Clinical Documentation Integrity 2023
Who Is Successfully Partnering with Customers to Drive Efficiency and Outcomes?

Nuance stands out to customers (mostly smaller organizations) for the outcomes driven by the analytics package and for the system’s deep insights and visibility into data and performance. Customers report timely problem resolution, noting that Nuance proactively reaches out to update them on known issues. Respondents feel that the analytics platform’s complexity sometimes makes it difficult to use. For Iodine Software, customers say the machine learning and AI capabilities drive consistent product improvements and lead to increased charge capture and billing. 3M offers two CDI products measured in this report—MModal CDI Collaborate and 360 Encompass CDI. Customers, especially those of 360 Encompass CDI, tend to be large organizations. 3M is widely praised by respondents for 3M MModal CDI Collaborate’s AI and NLP capabilities, though they note sometimes having to manually input data due to integration issues with external systems (e.g., an external EMR). 3M 360 Encompass CDI customers stay because of 3M’s robust ecosystem and CDI offerings, citing that lately 3M has done a much better job of explaining product features that could be utilized to improve efficiency. However, respondents often experience buggy upgrades, leading to system downtime. Optum respondents appreciate the consistent functionality across CDI/CAC products that simplify workflows for end users. However, over half of interviewed customers report EMR integration issues, and a third mention poor prioritization—both of which lead to more manual processes.

Iodine Software first offered a prioritization tool and then expanded it into a full suite product a few years ago. Often referring to Iodine as a partner, customers feel the vendor cares about their success and note Iodine’s ability to build and maintain strong customer relationships. AGS Health’s small customer base was acquired from EZDI in 2021. The limited number of interviewed customers praise their account managers’ attentiveness and quick responses to any concerns. Respondents also appreciate AGS Health’s drive to modify the system based on customer requests. Dolbey customers are pleased with how the vendor works to provide immediate feedback, resolve issues, and consistently take customer suggestions to improve the product. End users note Fusion CDI is easy to use and requires minimal training. For 3M, relationships are not generally seen as a strength, though many customers highlight significant improvements as their account managers have worked to reach out more proactively, push through needed changes, and provide higher levels of strategic guidance. However, customers feel their account managers are limited in the amount of change they can effect, so problem resolution remains an outstanding issue. Optum customers widely report being satisfied with their account representatives’ ability to solve problems and provide continual training. However, issues with timely problem resolution persist; respondents note slow resolution for open tickets as well as slow response times for support requests.

Poor reporting is a common complaint of CDI users—64% of respondents express frustration with the reporting capabilities of their CDI solution. When reporting feels insufficient, users are less likely to feel their solution has the functionality necessary for success. Nuance customers rate the accuracy of the reporting high and feel they have flexibility in creating reports and displaying data. Users would like Nuance to fill the gaps that exist around reporting for more niche data. Customers feel that Iodine Software’s current reporting functionality is strong but limited in scope; respondents would like Iodine to expand the reporting capability into broader use cases, such as forecasting. Reporting has been an ongoing pain point for Dolbey customers, mostly resulting from inaccurate data. Though respondents note Dolbey is aware of and working to resolve the reporting issues, they would like to see more proactivity from the vendor. Organizations using 3M 360 Encompass CDI also feel that reporting is their biggest problem, with particular issues around financial reporting. A few have had to bring in additional vendors to get the reporting they need out of the system.