Remote but closer to home than ever: Kim Higgins on the rewards of at-home CDI work

Most people envision and expect careers to follow a straight line, gently upwards and to the right, in one direction. Once you’ve found the type of work you want to do you get promoted as high as fortune and talents will take you, until the day you retire. Kim Higgins is an exception to this rule. A year ago Kim was serving as the interim CDI director for AdventHealth West Florida Division, a massive health system (West Florida has 13 hospitals alone). Her responsibilities included day-to-day management but also helping build a case for new staff, demonstrating ROI, and growing the department. That was in 2022, not so very long ago. Today you’ll find her working as a remote CDI specialist reviewer for Valley Medical Center, a small, standalone acute care hospital located in Washington State. And she couldn’t be happier, because it was the right move for her. We get into the reasons why and much more on this episode of Off the Record. On this show we cover: Her motivations and reasons for leaving leadership A day in the life of a remote CDI professional Impacts on her personal and professional life, pro and con West coast vs. Southeast chart reviews—there is a difference Kim’s non-traditional career path into CDI (Cub Cadet?) Discovering what really matters in work, and life