Clinical documentation is at the core of every patient encounter. In order to be meaningful, the documentation must be clear, consistent, complete, precise, reliable, timely, and legible to accurately reflect the patient’s disease burden and scope of services provided.
Successful clinical documentation integrity (CDI) programs facilitate the accurate representation of a patient’s clinical status that translates into coded data. Coded data is then translated into quality reporting, physician report cards, reimbursement, public health data, disease tracking and trending, and medical research.
The convergence of clinical care, documentation, and coding processes is vital to appropriate reimbursement, accurate quality scores, and informed decision-making to support high-quality patient care. To that end, CDI has a direct impact on patient care by providing information to all members of the care team as well as those who may be treating the patient at a later date.
AHIMA is committed to advancing CDI by providing education and training, certification (CDIP® credential), and other valuable resources to CDI professionals. Whether you are new to CDI, transitioning from a coding or clinical background, or an experienced CDI professional, AHIMA provides education and resources to support your lifelong learning and continued advancement.
18 lessons | 26 CEUs
The Self-Paced CDI Inpatient-Outpatient Academy is a comprehensive series of 18 lessons that cover the best practices of CDI.
18 CEUs and CNEs
eBook | First Edition
Learn the fundamentals of clinical documentation, how to implement a CDI program, and how to grow and refine an existing program.
Hardcover | First Edition
This book is for experienced CDI professionals to test their knowledge regarding high-quality documentation and prepare to sit for AHIMA's CDIP exam.
Hardcover | First Edition
This is an all-inclusive guide to establishing and enhancing CDI programs for the outpatient and professional fee setting.
10 webinars | 30 min each | 0.5 CEUS each
These 30-minute on-demand presentations focus on the hot topics impacting clinical documentation integrity and are presented by industry experts.
21 webinars | 29 CEUs total
This course series includes 21 webinars that provides a comprehensive educational approach to CDI based on body systems and diagnostic categories.
1 CEU
Successful CDIPs should have a deep level of clinical knowledge in analyzing patient health records to provide assurance about the captured data from the physician and the coder to ensure accuracy in providing quality patient care.
Learn best practices for topics such as denials prevention and management as well as the art and science of CDI.
Be prepared to handle any situation in the workplace with toolkits covering topics such as disaster planning, breach management, and telemedicine.
A compliant query process is an essential element of a CDI program. AHIMA has developed a query template library that includes more than 140 templates covering documentation needs in both inpatient and outpatient settings.