Note from the ACDIS Director: Stepping forward in Dallas

by Brian Murphy

Two and a half years.

On Monday a colleague of mine casually reminded me that, although we’ve run several ACDIS virtual events in the intervening time, our last in-person event was back in May 2019.

“It’s been two and a half years,” she noted.

I checked my math, and after registering some initial shock, realized she’s correct. Amazing what a pandemic can do to your best-laid plans.

So, our conference hosting skills might be a little rusty next week in Dallas. Please have patience. And, we all might be a little anxious about meeting and talking to real people, face-to-face again, after so many months apart (there is a good article on this phenomenon, along with some coping tips, on the website of the Cleveland Clinic).

The other reality is that organizational travel bans and budget cuts have reduced our attendance and made this year’s event smaller (I prefer terms like “cozier” or “more intimate,” or as Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith once said, our appeal is becoming more selective).

But, despite it all, we’re well-prepared for a great ACDIS reunion in the Lone Star State. Excitement is running high, and we’ve got an amazing team ready to deliver an event to remember.

If you are coming to Dallas next week, here is my five-point plan to ensure a wonderful conference experience.

1. Prepare today to ensure success next week. Review your itinerary. Take a look through the agenda. We’ll be sending out instructions on how to download our conference app. When you download it to your smartphone, peruse the agenda, pre-select the sessions you want to go to, and if you’re going with a colleague, consider splitting up so that you can cover two sessions at once, and compare notes. The early weather forecast puts Dallas in the upper 70s/low 80s, but conference rooms being what they are, bring something to warm you up, and suitable clothing for outside. Pack some business cards, too.
2. Support your colleagues. Our attendees are coming from across the country and work at different organizations. But CDI professionals all face similar challenges. Know that you’re in the company of brothers and sisters in arms, working together for a common goal. Support each other. Head into the exhibit hall and support our awesome sponsors and exhibitors who help make this event possible.
3. Celebrate being together. Again, it’s been two and a half years since our last conference, and since many of our attendees can’t come every year it will have been even longer for some. We’ve been through a lot since March 2020, and it’s time to celebrate being in each other’s company once again. We like to think of the ACDIS national conference as a family reunion. Greet your fellow attendees warmly! (But please do respect the boundaries and comfort levels of other attendees as well, which will be displayed by their lanyard color. You can read more about that here.)
4. Learn from one another. We’ve got four tracks of education running at all times, with sessions to meet the needs of CDI professionals at all levels. We have dedicated clinical and coding education, management and professional development sessions, quality and regulatory concerns, and innovation and expansion ideas to keep your department growing. But the time in between sessions is when a lot of the learning truly occurs. Learn from our presenters, but also make the effort to network and learn from your fellow attendees.
5. Have fun. We have built some fun into the agenda, including an opening night networking reception with giveaways and prizes, and a scavenger hunt. You can post pictures and network in our conference app. We’re also in a cool location. Dallas is an up-and-coming city with plenty of restaurants and sight-seeing. We covered many of these in a recent CDI Strategies article. Get out and about and have some fun. That’s also what conferences are all about.

For those that are joining us next week, thank you. I appreciate it, more than you know. I’ll be there, the ACDIS team will be there, and we look forward to the reunion, and some great conversations.

For those who cannot come, we understand completely, and we hope to see you in Orlando in May 2022. You can also purchase tickets to our Next Steps: ACDIS Encore virtual event, which will be held online November 17-19. (Note that if you are attending the 2021 event next week, you’re automatically registered for the virtual event too. Think of it like a fifth track.)

I believe the best days of the CDI profession are yet to come. Together we can meet the challenges and solve the problems presented by evolving payment systems, audits, fragmented technologies, and overburdened physicians. The CDI profession has gone through amazing transformations and experienced huge successes, and you’ll get to hear many of these stories in Dallas.

In summary, thank you for stepping forward with us, both next week and in the days and years to come.

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