Author: Spath, Patrice L.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2000

Healthcare report cards have been in existence for more than 10 years. Have their efforts
to measure and compare performance made a difference? This article looks at the state
of the art.
In the late 1960s, researchers in Maine decided to study the use of healthcare services....

Author: Spath, Patrice L.

Source: Quality Resource (newsletter)

Publication Date: March 02, 2001

The demands for performance measurement data are increasing, and quality management departments are challenged to do more with less. No one wants to say "no" to a data request, and yet priorities must be established to prevent the quality management staff from becoming overburdened. Effective....

Author: Rollins, Gina

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2005

As evidence-based medicine systems proliferate, organizations are grappling with the question of when—or whether—to document them in the legal record. So far, the prompts are many, but the answers are few.
A physician enters a medication order in a computerized physician orde....

Author: Nelson, Mary; Aman, Shari

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2002

Using tools from JCAHO, an HIM professional and a performance improvement coordinator redesigned the medical record review process, making it more efficient and more effective. (FORE Best Practice, AHIMA Foundation)

Author: Mitchell, Sue

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2003

When the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its highlights of 2002, the listing of significant accomplishments included the department’s efforts to improve quality of care. Discussion of quality improvement efforts focused on the department’s initiatives in measurin....

Author: Mercer, Michele

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2001

by Michele Mercer, RN, MS, HSA



Without an enterprise data warehouse, we were flying blind," says Robert Robison, MD, chief medical officer of Horizon Mercy in Trenton, NJ.

Horizon/Mercy, one of the largest managed care organizations in the nation, administers an....

Author: Lau, Francis

Source: Perspectives in Health Information Management

Publication Date: September 2004

Abstract


This paper describes a conceptual organizing scheme for managing knowledge within the health setting. First, a brief review of the notions of knowledge and knowledge management is provided. This is followed by a detailed depiction of our proposed knowledge management....

Author: Kloss, Linda L

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2003

The American healthcare system is in crisis and consumers are taking notice. Insurance costs are rising at double-digit rates and employers are passing along more of the cost to employees, leading to a recent nationwide strike at GE earlier this year. One in seven Americans is uninsured and fe....

Author: Jeffries, Jane

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2002

HIM professionals know that every piece of patient data collected is valuable. Cancer registrars like Linda Mulvihill, RHIT, CTR, can watch the patient data they collect become cancer screening tools, public health dollars, and the disease statistics found every day in the newspaper.

Author: Hyde, Linda A.

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: September 23, 2002

Author: Hohmann, Samuel; Buff, Elizabeth Logan; Wietecha, Gary

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 1998

The increasing use of clinically integrated decision support systems is creating new opportunities for HIM professionals. Here's a look at how such a system was used by one team to monitor performance improvement activities.

One of the top forces driving data automation in healthcar....

Author: Hatta, Gemala

Source: IFHRO Congress | AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 15, 2004

Background

Maternal death has been a prime concern globally. The maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Indonesia of 390/100,000 live births is among the highest of contributing Asian nations, revealing deep-seated problems. One way to decrease MMR in Indonesia is by performing good quality ob....

Author: Galterio, Louis

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2013

Anyone unfamiliar with quality measurement and reporting might find the journey of self-education daunting. There are numerous organizations that develop, use, and require sets or collections of measures for reporting, and many address different measurement goals. There are varying areas o....

Author: Farishta, Mehnaz

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2001

Are you drowning in data instead of sailing on the power of knowledge? Data mining technology can uncover hidden and unexpected patterns in data for strategic  decision making in healthcare.

Here’s how it works.

In today’s environment, healthcare organizations need more....

Author: Edelstein, Myra Ellen

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2001

How will you approach the next quality management initiative? This article offers an introduction to the ISO 9001:2000 quality management system standards that can be applied to the HIM industry and how these standards can improve your department’s policies and procedures. <....

Author: Clark, Jean S.; Courteney, Carol

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: September 23, 2002

Author: Burrington-Brown, Jill

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2002

Is the Six Sigma business management system the “new kid on the block” in terms of quality initiatives? It may be new to healthcare, but it has been in place at various manufacturers, most notably Motorola, since the 1980s.


This article examines how Six Sigma is bein....

Author: Burrington-Brown, Jill

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2005

Hospice Challenges

When asked about challenges in HIM in the hospice care setting, Myers notes that the challenges in ensuring hospice records are complete and reflect the care given are very similar to those in other healthcare facilities. In fact, another member of the CoP, Susan Torzew....

Author: Buff, Elizabeth Logan; Hohmann, Samuel

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 1999

How can health information help an organization improve its performance? The authors offer an approach to measuring performance using familiar tools—a compass and a dashboard.



A healthcare organization uses clinical data in a number of ways—to....

Author: Booth, Julie Harmata

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 21, 2005

Introduction


Human factors engineering is the science of designing tools, tasks, information, and work systems to be compatible with the abilities of human users; this includes both physical and cognitive abilities. As a science, human factors engineering provides a framework to c....

Author: Barbell, Alan S.; Sublett, Patsy

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2001

The publication of To Err is Human broke the silence in the healthcare industry and has made it possible to have discourse on both the scope and possible solutions to the problem of medical errors-medication errors in particular.1 Data on the numbers of deaths and injuries attributable to medi....

Author: AHIMA Staff

Source: AHIMA Q and A

Publication Date: June 02, 2001

Q: What are the Joint Commission definitions of a sentinel event and root cause analysis?

A: The Joint Commission defines a sentinel event as "an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or risk thereof. Serious injury specifically includes loss o....

Author: AHIMA Data Quality Management Task Force

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: March 1998

This practice brief has been updated. See the latest version here. This version is made available for historical purposes only.