More than half of CDI programs employ physician advisors, but those that do typically find their efforts ineffectual, according to the 2011 Physician Advisor Benchmarking Survey. More than 300 people responded to the survey, with nearly 60% indicating that their CDI program employed a physician advisor. Of those, 73% (178 individuals) indicated that their physician advisor spends five hours or less dedicated to CDI efforts and 54% described their advisor as either moderately effective or ineffective.
“It looks like physician advisors really are not part of the process right now,” says ACDIS Advisory Board member Trey La Charité, MD, physician advisor for CDI at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
