AHIMA s Information Governance Principles for Healcare (IGPHC): ey re Gr-Eight! by Karen Snyder

As a kid, there was nothing better to me than starting a Saturday with a big bowl of Frosted Flakes cereal and a morning full of cartoons. I just loved those lightly-frosted, crunchy corn flakes and Kellogg's adorable furry mascot, Tony the Tiger, known for his signature roar, They're Grrreat!

At this year's national Conference, AHIMA unveiled their newly developed Information Governance Principles for Healthcare (#IGPHC) . IGPHC is an information governance (IG) framework to help the healthcare industry establish a foundation of best practices for their IG programs. At the heart of IGPHC are the following Gr-Eight' principles:

Accountability - a senior leader or person of authority overseeing the IG program

Transparency - documentation that is open and verifiable

Integrity - information that's authentic and reliable

Protection - safeguarding information from breach, corruption or loss

Compliance - adherence to applicable laws, regulations, standards and policies

Availability - ability to identify, locate, and retrieve required information

Retention - maintaining information for an appropriate period of time

Disposition - securely disposing information that no longer needs to be maintained

And while there's no lovable mascot promoting these principles (at least not yet), AHIMA has come up with a simple, yet clever mnemonic (A TIP CARD), to help you remember them.

Nicely complementing this work is a soon-to-be released IG Maturity Model, expected to be available from AHIMA by the end of the year. This self-assessment tool will allow healthcare organizations to evaluate their processes and procedures against best practices. Maturity for each of the Gr-Eight' IGPHC principles will be measured on a scale from one to five, with one being sub-standard and five being transformational . Knowing the maturity level for each IGPHC principle will allow organizations to measure their programs using a more structured and consistent approach, identify gaps in their health information management practices and fine tune areas for future focus and development. And, just like I eagerly awaited my Saturday morning cartoons, so too am I looking ahead to this groundbreaking model and an occasional bowl of Frosted Flakes!

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