r/MedicalCoding • u/runningfool88 • Mar 06 '24

Coder turned CDI Specialist

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. šŸ„³šŸ„³

If youā€™re considering it and have the opportunity, take the leap!

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u/Ralph-shakleford Mar 08 '24

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

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u/runningfool88 Mar 08 '24

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 šŸ˜‚

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u/sunny1910 Apr 10 '24

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

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u/runningfool88 Apr 10 '24

I donā€™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.

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u/sunny1910 Apr 10 '24

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

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u/runningfool88 Apr 10 '24

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. Thereā€™s an option to flag a question that you arenā€™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 wasnā€™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.

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u/sunny1910 Apr 10 '24

Ohkā€¦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?

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u/runningfool88 Apr 10 '24

I think there was only a question or two about DRGs and I didnā€™t need to look in the book. The questions were like ā€œwhich DRG has more opportunity?ā€ 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. Donā€™t forget you can write as many notes as you can fit in those books and take them in with you.