Staffing
Good Afternoon,
I was wondering if anyone adjusts their staffing to the census? We are looking at flexing our CDI staff to take off if our census drops. I am looking for a formula or some guidance on how to staff the CDI department based on the daily census.
I was wondering if anyone adjusts their staffing to the census? We are looking at flexing our CDI staff to take off if our census drops. I am looking for a formula or some guidance on how to staff the CDI department based on the daily census.
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Agree with Laurie. When our census drops the staff are working ahead preparing the next round of provider education, tip cards, posters, showing more visibility on the units to answer MD questions, etc.. Do you also review HAC, PSI, mortalities? I have been the sole person doing mortality reviews so I am about to teach several staff how to assist me with that. We are a two hospital system, also working on cross coverage between the facilities. We also take this opportunity to do self education and have educational meetings with coding, We are salaried so there's really not an option to send people home based on census.
is there a standard or benchmark for the percentage of CDI staff allowed off per day or per week?
thank you!
Alicia, one recommendation you may consider is to review accounts retrospectively if there was not an initial review by CDI. Our team also performs second level reviews for the following:
The above recommendations would enable you to staff consistently through the week and avoid weekends. We have tried staffing on weekends only to find it to be a job dissatisfier. Our staff is salary which allows for the team to flex hours to ensure work life balance is satisfied. I do not recommend staffing based on census as consistency is the key to relationship building with providers.
Are you offering educational sessions over breakfast/ lunch for providers, Rounding with providers and ancillary support teams, meet and greet sessions, CDI orientations for new practitioners? We require our team to obtain a specified amount of CDI education each month which can be completed when there is down time.
The hours spent away from traditional review are captured for various reasons such as: compliance, hours of CDI education, hours of practitioner education on a monthly basis . It is important to educate up front vs catch it during a review or on the back end. The fruits of your labor will encourage providers to document appropriately and reduce queries. We strive to reduce queries as it is time consuming to craft queries and providers would rather not receive queries. Education and relationship building is the key to a successful CDI program.
I am happy to share any resources you may need to show educational growth.
Regards,
Tracy Boldt
Essentia Health System
Does anyone have experince with a CDI float pool across an organization with multiple hospitals? If so would you be willing to share policy related to the CDI float pool and experinces you encountered- positive and negative?
Thank you in advance
Beth Khayyat
Providence Health