Author: Zarybnicky, Rosalie; Coltrin, Kaelyn; Colwell, Holly; Lam, Donna

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2001

Best practices are the result of professionals developing practical ways to improve processes and quality. Medicare peer review organization and state Payment Error Prevention Program (PEPP) organizer PRO-West recognized this when it looked to state hospitals for methods to improve do....

Author: Zakoworotny, Cindy; Rutz, Cheryl; Zwingman-Bagley, Cheryl

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 1997

In 1994, Hartford Hospital began to prepare for a 1995 survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In reviewing the hospital's policies, it was clear that they addressed the assignment of user IDs and passwords for a mainframe environment rather than a network....

Author: Smith, Cheryl M.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2001

In today's healthcare environment, the HIM manager must tackle an endless stream of projects, daily and long-term system and process issues, and the ongoing challenge of employee motivation, all of which demand effective and flexible strategies. One strategy that HIM managers in any h....

Author: Smith, Carol F.; Mathis-Walker, Nicole F

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: September 27, 2010

Background

Performance Improvement has become the foundation of many great organizations. From the automotive industry to hospitals, the use of performance improvement tools is utilized to improve productivity, quality, safety and workflow. The implementation of performance improvement m....

Author: Seidl, Patricia

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2003

Completing a project successfully requires far more than a handful of meetings and a checklist. Project management is a process in itself—one that can ensure a positive outcome. Learn more from our expert.
Anyone who has ever sat in traffic due to road construction or witnessed the s....

Author: Rulon, Vera

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2005

HIM cannot claim an exclusive domain any more. No longer a “back end” function, HIM is part of a larger continuum. Author Daniele Bolelli writes: “The age of specialization is over. Mixing together aspects of life that have apparently little to do with each other will be the....

Author: Keith, Ron

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: September 23, 2002

Author: Hughes, Gwen

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2004

Health information managers often find their capital requests near the bottom of the list when limited funds are distributed. Their requests just aren’t sexy enough to compete with those that enhance the organization’s image, increase revenue, or promise a more rapid payback.

Author: Hilterbrand, Cynthia

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2001

Ensuring compliance to the Joint Commission IM standards across a multi-facility system requires more than a handbook-it takes a team effort, communication, and education for all staff. Here's how one system has tackled this task.
For HIM professionals preparing for a Joint Com....

Author: Hagland, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2002

HIM professionals are stepping up to the newly created role of privacy officer in many organizations. But privacy officers have been around for years in other industries. What can we learn from them about positioning this role?


Banking and financial services, telecommunications....

Author: Hagland, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2003

What’s the best way to select a technology vendor? For HIM professionals, IS education and collaboration yield the best results.
The vendor evaluation and selection process starts with education, according to Tracy Hickey, MBA, RHIA, and relies on the input of a multidisciplinary te....

Author: Grzybowski, Darice; Fox, Leslie Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 1996

Project Rationale and History

We dream of a world where all medical record forms are complete and legible, neatly and proportionately designed, easily converted into electronic format, and efficient for those who document in them; contain clear identification data; and meet all legal, ac....

Author: Fox, Leslie Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2005

As healthcare organizations implement EHRs, effective HIM leadership becomes more important than ever. Key to establishing a defining role within your organization is appreciating how groups interact.
Despite the excitement surrounding the impending arrival of the electronic health recor....

Author: Fox, Leslie Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 1999

Opportunities abound for HIM professionals—but how can you, as a manager, create a work environment in which employees will want to stay? This process begins with managing yourself. Here's a new way to think about employee retention.
Unemployment is at a 30-year low. The....

Author: Dunham, Larry

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Introduction

The struggle to do more with less is something all of us in the health information management (HIM) industry have had to wrestle with for years. The strategy for aligning our departments for operational success with respect to bottom-line results has varied greatly.....

Author: Drach, Maureen; Davies, Alethea; Sagrati, Carmen

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2001

Is your chargemaster current, compliant, and comprehensive? In the age of APCs, healthcare facilities would do well to answer these questions regularly. Here’s how an HIM professional can help.

On every front, healthcare is advancing by leaps and bounds. At the same time, providers a....

