CDI specialists are in general optimistic about the growth of the profession, but not necessarily within their own departments; aren’t involved all that much in RAC defense; use CMI as their primary metric for success; and have found electronic queries beneficial, even though their hospitals are slow to adopt the new technology.

Most of the results were as predicted for Clinical Documentation Improvement Week survey advisor Elizabeth Kennedy, RN, BS, CCS, CCDS, associate director for the documentation improvement program at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY. But others came as a surprise. Following is an overview of the survey results and Kennedy’s commentary.