Author: White, Jim

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: April 20, 2017

One of the more significant healthcare trends we see today is the consolidation (mergers and acquisitions) of hospitals, physician groups, and insurance companies into larger integrated systems. The goal of this activity have been focused on: increased market share, increased financia....

Author: Burton, Ben; Downing, Katherine

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2017

Editor’s Note: This Practice Brief update supplants part of the 2013 Practice Brief “Patient Access and Amendment to Health Records.”


Before April 2003, a patient’s legal right to amend his or her health records was limited to those patients treated at hea....

Author: Palkie, Brooke

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: March 16, 2017

As I begin digging into the intricacies of long-term digital preservation (LTDP) of electronic healthcare data, I am realizing how little I knew. The ever-changing formats and standards for accessing personal health information (PHI) come to mind. Once obsolete, how will this information b....

Author: Journal of AHIMA Staff

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2017

Crumbling, decaying, and abandoned hospitals aren’t just physically dangerous examples of urban decrepitude—they also could be prime targets for medical identity thieves who know what they’re doing.


Take the case of Chicago, IL’s Edgewater Medical Center, a....

Author: Downing, Kathy; Fahy, Kristi; Foster, MeShawn; Hermann, Michelle; Meehan, Ann M.; Washington, Lydia; Woebkenberg, Jami

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2017

When an organization begins to implement an enterprise information governance (IG) program, one of the major initial tasks is to understand the scope and types of information in its possession. An inventory of an organization’s information is necessary in order to facilitate decision maki....

Author: VanOver, Jennifer; Lusk, Katherine

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: November 16, 2016

When health information management involved keeping paper records in file rooms, a rule of thumb was that after two years with infrequent activity, medical records were often moved to off-site storage. This reduced the cost of maintaining medical records onsite long term. The records often....

Author: Lail, Pamela J; Laird, Sarah S; McCall, Kris; Naretto, Joe; York, April

Source: Perspectives in Health Information Management

Publication Date: October 2016

Abstract


This article examines the current state of affairs of the health information management role in facility closure as well as the impact on revenue cycle operations. Health information management professionals are uniquely positioned to assist an organization in closure eff....

Author: Carey, Susan; Beahan, Sally

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2016

Historically, health information management (HIM) staff has provided paper copies of medical records in response to authorized requests. No specialty patient education was needed because the paper record was essentially self-explanatory.


But with the ongoing industry trans....

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: August 01, 2016

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken many steps to try and clear up consumer confusion regarding the more consumer-centric aspects of HIPAA’s Privacy Rule and Security Rule. The most recent efforts include the Office of the National Coordinator’s Patien....

Author: DeMasters, Dana; Deanna, Peterson

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2016

A police officer with a body-worn camera records video of an altercation in an emergency department involving a patient who has become violent. During the recording another patient not involved in the altercation has their image captured. The officer leaves the facility wit....

Author: Kadlec, Lesley

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: January 2016

Increased adoption and use of health information technology by healthcare providers has made greater consumer access to health information possible, as well as increased general engagement in health maintenance and care. The opportunities for improving quality and efficiency afforded by this ne....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: October 15, 2015

As stated in the preamble of AHIMA’s Information Governance Principles for HealthcareTM (IGPHC), “AHIMA defines information governance as an organization-wide framework for managing information throughout its lifecycle and supporting the organization’s strategy, operation....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: September 16, 2015

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author alone and should not be interpreted otherwise or as advice.



For this month’s post, I’d like to discuss the results of the 2015 Legal Hold and Data Preservation Benchmark Survey re....

Author: Datskovsky, Galina; Hedges, Ron; Empel, Sofia; Washington, Lydia

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2015

Editor’s Note: This is the final installment in a series of four articles that discuss the eight Information Governance Principles for Healthcare™.


AHIMA’s Information Governance Principles for Healthcare™ (IGPHC) provide a framework for healthcare organizations to enhance....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: August 21, 2015

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author alone and should not be interpreted otherwise or as advice.



