You’ve probably heard the mantra that, in order to grow personally and professionally, you need to “continually improve.” This is often accompanied by the advice, “get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” These pat aphorisms are often presented as memes on...Read More »
by Melissa Varnavas
September comes bittersweetly for those unwilling to give up on idealized days spent lounging by the stream, ocean, or pool. Certainly, by mid-August, for kids cramming to finish their summer reading projects and begrudgingly relinquishing their super-soakers,...Read More »
By Robin Jones, RN, BSN, MHA/Ed, CCDS
In 2004, when I entered the world of CDI, I can remember sitting in a classroom for one week learning about diagnosis related groups (DRG), complications and comorbid conditions (CC) and major CCs (MCC), case-mix index (CMI), severity of...Read More »
The CDI field is a heterogeneous one—filled with professionals from a wide range of healthcare backgrounds. According to the 2018 CDI Week Industry Survey, 93% of CDI programs employ nurses, 37% employ coding/HIM professionals, 35% employ physicians as advisors or champions, 15% employ foreign-...Read More »
By Angela Maxfield, RN, CCDS
Steve Jobs once said that “the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” How appropriate. But how often do we really think of how scary it is to change jobs? People change for different...Read More »
By Allen Frady, RN-BSN, CCDS, CCS, CRC
CDI has a steep learning curve. Sometimes it can take several months, if not longer, to start seeing good documentation reviews from a new CDI specialist. The initial days of being a CDI specialist are almost exclusively task-focused. Before...Read More »
“I was truly speechless for the first time in my life,” said 2017 CDI Professional of the Year winner Rita Fields, BSN, RN, CCDS. “I couldn’t believe that I was going to be receiving this wonderful honor. Every time I tried to speak, it came out as a squeak from trying to hold...Read More »
By Penny Richards
Congratulations on earning your CCDS! Now that you have it, you need to develop a plan to keep it. That involves earning continuing education credits (CEU) and submitting proof of the required number every two years.