Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) is a diverse field, involving multiple disciplines both directly in a CDI professional role and indirectly through interdepartmental collaboration. That’s what the 2018 CDI Week theme is all about—“CDI Mosaic: Creating a Collaborative Portrait.” This year’s Industry Overview Survey bore out that theme in data as well, showing more expansion, more collaboration, and more diversity than in years past.

“I was really surprised with some of the results because of just how broad this industry is—how many different job descriptions are in a department, how many different types of people are doing CDI,” says Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCS, the manager of CDI at Penn State Health in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a member of the ACDIS Advisory Board, and the 2018 CDI Week Industry Survey advisor.

Each year, ACDIS asks its members and others in the CDI world to weigh in on the state of the CDI profession. This year’s survey garnered 605 respondents, up from last year’s 410.

The CDI field is changing rapidly, and it involves players from a whole spectrum of professional backgrounds, whether they’re working directly in the CDI department or not. This year’s survey results show a snapshot of a shifting industry.

Although this report will not discuss every survey question in detail, responses to all of this year’s questions begin on p. 10.

The respondents represented a number of positions and titles, with CDI specialists the most common at roughly 57%, followed by CDI managers/directors at 21%, and CDI leads at 6% (see Figure 1). Most, more than 85%, work in traditional, short-term acute care facilities (see Figure 2)—a continuing trend that’s illustrated through several years of CDI salary survey analysis.

This year’s survey respondents spanned several experience levels. The best-represented group was CDI professionals with between three and five years of experience in their current role (33.88%). Next were those with more than 10 years of experience (23.47%), those with six to eight years of experience (18.02%), those with zero to two years of experience (16.53%), and finally, those with nine to 10 years of experience (8.10%). (See Figure 3.)

Outside of the demographic trends, the survey also gives insight into staffing trends—from required credentials to the number of staff members in relation to a facility’s size. The results additionally show a great diversification into other healthcare arenas, such as outpatient services and more.