By:
Sree Lakshmi, MBA, CDIP, CCS, AHIMA-Approved Revenue Cycle Trainer, AVP of Inpatient Coding & CDI,
Gayathri Natarajan, VP of Coding Operations, and
Manish Jain, SVP of Marketing & Strategy
Clinical documentation improvement sounds like a silver bullet for effective revenue cycle management. Seemingly an easy solution for all RCM woes of healthcare providers, but it demands executive willpower, systemic transformation (in many cases), and, most importantly, the cooperation of physicians, nurses, coders, and other healthcare personnel. Yet it is undoubtedly a high-impact initiative because as much as 91% of healthcare organizations have reported that CDI programs positively impacted their quality measures.
Challenges in implementing CDI programs
The advantages are clear, but CDI programs in hospitals tend to face numerous obstacles that hold them back, such as inadequate resources, challenges in proper staffing, inherent resistance to change, misinterpreting it as an administrative burden, and a failure to secure the support of key stakeholders. The lack of a standard universal approach further complicates this.
Role of Education of Clinical Staff and Physician Champions
Clinical staff has a huge role to play in CDI programs, which means it is essential for any organization to engage them effectively. A key step is educating the clinical staff - providing educational materials to help them understand the benefits of CDI. Identifying physician champions to advocate for the CDI program, providing regular feedback on clinical documentation accuracy and the program's impact, and using data analytics to identify areas for improvement.
This whitepaper details how a healthcare organization can achieve this and the other key stepping stones towards effective CDI programs. The value is highly visible and measurable in the form of improved documentation accuracy, higher revenue, reduced cost of claims, better regulatory compliance, and so much more.
