Note from the ACDIS Director: CDI delivers huge value—you just need to show it

by Brian Murphy

The difference between a plateaued or declining CDI department and a highly successful, growing one is not necessarily as great as you might think. In fact, they’re often doing the same work, perhaps even achieving the same results.

The difference is that successful CDI leaders know that the job isn’t finished unless you consistently demonstrate your value.

Despite the rages of COVID-19, some organizations have weathered the storm, and even managed to hire CDI staff and expand in the midst of the pandemic. How did they do it? By being present, front-and-center, with hospital administration and repeatedly demonstrating their value with metrics that matter.

Communication is both an art and a science, but it can be learned. A recent ACDIS free resource, “Meaningful data, clear messaging, and successful relationships necessary ingredients to convey value of CDI” is a great resource to help you learn the skills and strategies of being an effective communicator of value. In this paper, we interviewed four high-performing CDI leaders from organizations across the country, including Sheri Blanchard, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, CCDS, CCS, corporate director of CDI for Orlando Health in Orlando, Florida, Deb Jones, MSN, RN, director of CDI for Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Emily Emmons, MSN, RN, CCDS, regional director of CDI for Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region in Oakland, California, and Leif Laframboise, BSN, RN, CCS, CCDS, manager of CDI for Yale New Haven Health System in New Haven, Connecticut.

This paper is a gold mine of valuable ideas. My favorite section is on p. 8, “what to avoid,” where leaders share some hard-won insight into communication mistakes to watch out for. Here’s another great insight from the paper:

Yale New Haven (Connecticut) Health System’s CDI team reports to two departments, including finance and the CMO. Like Jones, Leif Laframboise, BSN, RN, CCS, CCDS, manager of CDI for Yale New Haven Health System, tailors discussions for his audience. “We try to avoid that feeling of reporting structure and ‘this is a leader and we’re presenting,’ and we focus more on a discussion about what’s working and what’s not, and what impact we’re seeing.”

The end result of those personal conversations and demonstrated value has been program growth. When Laframboise started, he was one of 12 CDI specialists; the Yale New Haven Health System now boasts 55 CDI review staff and six leaders. That growth came from demonstrating to finance (in as much detail as they could bear) the ROI of a single FTE. It’s a long discussion that could be years in the making, and requires much relationship building along the way.

“That growth doesn’t come from nowhere; you really have to demonstrate value to be able to say that these positions are necessary,” he says. “It’s a PR campaign. When I show that value, it’s not going to be a rough guess, it’s a real calculation based on each individual’s performance and what it will cost us not to rehire. At the same time, there are going to be people who aren’t interested in the financial impacts.”

Check it out in full here. Happy reading!

For more resources on demonstrating your value, I recommend checking out this September 30 edition of the ACDIS Podcast, “Value of CDI: NYU Langone Case Study.” Like those high-performing organizations cited above, NYU Langone is another CDI program worth emulating. Led by the likes of Irina Zusman, RHIA, CCS, CCDS, and Chris Petrilli, MD, SFHM, NYU Langone has managed to hire, not reduce, CDI staff during the COVID-19 pandemic despite being in one of the hardest-hit areas in the country.

How are you communicating your value, or what do you think the CDI industry needs to better communicate its value as a whole? I’d love to hear from you. Hit me up at bmurphy@acdis.org.

Editor’s note: Murphy is the director for ACDIS. Contact him at bmurphy@acdis.org.