AHIMA’s newly developed Information Governance Principles for Healthcare (IGPHC)TM offer healthcare professionals an informat....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: July 15, 2015

In last month’s Legal e-Speaking, “ESI Meets Court Order,” I posed a series of questions about preservation and spoliation of electronically stored information (ESI) in the context of an actual order entered in a state court. I also posed those questions to members of The....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: AHIMA blog post | Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: June 11, 2015

I’ve written for AHIMA on various subjects, including preservation and spoliation of electronically stored information (ESI). This month, I want to ask you to think about both.


To start, consider this premise: The parties to a civil action agreed to an order “on D....

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA - website

Publication Date: May 20, 2015

As the costs associated with data storage and storage infrastructure continue to shrink—thanks to innovations such as cloud computing—individuals who manage records for a living must accept a new reality: destroying information and setting retention schedules will soon b....

Author: Butler, Mary

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2014

If a brazen television show producer were looking to cash in on the popularity of shows about hoarders, observing a health information management (HIM) department could be a good place to start.


Stories about hoarding records abound. Some hospitals have reinforced their fl....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2014

The September e-HIM Best Practices article answered some basic questions about preservation of records in the context of civil litigation. This article will consider the question, “What if something goes wrong?”

Spoliation Defined


Health information management (H....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2014

The term preservation, when used in a legal context, refers to placing information identified as relevant to a civil or criminal US court case in a legal hold to ensure the data is not destroyed or tampered with.


Health information managers, or anyone who works with records....

Author: Eramo, Lisa A

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2014

It’s midnight, and your cough has been unrelenting. You power up your laptop and visit one of the many websites that feature online access to physicians 24/7. Within minutes, you’re engaging in a video consultation with a board-certified physician who evaluates you, provides clinical inst....

Author: Hedges, Ron

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: August 2014

Courts don’t remain civil on their own. It takes well-crafted procedural rules, enforced by knowledgeable attorneys and judges, to keep the American legal system humming along in an orderly fashion. Aiding with the civility of the law is the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Federal Rules....

Author: Dimick, Chris

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2013

Though sometimes used interchangeably, data governance and information governance are two distinct terms with very different meanings. And information technology (IT) governance is something completely different as well. With AHIMA pushing its members and the healthcare industry to embrace information governance as a major tent pole of HIM work, it is important for HIM professionals to understand the difference and interrelation of these governance terms and just what an individual can do to help foster governance initiatives that aim to improve health records and patient care....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: October 2013

Editor's note: This update supersedes the August 2011 practice brief "Retention and Destruction of Health Information."



Health information management professionals traditionally have performed retention and destruction functions using all media, including paper, images, optic....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: October 2013

This practice brief has been updated. See the latest version here. This version is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2013

Metadata is the foundation on which information management systems are built. It is required to support the various uses of data, to manage the information and record lifecycle, to verify data integrity, authenticity, and reliability, and to evaluate the relative importance of data and informat....

Author: Coleman, Johnathan

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2013

Not all protected health information (PHI) is created equally. Some health data requires special handling according to law, organizational policies, or patient preferences. For appropriate sharing of health information to occur, a patient must trust that a provider organization will proper....

Author: Crawford, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2013

Patient portals are becoming commonplace in healthcare facilities, which have installed the technology to provide patients and physicians immediate online access to electronic medical records. Adoption of patient portals will continue to increase, driven in part by stage 2 “meaningfu....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2012

Increased adoption and use of health information technology by healthcare providers has made greater consumer access to health information possible, as well as increased general engagement in health maintenance and care. The opportunities for improving quality and efficiency afforded by this ne....

Author: Demster, Barbara

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2012

Technology has transformed the world of health information management (HIM), bringing about change for many of the field’s longstanding professional concepts and work methods. The classic rule of ownership in the words-on-paper era of health records was that “the paper (physical medium) belong....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: February 2012

Action Item Responsible Party Comments Completion Date
Obtain a list of all health information and technology systems. For example:
Practice A Encoder
Practice B Encoder
Practice A Lab Module
Practice B Lab Module
Practice A Billing System
Practice B Billing Syste....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: February 2012

Editor's note: This practice brief supplants the November 1996 brief "Managing Health Information in Facility Mergers and Acquisitions."



