Author: Fernandes, Lorraine M.; O'Connor, Michele

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: March 18, 2016

Healthcare is transforming at a rate not previously seen. Many different levers are at work in this transformation, applied either in parallel or jointly. This transformation is occurring with the goal of advancing the IHI Triple Aim—improve care and outcomes, reduce costs, improve health.....

Author: AHIMA Advocacy and Policy Team

Source: AHIMA testimony and comments | AHIMA Advocacy and Policy

Publication Date: March 2016

Autumn/Fall 2015 Public Stakeholder Consultation Guidance Questions

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: March 15, 2016

My blog posts have, for the most part, focused on electronically stored information (ESI) in the context of civil litigation. In this blog I want to shift my focus slightly to raise some questions about the electronic health record and what must be produced in response to a....

Author: Rockendorf, Betty

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: March 10, 2016

Ministry Door County Medical Center (MDCMC) is a 25-bed critical access hospital in Sturgeon Bay, WI that offers many services, from inpatient and outpatient care to rehabilitation services, emergency department and urgent care, six clinics, and a skilled nursing facility. So, how doe....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA toolkit

Publication Date: March 2016

AHIMA’s Information Governance Toolkit provides guidance that will assist in strengthening the healthcare organization’s performance related to managing information and data that is necessary for achieving strategic goals.  The toolkit, available in the AHIMA webstore, is free to AHIMA members.

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

Over the past several years it’s been hard to avoid public conversations about the “childhood obesity epidemic.” One of the biggest targets for regulators like the USDA and for politicians such as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been Americans’ addi....

Author: Haugen, Mary Beth; Richardson, Amy

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

Consider the following fictional, and perhaps all-too-familiar, conversation between health information management (HIM) department staff and health information technology (IT) staff:


Chief Information Officer (CIO) to HIM Director: “Were you aware that last month we implem....

Author: Meehan, Ann M.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a series that provides a road map for implementing an information governance (IG) program in any organization. Each month a set of concepts will be discussed that tie to the IG Road Map Infographic developed by AHIMA. Any organization can t....

Author: Belanger, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

The world of health information exchange remains busy in Massachusetts as the Mass HIway, the statewide health information exchange (HIE), enters its fourth year of rolling out Direct messaging statewide. Overall, Mass HIway officials feel things are going very well, with more than 580 or....

Author: Diop, Karen

Source: Journal of AHIMA - Coding Notes | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

We studied. We practiced. We prepared. We had extensions—first a year, then two. More time to practice. Then, at long last, October 1, 2015 arrived, bringing with it the much-anticipated new code sets ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS. Despite much hand wringing and nay saying, the implementation....

Author: Selsky, Darren

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

Data integration is a costly activity, but one that is used by healthcare organizations on a daily basis to unite information from diverse sources, such as lab, pharmacy, and radiology. This data is typically centralized in electronic health records (EHRs) or other niche systems for clini....

Author: Wendicke, Annemarie

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

Healthcare is striving for meaningful health data—something well noted in many recent industry articles and presentations. But how will the cultivation of meaningful data be accomplished in the healthcare industry’s complex environment?


Healthcare data comes from....

Author: Journal of AHIMA Staff

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has a proposition. Come up with a solution to the following scenario, become a millionaire:


“Consider the number of John Smiths living in the same town, sometimes even under the same roof. Now think about th....

Author: Martin, Melissa

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

MARCH IS A very busy month for AHIMA. We are kicking off our voluntary patient safety identifier campaign and preparing to showcase it at our Advocacy Symposium. Also, we will present the campaign to our legislators during Hill Day in early April.


This is the perfect time....

Author: AHIMA Work Group

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

There is a significant amount of evidence that points to the existence of serious quality concerns for patients undergoing care transitions across multiple care settings. The 2001 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “Crossing the Quality Chasm” famously described the US system as dec....

Author: Gordon, Lynne Thomas

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2016

Late last year, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Karen DeSalvo challenged an audience at the Bipartisan Policy Center to commit to a future where consumers can easily and securely access their health information; where providers share health information for care with....

Author: Kadlec, Lesley

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 25, 2016

We hear a lot of conversations about information governance (IG) in healthcare, and our importance in leading these initiatives. But oftentimes the IG discussion centers on the work to be done within the four walls of the institution, and does not look at the need to engage healthcare cons....

