Date of Conferral

12-15-2025

Date of Award

December 2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Dr. Mark Wells

Abstract

The doctoral project investigates the impact of education on Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) nurses in enhancing the accuracy and quality of clinical documentation within healthcare organizations. Clinical documentation plays a crucial role in accurately reflecting patient care and is essential for capturing proper diagnoses, coding, and reimbursement. In contrast, inaccurate or incomplete documentation can lead to misdiagnoses, poor patient outcomes, and financial deficits. Due to frequent updates in clinical guidelines and coding standards, CDI professionals require continuous, specialized training to stay informed with ever-changing medical terminology, disease processes, and coding regulations. By enhancing the CDI education, the aim is to improve the quality of clinical documentation, reduce diagnostic errors, and facilitate accurate coding practices. Through pre- and post-education reviews of claim-based data (CBD), the project assesses the effectiveness of enhanced training on diagnosis accuracy, query writing, and overall documentation quality. The goal is to measure how improved education affects the quality of queries, leading to more accurate diagnosis capture and optimal patient care quality. The project’s findings include a post-education increase in clinician agreement rates and in the accuracy of diagnostic documentation through effective query writing. Through CDI education, query writing becomes more effective in providing documentation integrity and coding of valid diagnoses. Ongoing education for CDI professionals is essential to maintaining high-quality, accurate clinical documentation, reducing misdiagnosis rates, improving patient safety, and optimizing the healthcare system performance, ultimately supporting better health outcomes.

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