Healthcare's rapidly changing environment has prompted an increase in mergers and acquisitions as facilities and providers strive to s....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: February 2012

Purpose:
To ensure all health information-related tasks are addressed in the process of setting up a new clinic.
Departments Needed: Contracting, Marketing, IS, HIM, Patient Management Systems, EMR Team, Clinic Management, Billing/Coding Questions to Answer:
1. What is the legal name....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2011

The most common type of media used in healthcare practices in the past several decades has been text. Text is comprised of printed words, letters, and numbers translated into information used for diagnosis and treatment.

Today's healthcare practices have adopted more sophisticated me....

Author: Dooling, Julie A; Downing, Kathy

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 02, 2011

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, Stage I meaningful use incentives focus on electronically capturing health information in a structured format. While scanned images do not meet these requirements, electronic document management syst....

Author: Wiedemann, Lou Ann

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 02, 2011

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, 45 CFR, section 164.524 and 164.526) and subsequent privacy rule revisions under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act changed how covered entities approach a patient’s right to ac....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: August 2011

This practice brief has been updated. See the latest version here. This version is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: August 2011

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: August 2011

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: August 2011

This document is intended to be used as a guide and is not intended to be all-inclusive. It should be adapted to the setting or organization type.

Purpose: To ensure appropriate health information management tasks are processed during the acquisition, closure, or dissolution of an org....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: August 2011

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: August 2011

This practice brief has been updated. See the latest version here. This version is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: August 2011

Editor's note: This update supplants the November 2003, March 1999, and September 1996 practice briefs "Protecting Patient Information after a Facility Closure."



Today's healthcare environment fosters competitiveness and complex business relationships. These environment....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief attachment

Publication Date: August 2011

This practice brief has been updated. See the latest version here. This version is made available for historical purposes only.

Author:

Source: AHIMA online training

Publication Date: May 17, 2011

This webinar addresses the management of legacy systems around patient care and compliance directives, how to manage, retain and maintain legacy systems to limit the amount of lost data, and preserve important data to expedite legal cases and payments.

Author: Center for Studying Health System Change

Source: External web site

Publication Date: May 05, 2011

Author: AHIMA

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2011

The laws surrounding release of a deceased patient's records can lead to complex and frustrating situations in the HIM department. Just who has access rights depends on federal law, state law, and individual circumstances, illustrated by the two scenarios below.

Last summer the Office....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2011

Editor's note: This update supplants the November-December 2006 practice brief "Privacy and Security in Health Information Exchange".


The primary function of a health information exchange (HIE) is to permit access to clinical information on demand at the point of care. HIEs enabl....

Author: Haas, Mark

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2011

Since 2007 Massachusetts General Hospital has been working toward a do-it-yourself model for records requests. Not only does the organization save time and money when patients fulfill their own requests, the model also aligns with the emerging philosophy of patient-centered care, wher....

Author: Dinh, Angela K.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2011

In the past several years cloud computing has gained substantial recognition. However, it is still a relatively new concept for those in the healthcare industry.

Before adopting cloud-based services or applications, organizations need to understand how cloud computing works, the typ....

Author: Rode, Dan

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2011

Data stewardship is a hot topic. As this issue went to press, the Department of Health and Human Services was expected to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking on accounting of disclosures, an expansion of the HIPAA requirements mandated by the HITECH Act.

Rulemaking was also expe....

Author: Dimick, Chris

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2011

Lawsuits can hinge on a deposition. And while HIM professionals have long been called on to attest to the production of the paper medical record, electronic health record systems are introducing a whole new set of questions and considerations.

Providing an accurate deposition on an....

Author: Wiedemann, Lou Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2011

Managing third-party requests for health information is a routine function for every HIM department. HIM professionals regularly receive record requests from third parties for a variety of reasons, such as revenue integrity audits or admission validation reviews.

Historically, fulfi....

Author: AHIMA

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2011

A 45-year-old man rushes into a Maryland hospital's HIM department requesting the full medical records of both his 70-year-old mother and father. Both had been previously treated by the hospital for complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Some years previously the mother and father e....

Author: Dinh, Angela K.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2011

The electronic health record's promise of a paperless environment has been around for decades, but it has proven difficult to keep. Regardless of how an EHR is implemented or the phase of implementation, paper remains a staple of the health record for quite some time after conversion and, in m....