Author: Glondys, Barbara

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 18, 2016

Although health information management professionals are still wrapping their heads around IG, it is critical to begin involving and training your organization’s workforce community in the principles and practices of IG sooner rather than later. The Pocket Glossary of Health Informat....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 16, 2016

My prior posts have looked at AHIMA’s Information Governance Principles for HealthcareTM (IGPHC) in the litigation context. In this post I want to focus on one facet of litigation, something every healthcare provider (and every other party) wants to avoid: sanctions. Specifically, th....

Author:

Source: AHIMA bibliography

Publication Date: February 2016

Annotated Bibliography


Andronis, Katerina, and Kevin Moysey. "Data Governance for Health Care Providers," in Health Information Governance in a Digital Environment, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, vol. 193. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2013.



Presents data gov....

Author: Goodell, Suzanne

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 11, 2016

I am the director of meaningful use for a health system with 6 hospitals, 400-plus employed physicians, and a regional presence in my state. I suspect my healthcare system isn’t the only one using patient registration practices better suited to a bygone era. Recently I stumbled across one....

Author: Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: February 04, 2016

Every health information management (HIM) leader has their hands full these days. All of us are working hard just to keep up. Despite the ever increasing pace at which the healthcare industry—and HIM—is moving forward, through AHIMA’s information governance (IG) pilot program, we also see....

Author: U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Source: Government (U.S.) | External healthcare industry report

Publication Date: February 2016

2015 Report To Congress on Health IT Adoption, Use, and Exchange

Author: Glondys, Barbara

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

A communication technique developed by the United States Navy and used with nuclear submarines has been endorsed by multiple healthcare organizations. That technique, known as “SBAR,” is an acronym for “Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation,” a technique....

Author: DeMasters, Dana; Deanna, Peterson

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

A police officer with a body-worn camera records video of an altercation in an emergency department involving a patient who has become violent. During the recording another patient not involved in the altercation has their image captured. The officer leaves the facility wit....

Author: Blair, Barclay T; Snyder, Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

Though the discipline of information governance (IG) is relatively young, research from the Information Governance Initiative (IGI) shows that organizations today are spending real money on IG and taking on a variety of IG projects. Simply put, IG work is getting done.


But ho....

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

Buying tomatoes at the grocery store or farmer’s market will suffice for most cooks. For others, particularly those with a green thumb, growing their own is the only way to fulfill all their salsa and marinara sauce fantasies.


These devotees understand that a garden ca....

Author: Thierry Sheridan, Patty; Watzlaf, Valerie J.M.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

Information governance (IG) captures the soul of health information management (HIM), yet many HIM professionals may not engage in IG due to a lack of knowledge, inexperience, or a misunderstanding of all that IG entails. Because of this, experts in IG leadership took part in a focus group....

Author: Orlova, Anna; Rhodes, Harry B.; Warner, Diana

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

At the 2015 AHIMA Convention and Exhibit, members of AHIMA’s Standards Task Force reported on a ground-breaking white paper they developed called “Health IT Standards for Health Information Management Practices,” a first-of-its-kind white paper that serves as a guide for....

Author: Gordon, Lynne Thomas

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

This month, AHIMA celebrates our fourth annual Information Governance (IG) Month. AHIMA created this event to increase awareness and understanding of IG and to help members understand IG’s importance to HIM practice. You’ll be seeing more details about IG Month in our publicati....

Author: Endicott, Melanie

Source: CodeWrite | AHIMA newsletter article

Publication Date: January 28, 2016

Developing an information governance (IG) program within your organization takes time and planning. Just like marathon runners who follow a training plan that begins with short runs and gradually builds to longer distances, so too should organizations start with small s....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 27, 2016

When an architect draws up plans for a building, they pay close attention to the details of the foundation. This provides the support to the building and prevents it from crashing down at any moment. If the building later has structural damage it is easy to fix when the foundation is not i....

Author: Taylor, Nathan Patrick

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 25, 2016

If you are new to healthcare analytics, it can be quite expensive to get up and running with a statistical application. Between the cost of the software itself and the instructional courses—not to mention your investment of time—just getting started could run several thousand dollars. Than....

Author: Gordon, Lynne Thomas

Source: AHIMA testimony and comments

Publication Date: January 22, 2016

Letter to Ms. Mariann Yeager, Chief Executive Officer, The Sequoia Project

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 2016

The HIM Problem


As providers and business associates bring themselves into compliance with the HITECH-HIPAA Final Rule, encrypting data in transmission and at rest can pose a challenge. Two ROI experts discuss encryption and the use of standards in privacy and security.....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 20, 2016

Telemedicine is, to say the least, “exploding”—both as a source of electronic health information and a business model. As of December 2015, “29 states and Washington D.C. have enacted legislation ensuring that private insurers offer reimbursement for telemedicine at equival....

