Author: Dahlstrand, Harold; Hjort, Beth M.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2002

Do you know where your HIM department is headed? HIM departments are affected by many external forces, yet a considered vision and anticipation of the unexpected can help to make the uncontrollable more manageable.


If you're an HIM leader, ask yourself these questions: What is....

Author: Burrington-Brown, Jill

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2006

AHIMA’s e-HIM work groups have had great success in bringing together groups of HIM professionals to explore and create guidance on cutting-edge e-HIM practices and technology. These groups also teach us lessons about the factors of successful teamwork that we can apply to our own work si....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA Advantage

Publication Date: February 2003

The Opportunity and Challenge of Diversity

You're representing coders at a hospital-wide task force charged with recommending improvements to the hospital's information systems. You arrive promptly at the first meeting, ready to jump in and tackle your assignment. The team members, many o....

Author: Drach, Maureen; Davies, Alethea; Sagrati, Carmen

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2001

Is your chargemaster current, compliant, and comprehensive? In the age of APCs, healthcare facilities would do well to answer these questions regularly. Here’s how an HIM professional can help.

On every front, healthcare is advancing by leaps and bounds. At the same time, providers a....

Author: Amatayakul, Margret

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2004

Every project needs a team. In this book excerpt, a veteran HIM consultant describes the organization of the EHR implementation team.
Among the early steps in the EHR planning process is the need to construct an organizational structure for the project. Most healthcare organizations are....

Author: Bennett-Woods, Deb

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 1997

Corporate downsizing and restructuring continue to reduce the number of managers and increase their scopes of authority. As a result of organizational flattening, healthcare organizations increasingly turn to self-directed teams (teams within a department) and cross-functional teams (teams ac....

Author: Hagland, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2003

What’s the best way to select a technology vendor? For HIM professionals, IS education and collaboration yield the best results.
The vendor evaluation and selection process starts with education, according to Tracy Hickey, MBA, RHIA, and relies on the input of a multidisciplinary te....

Author: Zakoworotny, Cindy; Rutz, Cheryl; Zwingman-Bagley, Cheryl

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 1997

In 1994, Hartford Hospital began to prepare for a 1995 survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In reviewing the hospital's policies, it was clear that they addressed the assignment of user IDs and passwords for a mainframe environment rather than a network....

Author: Hagland, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2002

HIM professionals are stepping up to the newly created role of privacy officer in many organizations. But privacy officers have been around for years in other industries. What can we learn from them about positioning this role?


Banking and financial services, telecommunications....

Author: Hughes, Gwen

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2004

Health information managers often find their capital requests near the bottom of the list when limited funds are distributed. Their requests just aren’t sexy enough to compete with those that enhance the organization’s image, increase revenue, or promise a more rapid payback.