Author: Dimick, Chris

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2011

Important differences exist in advance directives. Only some grant access to another person's medical records, and that can change with time.

After 50 years of marriage, Rosa Taylor-Payne noticed even the slightest change in her husband, Marvell Payne. So she started to worry when he....

Author: Warner, Diana

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2010

Many organizations still struggle with ongoing and timely clinical communication among physicians and between physicians and their patients. Physician-to-physician communication for ongoing patient care is especially complex. It requires identifying all physicians involved in the care of a pat....

Author: AHIMA

Source: AHIMA practice brief

Publication Date: November 2010

A successful transition from paper-based charts to electronic health records (EHRs) in the physician practice or clinic requires careful coordination of many moving parts. A myriad of challenging and complex decisions must be made, ranging from selection and implementation to training and maint....

Author: Berryhill, Tammy Lynn

Source: Perspectives in Health Information Management

Publication Date: October 2010

Many of us have preconceived notions about how we will work within the new electronic environment as we help the implementation process succeed. Perhaps we need to also look at the negative impact some of these changes have had on HIM personnel. Some may find their tasks outsourced, o....

Author: Adam, Chris

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: September 28, 2010

Introduction

Stories about the theft of confidential data have made headlines all too frequently over the past few years. This reality is forcing some businesses to face up to an inconvenient truth: Many organizations have no reliable procedures to ensure that the computers and rel....

Author: Medicare Learning Network

Source: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Publication Date: August 10, 2010

Author: DeLoss, Gerald E.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2010

In a typical legal action, judges have a different perspective on the production of electronically stored information (ESI) than do HIM professionals. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, case law, and past experiences with discovery disputes play an important role in how judges view e-discov....

Author: AHIMA Physician Practice Council

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2010

Arguably, the greatest challenge for a medical practice implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system is change. Setting up new software and hardware is typically easier than disrupting and reconfiguring the practice’s processes and determining how to handle its existing paper records.....

Author: Lee, Lorraine; Whitcomb, Kathleen; Galbreth, Michael; Patterson, David

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2010

Backed with fresh ARRA funding, SCHIEx blends business models with a strong state role and a belief that HIE is a public good.

The field of health information exchange is littered with examples of failed or defunct efforts, such as those in Santa Barbara (CA), Seattle, Cle....

Author: Wiedemann, Lou Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2010

For most organizations, patient-identifiable source data include data from interpretations, summaries, or notes. These data are usually maintained within the originating department, separate from the HIM department and the health record, and sometimes in a different database. Examples incl....

Author: Horn, William S

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2010

The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) project offers guidelines and standards for e-discovery. It has helped reduce the cost, time, and manual work associated with e-discovery and has proven to be invaluable to those engaged in litigation support since its creation in 2005.

Author: Washington, Lydia; Katsh, Ethan; Sondheimer, Norman

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2009

Healthcare providers receive relatively few patient requests to correct or change information in their records. In part, that has been because patients had poor access to their information. EHRs, PHRs, and private and public initiatives may change all that. Is healthcare ready?

A per....

Author: Nunn, Sandra L.; O'Connor, Michele

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 05, 2009

Introduction

Health Information Management professionals have embraced the challenge of implementing and managing the Electronic Health Record. This presentation will demonstrate how to stretch the skills the HIM professional developed in building the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to mov....

Author: Nunn, Sandra L.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2009

Audit trails are records with retention requirements, and HIM professionals should include them in their management of electronic health record content. Legal and compliance needs drive audit trail management, but it is complicated by the challenges that IT departments face in storing these la....

Author:

Source: External web site

Publication Date: June 23, 2009

Author: Mertz, Kory

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: June 2009

States view health IT as a key component of their efforts to improve healthcare, and in recent years they have made significant efforts to address the challenges to its implementation. From 2007 to 2008, state legislatures introduced more than 380 bills with provisions relating to health IT. O....

Author: Dimick, Chris

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2009

Washington State’s experiment in consumer-controlled health records has moved into a pilot phase, transforming the health record banking model from theory to testing. In March the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) announced the launch of three pilot sites that will try out the....

