Guest Post: Marketing your CDI program
by Kelli Estes, RN, CCDS
Maintaining an organizational presence through the continued marketing of your CDI program is one of the most valuable steps you can take towards leveraging long-term success. Hospitals cannot afford to have their CDI program become an “out of sight, out of mind” idea six months to a year after launching.It is very important to maintain a level of CDI enthusiasm among providers throughout the year. In reality, the CDI initiative must become part of the cultural norm in order to attain the longevity of its effects everyone desires to see.
Too often, CDI programs kick-off with quite a buzz in the air. There is typically an organizational presence from the intentional promotion carried out for weeks or months leading up to the implementation date. Unfortunately, after six months to a year, the CDI team loses steam and finds themselves without much fizz among providers. Following are a few ideas to effectively market CDI programs:
- Mark your calendar for the week-long celebration of CDI Week which just took place the third week in September. Use this time to:
- Provide snacks in the doctor’s lounge throughout the week
- Attach CDI tips to candy as a fun giveaway and to educate providers
- Attaching a CDI tip to Smarties candy is always cute
- Dum-Dum suckers will get a nice laugh too
- Host CDI week giveaways as your budget allows
- Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts coupons
- Restaurant gift cards
- Nook, Kindle, or iPad for a Grand Prize giveaway
- Provide special recognition for star documenters
- Host a special “lunch and learn” education session to be led by the CDI physician advisor or the star documenter of the year!
- Feature CDI news on a centrally located bulletin board for everyone to see. Be sure to update the board at least monthly by providing CDI tips to include new ICD-10 information and also showcase the top documenters for the month. You can get really creative because I’ve never met a physician who didn’t like a bit of friendly competition.
- Contribute short articles or quick tips in any physician newsletters that go out regularly. Make it personal, feature various CDI staff at different times to allow the providers to get to know the CDI team members better.
- Work with your IT department to implement CDI tips as computer monitor screen savers to promote CDI awareness.
- Develop a CDI intranet site to allow the CDI team to provide access to electronic tip sheets, slide presentations, video teaching, etc. This is a convenient way for providing access to CDI information at the leisure of providers.
- Throughout the year, develop a poster series with CDI tips to be placed in various locations commonly used by providers.
As you can see, there are many ways to market your CDI program, but nothing will trump relationship building between your CDI team and the providers. The more time the CDI staff can spend on the patient care units, the more credibility the team will earn. Becoming a trustworthy resource to providers in their environment will only stand to have an invaluable benefit to the overall success of your CDI program!
Editor's note: Estes, at the time of this article's original release, was a CDI consultant with DCBA Inc., in Atlanta.