Editor's note: To find out more about ACDIS, visit our feature story here.

This year's Association for Clinical Documentation Improvement Specailists (ACDIS) conference will be the birthday of the association's new credential, the certified clinical documentation specialist (CCDS). The first exam will be given in paper and pencil fashion the day after the conference, May 16. "It's a 120-question test that tests their coding knowledge, their knowledge of documentation requirements and the inpatient prospective payment system, the guidance that's out there, what little there is on physician queries, and also how to benchmark your program and to show your successful CDI program," ACDIS Executive Director Brian Murphy noted. "That's the big new change for ACDIS this year."

After the first exam is given, the exam will be available on computer at approximately 170 assessment centers across the country. Murphy said ACDIS already received approximately four dozen applications for the credential, and he's responded to more than 150 e-mails asking about the new credential. CDI specialists typically already have a collection of letters behind their names due to their former roles as nurses or HIM specialists, so they're used to the certification process, Murphy explained. "But there really isn't a credential that captures what they do, which is why we wanted to start it," he said. "And ever since we started ACDIS, the No. 1 question we received was, hey, when are you going to come out with a certification, so it was something we've been thinking about for a while."

ACDIS Advisory Board Member Bill Haik, MD, director of DRG Review Inc., Fort Walton, FL, called the certification "long overdue." He helped put the exam together. Murphy said the advisory board was extremely helpful in assembling the exam. "We've spent a good year developing the examination and coming up with some questions that are fair but rigorous and can test the knowledge base of these folks," Murphy said.

For more information on the new CCDS credential, click here.