“Determining an adequate number of staff and ensuring acceptable levels of productivity for a CDI department can be overwhelming,” according to the CDI Roadmap. The overwhelming part typically comes during the implementation stage. Here, facilities need to hone the fledgling program’s...Read More »
After anecdotes that electronic health records (EHR) cause upcoding, Julia Adler-Milstein of the University of Michigan and Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health decided to delve into the data to see if it was true. Their...Read More »
Hospitals hired nearly 13,000 more people in March than February and about 3,000 more people than a year ago, according to reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.08% in March to a...Read More »
As hospital and health system finance leaders look for ways to enhance revenue in an era of shrinking margins, many turn their attention to their organization's case mix index (CMI). A higher CMI means more reimbursement dollars for providing care because it indicates that a hospital is treating...Read More »
$500,000. That’s what facilities expect as their CDI programs’ annual return on investment (ROI), according to 58% of more than 1,660 respondents to a recent ACDIS website poll. When pressed for their opinion regarding the results,...Read More »
I have found that a healthy skepticism needs to be applied within the realm of clinical documentation integrity. In fact, I am thinking of hanging “Caveat Emptor” (Latin for “buyer beware”) sign over my desk! Read More »
A new position paper written by the ACDIS Advisory Board (see the Position Paper section of the website) seeks to clearly define the CDI specialist’s role and establish professional standards for implementing new programs, redefining an existing department, or hiring new staff members.
There is no doubt about it—CDI specialists will be taking on more work and a greater complexity related to that work in 2014 due to the implementation of ICD-10. The question for many CDI managers around the country is: How do I keep my staff intact, given that they’re facing a greater workload...Read More »