Author: Doll, Barbara A.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2005

This month we complete our series by examining the Project Management Institute’s knowledge areas of human resource, communications, risk, and procurement management.
Leading Effective Teams

Human resource management involves making the most effective use of resources to m....

Author: Doll, Barbara A.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2005

In last month’s column we defined and described projects, portfolios, and project management. We identified the project manager’s role and the concept of a project life cycle. This month we will begin to discuss the nine project management knowledge areas. First we will look at how....

Author: Doll, Barbara A.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2005

Part 1 of 4


As new technology spreads through healthcare organizations, traditional walls that divided departments are coming down. HIM professionals increasingly find themselves collaborating with IT and clinical colleagues to select, design, implement, test, and train staff on new....

Author: Doll, Barbara A.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2005

In previous columns we described early project steps, from developing the charter to creating the scope statement and work breakdown structure. This month we will look at the Project Management Institute’s knowledge areas of time, cost, and quality.
Time Management

Managin....

Author: Dahlstrand, Harold; Hjort, Beth M.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2002

Do you know where your HIM department is headed? HIM departments are affected by many external forces, yet a considered vision and anticipation of the unexpected can help to make the uncontrollable more manageable.


If you're an HIM leader, ask yourself these questions: What is....

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: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: October 27, 2016

Mastering physician engagement can be a challenging process, but it is within reach when you develop a plan of action and have a little patience. During AHIMA’s 2016 CDI Summit: Advancing the Documentation Journey, held August 1-2 in Washington, DC, Dr. John Showalter, MD, MSIS, University....

Author: Combs, Tammy

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: November 23, 2016

Have you ever spent hours working on a project, only to find out at a random meeting that another team has been working on the same project? This type of scenario can be frustrating to both teams and lead to distrust in the work process—not to mention wasted time that could have been spent....

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: August 2015

Information governance doesn’t look the same from organization to organization, or even industry to industry. Even if all healthcare organizations followed AHIMA’s Information Governance Principles for Healthcare™ (IGPHC) to the letter, every organization will inte....

Author: Burrington-Brown, Jill

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2003

Most of us do not think of communication as a process but rather as a talent or ability that only a few people possess. But when communication is considered a process, anyone can be an effective communicator.


The work of Stanford University computer science professor Terry Wino....

Author: Burrington-Brown, Jill

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2006

AHIMA’s e-HIM work groups have had great success in bringing together groups of HIM professionals to explore and create guidance on cutting-edge e-HIM practices and technology. These groups also teach us lessons about the factors of successful teamwork that we can apply to our own work si....

Author: Bryant, Gloryanne H.

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 15, 2004

Introduction

It's one thing to update the current coding system each year, but it's another to completely redesign it. This is what we have with ICD-10 , both the clinical modification for diagnosis coding and the PCS for the procedural coding. Like Y2K in 1999-2000, and recently with H....

Author: Bennett-Woods, Deb

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 1997

Corporate downsizing and restructuring continue to reduce the number of managers and increase their scopes of authority. As a result of organizational flattening, healthcare organizations increasingly turn to self-directed teams (teams within a department) and cross-functional teams (teams ac....

Author: Armstrong, Richard; Quinsey, Carol Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2004

Have you ever walked into a job knowing it was in your hands to turn back a tide of red ink and put the business back on its feet? If you have been in this situation, you know it can be overwhelming. However, with the artful application of basic change-management processes and skills, you can....

Author: Amatayakul, Margret

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2004

Every project needs a team. In this book excerpt, a veteran HIM consultant describes the organization of the EHR implementation team.
Among the early steps in the EHR planning process is the need to construct an organizational structure for the project. Most healthcare organizations are....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2008

This practice brief has been retired. It is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA Advantage

Publication Date: February 2003

The Opportunity and Challenge of Diversity

You're representing coders at a hospital-wide task force charged with recommending improvements to the hospital's information systems. You arrive promptly at the first meeting, ready to jump in and tackle your assignment. The team members, many o....

Author:

Source: AHIMA Advantage

Publication Date: December 2002

Let's admit it, when we're staring at an endless pile of work on our desk and yet another round of killer deadlines, who among us welcomes the pop-up message on our computer screen announcing it's time for a meeting?
According to Realty Times, there are an average of 17 million meetings p....