Question

Intro to health information: Prepare a essay that managers face today. Discuss any local issues that complicate or streamline their jobs. Identify current challanges a HIM (health information management) manager faces in the coming year and how the manager would prepare for these challenges.

Answer 1

A key challenge is that the environment within which HIM professionals work is constantly changing and becoming more demanding. Within Australia these changes include a number of health reform initiatives, including recent changes to the national healthcare funding model, and an increase in the adoption of e-health and electronic health record (EHR) systems, including the recent rollout of a national EHR (summary) system.

At an organizational level, health information managers are experiencing an increase in the volume of information to be managed; an increasing uptake of clinical information systems, which is adding to the complexity of managing and providing an integrated medico-legal health record; and increasing competition from the information technology workforce to manage the systems and data within them.

Many healthcare organizations are embarking on implementing EHRs. While there are currently no national incentives or drivers for doing so, the primary driver is enhancing patient safety and enabling greater efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare. The implementation of EHRs is new territory for many health information managers.

There continues to be a focus on producing accurate and timely clinical coded data to represent inpatient care with greater attention on improving clinical documentation in order to optimize revenue as seen through coding and DRG (diagnosis-related group) outputs. The funding models now in place have resulted in increased organizational attention and pressure on healthcare activity data for funding purposes, that is, capturing and reporting all patient activity accurately and promptly.

Many health information managers are responding to organizational pressures requiring greater strategic input, broadening responsibilities, and demanding work schedules.

Issues and concerns in relation to the health information workforce also emerged as a key theme. An increasing shortage of HIM professionals exists in all sectors in an environment of increasing demand for HIM expertise given the strong emergence of e-health. The lack of available HIM professionals has led to a concern about role substitution, that is, people not trained in core HIM skills taking HIM roles, such as clinicians and health informaticians.

The need for an increase in HIM graduates has been identified for many years. Visibility of the HIM career remains a problem even though plenty of employment opportunities exist.