AHIMA Member Appreciation Week: Leading the Transformation to Healcare IG by Nancy Twombly

AHIMA Member Appreciation week is here, and AHIMA is taking the opportunity to appreciate its members for the great work they do in moving the HIM agenda forward. But is it also important to acknowledge the great work that AHIMA does in educating its membership on the current issues in the field of Health Information Management. With over 50 associated state organizations, and more than 71,000 members, AHIMA is the go to association for obtaining HIM knowledge. AHIMA also goes beyond knowledge transfer and helps with career development by providing HIM professionals with resources to improve their skills and abilities.

As healthcare information has been evolving from a department-centric siloed' patient record, to a patient-centric distributed health record that spans locations and formats, it will be critical for HIM skills to adapt to this new world. With HIM's unique understanding of health information, workflow, privacy and compliance, HIM professionals are well positioned to a play a critical role as the focus shifts to enterprise-wide information governance. And, as IG initiatives evolve, career opportunities for the HIM professional will expand accordingly.

So, as an AHIMA member, how can you take advantage of the resources that AHIMA makes available to help with skill building and career development? The AHIMA Health Information Careers roadmap is a fantastic tool to help guide the HIM professional with a career path that builds on key skills that are essential to successfully creating and deploying an information governance strategy. To be successful in IG, health systems have a need for leadership in the areas of Risk, Compliance, Informatics, IT, Operations, Coding, Billing, and Medical Records Management, and HIM Professionals have the core skillsets to lead these critical functions.

The importance of having the right skills to implement information governance will only grow as the healthcare industry evolves. Health information is proliferating, and according to a recent ONC survey, patients overwhelmingly want their providers to share information. This is an exciting time for providers and patients, yet it is also a great opportunity for AHIMA members to redefine the role of Health Information Management and help lead the transformation to the new world of Information Governance.

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