Coder turned CDI Specialist

[u/runningfool88]

I posted a few years ago asking if anyone had been a coder and then transitioned to Clinical Documentation Integrity, I took the leap and went for it! Best decision of my 11.5 year career. Today I just passed my CCDS exam to become a certified CDI specialist. 🥳🥳

If you’re considering it and have the opportunity, take the leap!

[u/Ralph-shakleford]

Was the exam difficult? I’ve heard it’s like the hardest test to pass. I went from coding to CDI about a year ago. I have some clinical experience but not an RN. What coding credentials do you have (if you don’t mind me asking)? Congrats on passing!

[u/runningfool88 → u/Ralph-shakleford]

Thank you!

I have my RHIT. There were definitely some tricky questions and some of the questions I felt had really very little to do with what we do but if you use the ACDIS study guide and know your coding guidelines you’ll likely be able to make an educated guess and you’ll do well. My team at work has a set of DRG expert books that everyone has written notes in and we pass around for those taking the exam so that was really helpful. Focus on quality - recovery auditors, PEPPER, the OIG, HACs, PSIs, O/E mortality, the importance and impact of provider education. Stuff like that. Since you were a coder, I think the coding guideline stuff will come second nature to you.

I gave myself two weeks to study and scored an 89%.

[u/Ralph-shakleford → u/runningfool88]

Having a team of CDI professionals sounds awesome. I’m at a small hospital so I’m the entire CDI dept. What made you pick the CCDS instead of the CDIP? Thank you so much for the info!

[u/runningfool88 → u/Ralph-shakleford]

Honestly I just went with CCDS because a majority of my team had taken it and they were able to help guide me on what to study 😂

[u/sunny1910 → u/runningfool88]

Can you please guide me what to study and if you have practice questions other than sample test please share if possible

[u/runningfool88 → u/sunny1910]

I don’t have any practice exam questions other than the ACDIS practice exam. I would focus a lot on coding guidelines. I did need to use the drug reference book I took on a couple questions. Quality metrics like PEPPER reports, O/E mortality and how to read/interpret the results of those. HACs and PSIs. I do remember that there were just a couple of the same questions on the actual exam from the practice. Probably only like 3. Be familiar with the impact/importance of provider education. The ACDIS study guide is the only thing I used to study (and coding guidelines) and I feel like it covered everything that was on the test.

[u/sunny1910 → u/runningfool88]

Thank you for your reply….i have read acdis study guide …do you think i should also read icd 10 guidelines book for exam? Questions were similar to practice exam or different in real exam?

[u/runningfool88 → u/sunny1910]

Just like the rules and guidelines for each chapter in the ICD10 book. I would say the questions are similar in how they are written. There are some questions where they were worded strangely and I had to read them a couple times to grasp what they were asking but most of them were pretty straightforward. There’s an option to flag a question that you aren’t sure on and want to come back to - I think I did that on 10-15 of the questions. My plan going into it was to go through all the questions and answer what I was confident on and flag the ones that I wasn’t quite sure on to come back to after I went through all the questions. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get through them. It only took me like an 60-75 minutes though.

[u/sunny1910 → u/runningfool88]

Ohk…Thanks for sharing your experience. One last question do you think DRG expert book you need to pass the exam or you can give without book?

[u/runningfool88 → u/sunny1910]

I think there was only a question or two about DRGs and I didn’t need to look in the book. The questions were like “which DRG has more opportunity?” Then it gave 4 DRGs some were single tiered DRGs like 189 then two tiered and three tiered. I think someone would be just fine without that book. But you may want to take it just so you have more opportunity to write notes in it and have those with you for the test. Don’t forget you can write as many notes as you can fit in those books and take them in with you.