AHIMA s 04 Information Governance Twitter Chat: Preparing Like an Olympic Alete by Karen Snyder

#AHIMA will be hosting a Twitter chat this Thursday, February 20th at 12 noon Central, in honor of Information Governance (IG) month. The Chat (#IGNow) will focus on the need for information governance and will provide practical advice for organizations just getting their programs off the ground.

It's interesting that the Chat falls towards the tail end of the XXII Winter Olympic games. Over the course of this year's Olympics, there have been many personal interest stories highlighting the top athletes' road to Sochi. I'm simply awed by the years of training, dedication and commitment that the world's top athletes put in to prepare for their Olympic moment. And, while having the right coach, training regimen, and diet certainly doesn't guarantee one's success, it does provide a much needed foundation necessary for the athletes to perform at their peak.

So having never participated in a Twitter chat before, that got me thinking, how exactly should one prepare? Although this event clearly doesn't involve the physical training needed to prepare for Olympic competition (unless you consider a few neck rolls and finger bends physical preparation), I've certainly been doing my share of mental preparation. This includes reading articles, white papers and analyst briefs on the topic. One of the best sources of information is the six-part AHIMA series, Information Governance 101, which discusses the basic principles associated with an effective IG program.

As part of my pre-event training regimen, I've mapped out a few steps that I'll want to make sure get into the mix of the Twitter chat. Like the athlete in training, incorporating these foundational elements into your IG program is a surefire way to peak performance:

Shift Resources: Budget constraints often preclude you from adding resources to support strategic priorities like transitioning to ICD-10, so consider shifting your focus to higher-value activities and outsourcing responsibilities like paper records storage and transactional work.

Set Short-Term Priorities: Assess information across your organization and create compelling short-term priorities while building your case for more comprehensive information governance.

Organize Your Team: To establish an information governance framework, secure an executive sponsor, convene a multi-disciplinary steering committee, and parse out pre-work to smaller sub-teams.

Silo-Bust: Eliminate information silos and focus on a consistent, policy-driven approach to managing information across your enterprise.

Unify Policies: Develop and maintain unified information management policies that incorporate relevant standards and best practices.

Now that I've put in my sweat-equity preparing for AHIMA's Twitter chat, I'm pumped and ready to go for the gold I hope you are too!

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/industry/healthcare-information-man...
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