Note from the Associate Editorial Director: What’s so special about ACDIS?
By Melissa Varnavas
In short, the membership. There are more than 5,500 ACDIS members now as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. That’s the size of a city. Sure, it’s not a large city but it’s definitely a community. It’s a community that’s chosen to live together and work together and ensure that its neighbors succeed. And that’s an amazing and special thing to be a part of in this day and age.
But it’s been that way since the start of the organization. Back then everyone was scrambling to figure out the best way to do this job. Back then everyone was looking for the best clinical indicators to help win their physicians over. Back then everyone was struggling to find their niche within the hospital hierarchy of department reporting structure. So everyone shared. Everyone shared just about everything they possibly could.
They shared their time, first and foremost, in serving on a think tank and then an advisory committee and then becoming an advisory board for the fledgling association. They met regularly to design the shape and scope of the organization and dedicated themselves to seeing the project through to fruition.
Many of those founding board and original ACDIS members continue to be instrumental in the ongoing strength and progress of the CDI profession—advocating for CDI in their systems, promoting value of CDI within ancillary departments, mentoring new CDI professionals, and even letting their actual geographic communities know about the worth of CDI program efforts to the patients they serve. For example, the CDI team at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg, New York, notified their local newspaper about CDI Week this year!
When ACDIS Director Brian Murphy asked members to share their success stories, they did. Even back then (in only our second edition of the CDI Journal) Indianapolis-based Clarian Health CDI manager at the time Lena Wilson, RHIA, CCS, volunteered her experience in pushing the program’s focus beyond CC/MCC capture and focus on moving the case mix index and into more severity and quality of care capture.
And ACDIS members openly discussed via the ACDIS Forum (then CDI Talk listserv) strategies for dealing with non-compliant physicians and offered up their hard work—in the form of CDI newsletters, policies, tip cards, and queries—as samples that others could take, adapt, and use as their own.
I am always astounded at the realization of how many ACDIS members I know personally and how much of their CDI story we’ve shared together. Some have worked with me to start local chapters, others have been featured in articles, others have helped develop books that have become staple texts for professionals across the country.
I could go on and on but hopefully will as we step out from our revelry and reminiscences and forward into all the continuing challenges and opportunities facing us. It is an exciting time to be a part of this amazing profession. I look forward to many more years of comradery, growth, and experiences with all of you. You are ACDIS and you are amazing. You are what makes this organization strong, unique, and special. Thank you for these past 10 years.
Editor’s note: Varnavas is the Associate Editorial Director for ACDIS and has worked with its parent company for nearly 12 years. Contact her at mvarnavas@acdis.org.