Submitted by 2010-2011 Best Practices/Standards House Team
Intent:
The intent is for health information management (HIM) professionals to effectively manage the quality and integrity of health data to ensure the quality of patient care.
Preamble:
Whereas, the healthcare industry is in transition to electronic health records (EHRs) and EHRs need to yield quality documentation and data in order to support patient care, health information exchange, quality management, compliance and other secondary uses of data;
Whereas, adverse incidents in healthcare may occur as a result of poor data and information which, in turn, increases healthcare costs and inhibits health information exchange, research, and performance measurement initiatives;
Whereas, the healthcare industry is facing interoperability issues between enterprises, requiring universally accepted data standards;
Whereas, healthcare quality and safety require that the accurate information be available at any time to support patient care and health system management decisions;
Whereas, data content and documentation standards and continuous quality management is key for information to be accessible for the interconnected healthcare delivery system of the future.
Therefore, be it:
Resolved, That AHIMA and HIM Professionals educate members and students on techniques and best practices for managing and measuring the quality and integrity of healthcare data;
Resolved, That AHIMA and its component organizations promote the value of high quality data by advancing techniques and best practices for effective and efficient data quality management, participating in national initiatives to improve data quality through policy, standards, education, and research;
Resolved, That AHIMA and HIM Professionals supports and influences standards for data content, data mapping, and documentation within the healthcare industry.
Resolved, That AHIMA and HIM Professionals influence, support, and implement application technology that enables collection of high-quality data at the point of care, data aggregation, exchange, and retrieval.
Resolved, That AHIMA and HIM Professionals implement continuous quality improvement strategies to support improvements in data quality, ensure data integrity and advance research issues surrounding data variability to determine the impact and identify solutions.
Resolved, That AHIMA and HIM Professionals assume leadership roles and are recognized as the leaders in data quality management.
Approved by the 2011-2012 House of Delegates