100% Remote CDI

denise.worcester@mainegeneral.org

In a climate where office real estate is at a premium, remote CDI has come more to the forefront. Would anyone be willing to share their strategies for physician interaction/education and what they have done to create a successful fully remote program? Any pitfalls? How does the orientation of new employees work happen? Appreciate any suggestions.

lprescott1

i have found in my travels that those programs with a 100% remote staff often have a designated onsite role of physician educator who's primary function is provider education/ engagement.

denise.worcester@mainegeneral.org

We are finding in our facility that physicians do not like to be interrupted during their normal daily workflow. With that in mind as well as the real estate consideration, we are looking for strategies such as perhaps making appointments, being put on meeting agendas, etc. This would require a CDI presence during those designated times, but otherwise perhaps remote. Just reaching out to see if anyone has successfully accomplished this. Unfortunately our physician advisor is shared with UR and is mostly offsite as well. Thank you for the insight.

cddiven@yahoo.com

I was part of a program that successfully accomplished this. Our CDI team is 100% remote with Physician education as the priority.  The team is service based. Each CDIS caters to the educational requests and needs of their individual service. Each CDIS is required to come in house for staff meetings, Physician education sessions and mortality/special project meetings. There is flex scheduling and when the CDIS is not in house they are 100% remote. Listen to ACDIS radio archives dated March 14th of 2018 for the full description of how this was implemented at WVU Medicine. Feel free to respond with further questions.
You can email me :  cddiven@yahoo.com

denise.worcester@mainegeneral.org

Thank you so much! I will listen to the radio archive.

amanda.flores

I just found the blog section. I would like to say that my staff all transitioned to remote work last year. Their performance is measured by quarterly feedback data-driven one on one sessions. We have weekly Skype meetings that they must attend a percentage every year to stay abreast of things that are going on. In our weekly meetings, we go over DRG reconciliation cases and both clinical and coding education sessions that are scheduled to allow for questions to be answered in real time. Through our monthly reporting to our leadership committee, it has been identified that my staff is actually more productive in their remote setting than they were in the office. We have also seen overall improvement with our Case Mix index over the past year. 

mitchellan

amanda.flores said:

I just found the blog section. I would like to say that my staff all transitioned to remote work last year. Their performance is measured by quarterly feedback data-driven one on one sessions. We have weekly Skype meetings that they must attend a percentage every year to stay abreast of things that are going on. In our weekly meetings, we go over DRG reconciliation cases and both clinical and coding education sessions that are scheduled to allow for questions to be answered in real time. Through our monthly reporting to our leadership committee, it has been identified that my staff is actually more productive in their remote setting than they were in the office. We have also seen overall improvement with our Case Mix index over the past year. 

Hi Amanda, 

This is very helpful and a great point to take back to the C-Suite and Senior Leadership of many organizations.  I think statistics and research show that employees (those who are engaged and dedicated especially) are much more productive at home when the work can be completed in the home environment, not requiring the office setting.  Thank you for sharing! 

Angelica N.

denise.worcester@mainegeneral.org

Hi Amanda,

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with remote CDI. I am glad you have seen such success! Do you employee anyone from out-of-state now that you are 100% remote?

Denise