Note from the Associate Editorial Director: Case management/CDI relationships offer new ways to collaborate

by Melissa Varnavas

While the majority of CDI programs report to the director of HIM, a good number (27%, according to the 2010 CDI Program Benchmarking Report) fall under the supervision of the director of case management (CM). CDI programs that report to CM face a number of challenges but may also take advantage of the multiple opportunities such structures present, says Joann Agin, RHIT, regional director of data quality for Carondelet Health, St. Joseph Medical Center, in Kansas City, MO, and St. Mary’s Medical Center, in Blue Springs, MO.

Ann Giuli, BSN, MPH, CCDS, CDI specialist at the 305-bed Stamford (CT) Hospital, has worked under CM for the past four years. The director of CM supervises the facility’s CDI, CM, social work, and UR teams. No matter where the CDI program falls in the reporting structure, the roles and responsibilities of the staff must be well defined, Giuli says.

Although most experts agree that CDI, CM, and UR have distinctive roles to play in patient care as well as in meeting medical necessity and coding requirements, there is plenty of room for collaboration.

“CDI is connected to all these other roles,” says Gail B. Marini, MM, RN, CCS, LNC, CDI manager at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, MA. “It is like a Tiffany window; we are each a different part of this beautiful thing.”

Editor’s Note: ACDIS wishes its colleagues in case management a productive and happy National Case Management Week. For information, visit The Case Management Society of America or The American Case Management Association. The following excerpt is from the October 2011 edition of the CDI Journal. Varnavas is the associate editorial director of ACDIS. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org.