ACDIS Conference News

ACDIS 2014: A Vendor’s Observations and Takeaways

By Kerry Martin

The seventh annual Association for Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS) conference in Las Vegas has come to pass, leaving VitalWare excited to be in the clinical documentation improvement (CDI) arena and ready to further help organizations with improving or jump-starting their CDI programs.

As a first-time exhibitor and second-time attendee, the company thought it knew what to expect, but our attendees were blown away. Even with the delay in ICD-10, more than 1,200 attendees were engaged and focused on the CDI educational sessions and vendor resources offered at this year’s conference. Networking opportunities were abundant and, at times, VitalWare staff was overwhelmed by the number of attendees who wanted to share their story with us. What we found both confirmed what we already knew and gave us a better understanding of the individual needs across the health care community. Below are just a few of our observations:

1. There’s an understanding that CDI is the nucleus of appropriate reimbursement under ICD-9 and a successful transition to ICD-10. Attendees with whom VitalWare spoke agreed that the delay in the ICD-10 implementation will allow them to continue their work on improving clinical documentation in their organizations, further engaging physician buy-in regarding the importance of complete and accurate documentation to realize appropriate reimbursement. There were several educational sessions focused on developing stronger relationships with physicians, which will, in turn, promote opening the lines of communication for documentation improvement.

2. Next-generation, innovative technologies are needed. Of the more than 400 clinical documentation specialists with whom VitalWare spoke during the conference, approximately 50% indicated that they currently have CDI technologies either in the implementation process or in place in their organizations. However, the majority are frustrated by the long implementation times and the lack of functionality of those technologies.

According to attendees, some of the technologies in place today have taken more than a year to fully implement, leading to delays in the operationalizing of CDI programs and waning physician buy-in.

Functionality of current technologies also is lacking, according to many conference participants. Frustration comes from the inability to query on diagnosis or procedures outside of the templates built into their technologies. ICD-10 could constitute a query for any diagnosis, and most solutions on the market today cannot handle outside-the-box queries.

CDI initiatives are expanding to the outpatient arena, and we learned during the conference there is a real need for CDI technologies to expand with that need.

3. Technologies are needed today to help physicians document completely and accurately whether we’re coding in ICD-9 or ICD-10. For physicians to meet the additional documentation requirements of ICD-10, it’s important for them to have technologies available today to assist in complete and accurate documentation. Physician time is at a premium, and the estimation of productivity loss brought on by ICD-10 is a concern to providers across the industry.

Clinical documentation specialists act as a bridge to fill the gap that exists in today’s documentation. Providing physician documentation technologies on the front end, integrated with or working in conjunction with CDI technologies, will improve CDI success and make ICD-10 a nonevent for physicians. Implementing CDI solutions that cut into productivity or increase queries will result in amplified frustration, potentially putting an organization’s CDI program at risk.

The 2014 ACDIS conference was a success for VitalWare, and we’re excited to have had the opportunity to network and discuss the needs of the CDI community, develop relationships with organizations across the health care provider continuum, and further build partnerships with numerous vendors.

— Kerry Martin is president and CEO of VitalWare.