In CDS Snapshot, we're profiling CDSs from across Australia and ICD-10-AM countries. We'll get to hear how they got into the role, their triumphs, and challenges they've faced. CDSs contribute enormously to patient safety, quality of care, health service sustainability, and CDI as a whole, and we want them front and centre!
In this edition we’re talking to Dr Waleed Mohammed Al-Suhaymi, CDI Unit Supervisor for the Dammam Health Network in KSA. Drawing on his clinical experience, Dr Waleed shares how a nomination to complete CDI training revealed a critical gap between clinical care and documentation, inspiring him to gain advanced CDI credentials and champion initiatives that go beyond financial impact to improve quality, patient safety, and coding accuracy.
Tell us about your current role
Currently, I serve as a Clinical Documentation Improvement Unit Supervisor within the Dammam Health Network in Saudi Arabia, overseeing the unit's daily operations and monthly KPIs.
Assigning the team in their daily reviews, facilitating their communication with physicians, and other departments.
Additionally, conducting educational sessions for physicians, collaborating with departments on quality and patient safety initiatives.
What is your career background, and how has that contributed to your ability to work as a CDS?
I hold an MBBS Degree. I’m a GP who has experienced ER, Radiology, and Telemedicine practising.
My medical background allows me to understand disease processes, clinical reasoning, and treatment plans, aligning with CDI knowledge, which helped me identify documentation gaps, to improve documentation accuracy, and enhance compliance with national & international standards.
What made you apply for a CDS role?
Actually, I got nominated in 2022 by the hospital's Medical Director, who is our current CEO, for a 6-month CDI course under EHC in collaboration with AHIMA.
At that time, it wasn’t clear to me, but after I enrolled in the course and began practising in-hospital, I noticed a critical gap between clinical care and how it's represented in documentation.
Then in 2023, I thought I needed to strengthen myself in this field as KSA is adopting ICD-10-AM/ACS/ACHI and AR-DRGs, so I enrolled in the CDIA CDI course, obtained CCDS Level 1, and recently in 2025, obtained Level 2, beside RCM, Data Analysis & VBHC.
What does your typical day look like?
As CDI Unit Supervisor, it’s more administrative work, but I’m trying not to lose my sensitivity for reviews, audits, and reviewing clinical topics.
I also oversee query management, support my team with complex cases, provide them with education, and collaborate with physicians to clarify documentation.
I also monitor CDI KPIs and run daily analytics dashboards.
Education is a key part of my role; I conduct sessions for physicians and ensure our CDI practices align with national & international standards.
What was the moment CDI really “clicked” for you?
The moment CDI clicked for me was when I was working in the radiology department as an inpatient sonographer physician, providing MRP with documented reports.
At that time, I realized that clinical documentation is a crucial part of the patient journey, which is considered a tool of communication with other physicians that should be explained in a proper way to assess patient complexity level and support patient safety practices.
How would you describe your personal CDI philosophy?
Start with small, studied steps influenced by a plan; at the end, you will reach your goal.
You should accept that failure is part of the process, but success starts from your failure.
Also, take the risk of learning the aspects that surround the CDI.
Lastly, effective communication, insightful education sessions, and reporting to stakeholders are vital tasks for a successful CDI program.
Stick with the plan & trust the process.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a CDS?
The biggest challenge, besides resistance from clinicians, was that they thought our role focused only on the financial impact.
At that moment, we tailored our educational session, campaigns, and other CDI activities to cover all CDI goals with case-based education focusing on what CDI can influence other than financial impact.
What is the most memorable “win” you’ve had?
A memorable win for me was presenting a CDI case study to our hospital CEO, demonstrating how CDI can capture accurate patient complexity in pneumonia cases.
I showed how CDI can capture incomplete documentation, missed key diagnoses, medical justification, and review readmission cases, besides coding and DRG accuracy.
The presentation highlighted CDI’s clinical, qualitative, and financial impact.
It helped elevate the program’s visibility at the executive level.
If you could talk to yourselves 10 years ago and tell them you’re now a CDS, what do you think they would say?
Ten years ago, I saw myself purely in clinical practice. I would say to my past self my current role is bridging the gaps between clinical practice and documented data, so I hope you won't be surprised by my choice and to be proud of what I achieved.
Favourite DRG?
All DRGs are fair enough to me, but the one I worked on for the case study I presented to the CEO is my favourite, which gave us our biggest win. It’s E62B, which is one of our common DRGs in our hospital & in addition, it’s influenced easily if other additional diagnoses are documented.
Favourite additional diagnosis?
Electrolyte imbalances are my favourite additional diagnosis because they’re common, managed daily, but not clearly documented by clinical teams.
They’re supported by labs but not explicitly stated.
What are you excited about in the future of your role?
What excites me most is that CDI is becoming a crucial part of Saudi Arabia’s 2030 healthcare transformation. We live a truly innovative approach from multiple stakeholders under healthcare transformation, showing the importance of CDI, which can influence quality, data, and value-based care, improving clinical accuracy, financial sustainability, and national health reporting. Also, now with AI solutions on the board, assessing the CDI workflow can take CDI to another level of practice if effectively used.
Want to be the next CDS profiled on CDS Snapshot? Contact us at community@cdia.com.au.
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