Ready, Set, Change! Release of Information is Up Next by Deborah Gustavsen

Charles Darwin and Adam Smith would both agree it is not the strongest, nor the smartest that survive, but the ones that are most responsive to change, the ones that adapt. The changes in Health Information Management (HIM) are unprecedented and stunning. Rapid changes in the environment put an enormous premium on adapting. Release of Information (ROI) will evolve.

I used to go to bookstores. I used to go to banks , I even had a check book. I used to write letters (with stamps). I used to buy film and take pretty pictures. I had a fetish for good pens and fresh paper. All gone. Extinct.

A few things never change, or at least won't for some good period of time. Good espresso, aspirin, the taste of fresh lime, the smell of a roasting chicken, true love and the sound of bickering children no change.

And then there are those things that haven't changed much, yet. That is, with a few modifications here and there, they are pretty much the same as they were 20 years ago: trains, land-line phones, a steam iron (that now swallows its own cord into the handle so cool), my guitar and flush toilets. You KNOW that over time there will be some remarkable changes and that they may not look the same in another 20 years but at the moment they are very similar to those things we've known from years past. I think I put ROI in this category, together with Pokemon and pizza, but just for a minute.

Banner events over the last several years have nudged ROI into successive changes in the workflow, albeit small. Minor threats to productivity, each event served to push ROI from the easy lean on a copy machine, straightening the edges of paper to prevent copy jams to workflows that were progressively more time consuming. HIPAA provided patients with rights to privacy and the security of their PHI, adding a thin early layer of convolutionto the ROI process. HITECH provided the teeth, several rows of them, by which to enforce those HIPAA rights. RAC added a timeline and a hearty set of choppers to ensure a rapid response. The adoption of the EHR throughout all the regulatory mazes produced a hybrid record, more an annoyance for ROI just one more place from which to gather the information for authorized requests. Rather like the days of micro-film when fiche and rolls of film were scoured for patient information so that it might be restored to a paper state. ROI specialists needed better and deeper training on the rules and regulations but the basic beat of the drum remained. The copy machine was replaced by scanners and printers a good thing since it seized up so regularly.

Up Periscope

As we look to see the ROI of the future, Patient Portals appear as a part of the future landscape, but we believe that it's a while off. So, what will drive change for ROI in the immediate? Unlike Pokemon and my land-line telephone, it will not disappear, but it will change. Remember your high school biology class adaptation just means an organism changes to better live or survive in its environment. T Rex is happy to remind you what happens when you fail to adapt. She's the bipedal with those creepy little arms (and I say, She since Sue was the most complete specimen found.)

ROI is hard, tedious, meticulous work, governed by more regulations, legislation, policies and rules than dictates the care of your children by strangers. Inevitably, ROI, the messy, complicated task of receiving and filling requests for Personal Health Information (PHI) from attorneys, insurance companies, patients, the police and others, is going to evolve.

Evolution is just change. Keep calm and change. ROI will look very different, very soon. I hold out no hope for Pokemon.

A more balanced and authoritative perspective on Health Information Management change and trajectory, including ROI, can be found in Linda Kloss' white paper speaking to what does the HIM Department of the future look like? and AHIMA's Health Information Management 2025 . We are all polishing our crystal balls but these two articles reflect sound, coherent thinking about how present trends should shape our periscopic view into the future of HIM and ROI in general.

What does your crystal ball say? Please leave comments.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2013/industry/healthcare-information-man...
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