Author: Kadlec, Lesley

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: January 2016

Editor’s Note: This Practice Brief supersedes the October 2013 Practice Brief titled "Managing Unsolicited Health Information in the Electronic Health Record"



Consumer engagement is developing as a key focus area in US healthcare, and patients are increasingly able&mdas....

Author: Maimone, Carol

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: January 2016

This practice brief supersedes the November 2013 practice brief “Data Mapping Best Practices.”


The healthcare industry collects vast amounts of data from electronic sources. These data are captured in a wide variety of formats using various collection methods. Health d....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: January 2016

Editor's note: This brief replaces the 2001 practice brief "Documentation Requirements for the Acute Care Inpatient Record, and the 2013 and 2014 versions of the practice brief "Using CDI Programs to Improve Acute Care Clinical Documentation in Preparation for ICD-10-CM/PCS."

Author: Crabb, Stephanie

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 14, 2016

How are football and IG related? Anyone who knows me knows that I am a sports fanatic and football is my favorite professional team sport. So, as we stand on the precipice of the playoff season, I have football on my mind. With IG ALWAYS on my mind, I found myself thinking about how to ans....

Author: Dooling, Julie A; Fernandes, Lorraine M.; Kirby, Annessa; Landsbach, Grant; Lusk, Katherine; Munns, Megan; Noreen, Neysa; O'Connor, Michele; Patten, Melinda

Source: Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: January 06, 2016

A recent survey with AHIMA members revealed that over half of HIM professionals routinely work on mitigating possible patient record duplicates at their facility, and of those 72 percent work on mitigating duplicate records weekly. Contributing to the issue, less than half (47 percent) of....

Author: Rhodes, Harry B.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2016

All of the current excitement about the potential of mobile technologies and patient engagement opportunities comes at a time when many providers are frustrated about their electronic health record (EHR) systems. Struggling against poor EHR system usability, a lack of interoperability, and....

Author: Brinda, Danika

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2016

Stories about workforce members inappropriately accessing health information continue to plague the Department of Health and Human Services’ Data Breach Portal—which lists US provider data breaches that affect more than 500 individuals. Recently two data breaches reported on th....

Author: Campbell, Susan E

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2016

Information for general health information managers about the standards development framework and process—with a focus on mobile health For Patient and Self Care

Author: Cange, John R

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2016

To prevent a problem, however, requires that you understand the potential causes of the problem—and this understanding requires data. A complete understanding requires a complete dataset. In the case of HAIs, the ideal dataset would contain data concerning every type of HAI from ever....

Author: Stearns, Michael

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2016

President Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 on April 16, 2015. This legislation repealed the sustainable growth rate (SGR) but also introduced a number of provisions designed to compensate physicians and other healthcare professionals ba....

Author: Archer, Anita; Campbell, Angela; D'Amato, Cheryl; McLeod, Melissa; Rugg, Donna

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2016

Editor's Note: This Practice Brief supersedes the May 2013 and March 2010 Practice Briefs titled "Putting the ICD-10-CM/PCS GEMs into Practice."


Mappings between ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM/PCS will play a critical role in the successful utilization of ICD-10-CM/PCS. The Centers for Me....

Author: Meigs, Stephen L; Solomon, Michael

Source: Perspectives in Health Information Management

Publication Date: January 2016

Abstract


Electronic health record (EHR) adoption among office-based physician practices in the United States has increased significantly in the past decade. However, the challenges of using EHRs have resulted in growing dissatisfaction with the systems among many of these physicia....

Author: Hoyt, Robert; Linnville, Steven; Thaler, Stephen; Moore, Jeffrey

Source: Perspectives in Health Information Management

Publication Date: January 2016

Abstract


Following the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, electronic health records were widely adopted by eligible physicians and hospitals in the United States. Stage 2 meaningful use menu objectives include a digi....

Author: Hylock, Ray; Harris, Susie T.

Source: Educational Perspectives in Health Informatics and Information Management

Publication Date: January 2016

Abstract


Enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 forever altered the data management landscape in healthcare. The volume, breadth, depth, and pace at which health i....