Note from the Associate Editorial Director: First CDI Journal of 2023 takes us back to basics

by Linnea Archibald

I can’t be the only one who gets the urge to totally reinvent parts of my life at the beginning of a new year. Something about an empty 12-month calendar stretched before me invites dreams of new hobbies, healthier habits, and the like. As I’ve said in past notes, I am a person who loves planning, relishes the structure of a calendar and to-do list, and tends to build impossible-to-maintain systems in an attempt to form new routines.

Often, though, new plans come at the expense of the systems and habits we already have in place. It serves no one to build a novel routine, habit, or process while abandoning one that’s already working well. Before you build a system that will supposedly solve all your problems, I would like to invite you to revisit the systems that are already in place, see how they’re serving you and your work, and examine how you might make them better in the new year.

For the January/February 2023 edition of the CDI Journal, we wanted to take some time to guide you through the process of reevaluating and revisiting the basics you likely learned at the beginning of your CDI career. Yes, this will be review for some of you, but it may also illuminate ways for you to polish the “basics” of your program. 

In this edition’s pages, readers will learn about:

• Breaking into CDI
• Returning to CDI fundamentals with clinical validation
• CDI quality specialists’ roles (both in a case study and guest column!)
• Coding procedures
• Competencies for CDI staff
• Establishing limits for certain diagnoses
• Great leadership qualities
• Evidence-based productivity metrics
• Developing compliant query templates
• Cultivating emotional intelligence
• Conveying the “why” of CDI to providers

This edition of course also includes our regular Meet a Member feature to offer advice directly from a CDI professional in the ACDIS community.

The ACDIS team hopes you enjoy this latest edition and find something helpful within its pages. The March/April edition of the Journal will be focused on unconventional settings, expansion, and CDI opportunities. If you’d like to contribute an article or have a topic idea to share, please feel free to reach out.  

Happy New Year! 

Editor’s note: Archibald is the associate editorial director for ACDIS. Contact her at larchibald@acdis.org