ACDIS celebrates CDI professionals annually with a full week of recognition for the profession through activities, education, and fun. This year’s CDI Week theme is CDI and the Case of the Missing Documentation, commemorating how all CDI professionals are detectives in the medical field dedicated to uncovering and supporting the truth in every case of clinical documentation they review.

Each year leading up to CDI Week, ACDIS conducts a survey to gain insight into the state of the industry. This year’s survey included questions about provider and staff engagement, productivity, denials management, outpatient and risk adjustment, and pediatrics and OB/GYN. It marks the 15th annual CDI Week Industry Survey, continuing a decade and a half of industry evaluation.

“The ACDIS CDI Week Industry Survey provides a comprehensive snapshot of the CDI landscape each year, allowing both individual professionals and entire programs to benchmark themselves against national trends,” says Sydni Johnson, BSN, RN, CCDS, director of education for clinical documentation and denials at Banner Health in Tucson, Arizona. “For individual CDI specialists, it offers perspective on how their own experiences compare to those of their peers across the country. This can validate their efforts, highlight areas for growth, and inspire new approaches based on the data shared by others. For CDI programs, the survey can serve as a valuable tool for strategic planning. The aggregated data on staffing, physician engagement, credentialing, and technology adoption can be utilized by leaders to help identify gaps or opportunities for improvement. Over time, trends revealed by the survey—such as shifts in staffing levels, evolving roles of physician advisors, or emerging productivity metrics—can inform decisions about resource allocation, process updates, and staff development.”

This year, 783 respondents took part in the survey. Although this report will not discuss every survey question in detail, readers can examine all the responses in table format beginning on p. 13.

Survey respondents were first asked their title and role to understand the field’s current demographics and scope of positions. As in previous years, the role of CDI specialist was chosen by the largest number of respondents (29.44%), though this percentage has seen a general decline over the last five years, perhaps because of an increase of survey respondents who are in specialized and leadership positions. CDI manager was the next most popular title chosen (21.85%), followed by CDI director (15.60%). For the first time, CDI educator surpassed other leadership roles (such as CDI lead or supervisor) by a small margin, chosen by 5.29% of respondents. As far as organization type, the percentage of respondents working in an acute care hospital continues to see a decrease year-over-year, chosen by 29.72% of respondents in 2025 in comparison to 36.13% in 2024. On the other hand, the percentage that are part of a healthcare system with multiple sites rose from 33.16% in 2024 to 38.26% in 2025, which may indicate an increased diversity of organizations offering CDI roles as well as the broader trend of stand-alone hospitals consolidating into healthcare systems. (See Figures 1 and 2.)

When asked about time in their current role, 62.28% of respondents said between zero and five years, and another 23.33% said between six and 10 years. These numbers indicate a slightly larger amount of CDI professionals in new roles compared to 2024. When asked about their time in the profession overall, however, the percentage of respondents who said between 11 and 20 years saw a small increase from 36.65% in 2024 to 40.30% in 2025, indicating that longevity in the profession is common. (See Figure 3.)

The number of facility beds reported by respondents remains stable year-over-year, with 26.05% of respondents reporting their facility has up to 400 beds, 32.56% reporting between 401 and 1,000 beds, and 17.10% reporting more than 1,000 beds. (See Figure 4.)

When asked for the total number of beds in their health system, numbers were generally consistent with previous years; the most common number of beds was 3,000 or more, chosen by 26.59% of respondents. Over 37% of respondents said that, on average, their organization saw 10,000 discharges annually. (See Figures 5 and 6.)

As the CDI profession grows, we thought it prudent to begin tracking the size of CDI departments as well. The majority of respondents said that their organization currently employs between 11 and 50 full-time-equivalent CDI staff (48.3%), though the most commonly selected answer by a narrow margin was 71 or more staff (16.96%). (See Figure 7.)