and lead by example, the willingness to work as part of a team with HIM/coding professionals, physicians, and others, and above all a passion for what they do and the CDI profession as a whole,” says ACDIS Director Brian Murphy.
“The hardest thing was that each of the nominees had done such tremendous work in their own respect, but there could only be one winner for each category. […] Just to be on that nominee list, you must have done something wonderful, but I’m very, very confident that people will agree with our choices. The work the winners have done has been stellar, to say the least,” says Faisal Hussain, MD, a member of the 2017 Conference Committee.
“It was really difficult, but I think the process went pretty smoothly. All of the nominees were excellent. It’s very difficult to choose because you hate to have to say no to anyone when they’re all so close to the top of the list. It was great to see the number of nominations, though. The people who supported the nominees put in so much work to do that!” adds Jeanne O’Connor, RN, MS, CCDS, another member of the 2017 Conference Committee.
To read more about the ACDIS Achievement Awards criteria, award descriptions, and selection process, click here.