American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

In today’s society, the accuracy of health information, the availability of health records, and the professional resources in which one live are vital in decision making for health conditions. Meaningful Use (MU) is a program developed by CMS Medicare and Medicaid that awards, incentives in the health care industry in which the certified electronic health records (EHRs) are used to improve patient care (Practice Fusion, 2016). These incentives are for professionals that care for about 30% of their adult patient volume or 20% of their children’s volume for Medicare and Medicaid patients (CMS, 2016). In addition, adjusting from paper charts to electronic charts of patient’s information is beneficial for MU. Furthermore, the American

Healthcare has evolved over past decades and continues to remain an issue of concern for individuals everywhere. Effectively managing data is important to improving the performance in the health care system. Accumulating, evaluating, deciphering and acting on data for particular performance measures allow health professionals to identify shortcomings and make the necessary adjustment, and track the outcome.

Utilize health information professionals and practice to ensure compliance with health data structures, standards and content.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a recognized, respected association of health information management (HIM) professionals worldwide. Founded in 1928, AHIMA has become a respected authority for professional education and training in the effective management of health data and medical records needed to deliver quality healthcare to the public. Throughout AHIMA’s history back to 1928, the American College of Surgeons established the Association of Record Librarians of North America (ARNLA) to “elevate the standards of clinical records in hospitals and other medical institutions” (www.ahima.org, 2015). Since its formation, the Association has undergone several name changes in its evolution of the profession. In 1938 the Association changed its name to the American Association of Medical Record Librarians (AAMRL) for a more concise representation. When the Association became the American Medical Record Association in 1970, health information professionals had increased their involvement in hospitals, community health centers, and other health service facilities. As the health industry continues to evolve, the Association changed its name in 1991 to American Health Information Management Association to capture the expanded scope of clinical data beyond medical records to health information comprising the entire continuum of care.

My journey into the field of Health Information Management was not planned, instead a result of life throwing a curveball. At the age of sixteen, I was fortunate to be selected as part of a Summer Program

Health information technology (HIT) is revolutionizing the way we interact with health-related data. One example of this is the obvious rise in

Joining the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) benefits individuals and distinguishes them apart from others. AHIMA labels individual’s as competent, knowledgeable and committed to the association through quality healthcare delivery and quality information.

It has only been within the last five years that health information management (HIM) has experienced exponential changes, due to the healthcare reform. The electronic health record (EHR) is connected to health information exchanges and other systems of interoperability. The timely completion of charts, coding and release of information (ROI) has become much more efficient with the electronic record. Traditional HIM functions will just be transformed and will always be an integral part of successful patient care. Professionals must be flexible and willing to adapt and even generate change. As Health Information Technology continues to evolve, so will the roles

Health Information Exchange is the electronic movement of healthcare information amongst organizations according to the national standards. HIE as it is widely known, serves the purpose of providing a safe, timely, and efficient way of accessing or retrieving patient clinical data. Health Information Exchange allows for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other vital healthcare professionals to have appropriate access and securely share vital medical information regarding patient care. Health Information Exchange has been in efforts of developing for over 20 years in the United States. In 1990 the Community Health Management Information Systems (CHMIS) program was formed by the Hartford Foundation to foster a development of a centralized data repository in seven different geographically defined communities. Many of the communities struggled in securing a cost-effective technology with interoperable data sources and gaining political support. In the mid-1990s a similar initiative began known as the Community Health Information Networks (CHINs) with the intention of sharing data between providers in a more cost-effective manner. In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research Health Information Technology Portfolio was funded $166 million in grants and contracts to improve the quality and safety to support more patient-centered care. This was the beginning of the progress we have seen in HIE today. Health Information Exchange devolvement serves the purpose of improving

This case is important because it sets the precedent for HIEs in other states to follow suit. VITL has managed to expand the care delivery model to one that covers population health management through the integration of data from every area in the care process, something that is essential to data collection and analysis (Skelley, 2016). And data is the prime commodity here because it bridges the gap between the provider and the patient so without quality data, the exchange of information amongst the ACOs is meaningless. VITL boasts of using a clinical data warehouse to create the data marts necessary for ACO analytics, providing more complete information to the 3 major ACOs in the states, namely OneCare Vermont, Community Health Accountable Care and Health First (Vermont Information Technology Leaders Inc., 2016). The data exchanged between the ACOs are not only complete, but are also accurate thereby ensuring its quality. The HIE should be consistent in adhering to standards in assessing the quality and consistency of the data to ensure interoperability (AHIMA Work Group, 2013). This ensures the smooth flow of information proceeding to

Written by three doctors, who work with Public Health Informatics Institute, this article appears to be intended for medical professionals as well as the general public. The authors suggest that using EHRs in its fullest capacity, could greatly improve general population health in the US. Information such as influenza outbreaks, communicable diseases, and acute infectious gastrointestinal disease are currently reported to the CDC through use of EHRs. Under HITECH meaningful use laws, only syndromic surveillance, laboratory reporting, and registries are currently reported. The article also discusses the stages of meaningful use in depth and how each needs to be achieved in accordance with HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health). It is suggested that in the future, trending information could help isolate incidences of certain problems/diagnoses to certain geographical locations. This can potentially help practitioners in figuring out a source for such

Health Care Information Management is something that is becoming extremely popular. Health Care Information Management Systems are computer systems that keep patient files, protect the security of the patient’s information, and keep everything more organized than what can be accomplished by individual people. Employment in this field is expected to grow faster than it has been. Jobs for this field include: Director HIM, Supervisor HIM Data Analyst, Auditor, Private Officer,

AHIMA’s primary goal is to provide the knowledge, resources and tools to advance health information professional practice and standards for the delivery of quality healthcare (“AHIMA home - American health information management association,” 2016). Whether you work in the field, or are just interested in learning more about the profession, ahima.org provides the answers to your HIM questions and effective solutions for critical HIM issues.

Through exploring many peer reviewed articles, scholarly journals, and industry case studies in this program, it is clear that skilled health information management (HIM) professionals are vital to the proper success of a health care organization. Bailey and Rudman (2004) state specifically that an experienced and educated HIM professional possesses the proficiencies needed to successfully “ask appropriate questions and access the necessary data to support research projects” in healthcare (Bailey & Rudman, 2004). Bailey and Rudman (2004) stated that HIM professionals were included in research projects at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). The projects focused on “reduction in medical errors and improving patient safety education”

This is a case study analyzing the power dynamics, customer service and leadership capabilities in a large academic medical center in Boston, MA. The incident takes places in the health information management department, which is partially outsourced to a vendor. Some of the staff that is employed by the hospital is related to the director of that department, hence the power dynamic in that department involves a lot of exchanges and use of power. The department’s employees are segregated, meaning the staff from the vendor is managed by their managers, and hospital employees are managed by their managers. One of the vendor’s managers would leave every day to coordinate her personal schedule. She relied on her positional power within the vendor’s hierarchy to justify why her behavior was acceptable. She would frequently use her tenure with the company for over 25 years as to why she could come and go as she pleases. However, there was a strict rule in place by the vendor that a manager must always be present for their entire shift, unless approved as time off. On the day of the incident in this case study, this manager was absent from the department.