Author: Miaoulis, William M

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2009

There can be three situations under which healthcare organizations may need to sequester (or segregate) certain data within a medical record: placing a legal hold in connection with litigation, limiting disclosures of a record pursuant to a request by a patient, and restricting access to sensi....

Author: U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; U.S. Office for Civil Rights

Source: Government (U.S.)

Publication Date: December 16, 2008

Author: Amatayakul, Margret

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2008

Healthcare providers are looking for ways to reduce the risk of data breaches; however, tighter access controls that would help thwart inappropriate internal access to protected health information have been challenging to implement. Health Level Seven’s RBAC Healthcare Permission Cat....

Author: Bernstein, William

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2008

Providing consumers access to their health information seems like a simple concept. In reality, it is fraught with challenges. Records are still largely in paper form, and gaining access to them means contacting multiple parties and paying significant fees. Even when records are in electronic....

Author: Trites, Patricia

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: July 2008

Metadata are not inherently good or bad, they just are. Metadata have been defined as “data about data.”1 They can be further described as the “who, what, where, and when” of electronic documents.2 Their importance depends on who is viewing the information—promine....

Author: Rinehart-Thompson, Laurie A.

Source: Perspectives in Health Information Management

Publication Date: June 2008

Author: Grzybowski, Darice

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2008

For Mercy Health Partners, solving its paper records storage needs was a sound first step in achieving its long-range health IT plans.
Mercy Health Partners, part of the Catholic Healthcare Partners group, knew it couldn’t put the electronic cart before the paper horse.

....

Author: Dimick, Chris

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2008

Banking health data like a financial transaction is the simplest solution to healthcare’s networking challenges says William Yasnoff, founder of the Health Record Banking Alliance.

There are a lot of plans for regional and, eventually, nationwide health information exchange, b....

Author: Berry, Michael

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2008

The potential benefits of health information exchange (HIE) are well documented, as are the privacy concerns of data sharing. In this new environment, patients are seeking increased control and transparency regarding how, with whom, and under what circumstances their electronic records are sha....

Author: Nunn, Sandra L.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2008

Within the last decade, the domain of record retention management has exploded in response to the development of electronic records and their storage demands, the mandates emanating from regulations like HIPAA, and the emergence of e-discovery as the requisite method for compelling record prod....

Author: Nunn, Sandra L.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2008

Many of today’s healthcare entities have hybrid medical records, and policies abound describing what parts of the record are still accessed in paper and what components are now fully electronic. Wherever healthcare organizations are in the race to create fully accessible and secure elect....

Author: AHIMA e-Discovery Task Force

Source: AHIMA web extra

Publication Date: February 02, 2008

AHIMA Model e-Discovery Policy

Subject/Title

Retention, Storage, and Destruction of
Paper and Electronic Health Information
and Records



Page _ of _

Author: Moore, Donald B.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2007

The need to secure and streamline the management of medical information has become mainstream news. Medical information exists in various forms—paper charts, x-ray films, electronic health records—and is located in different repositories that often can’t talk to each other. H....

Author: AHIMA EHR Practice Council

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2007

This practice brief has been retired. It is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: Wolter, Julie

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: October 2007

Many patients have their personal health information scattered across various practitioners and settings. Personal health records (PHRs) can help patients keep track of all their medical information. There are many different PHR products and models available today.


Cu....

Author: Quinsey, Carol Ann

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2007

Capturing data digitally is one thing. Producing it later is another. Any organization required to produce electronic documentation for any reason—whether for discovery in a legal proceeding or disclosure in support of ongoing patient care—knows that producing documentation....

Author: Burrington-Brown, Jill; Hjort, Beth M.; Washington, Lydia

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2007

This practice brief has been retired. It is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: Rollins, Gina

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: May 2007

Paper copies of electronic records pose more than administrative hassles, they raise liability concerns as well.
As healthcare providers move closer to fully electronic health records, paper remains, frustratingly, part of the equation.

Some elements, like authorizat....

Author: Waller, Adele A.

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2006

To protect the information rights of both individuals and organizations, RHIOs must identify and address the issues from the outset.

The exchange of health information among disparate organizations raises significant issues concerning the rights and responsibilities of all pa....

Author: Carter, Patricia; Lemery, Chrisann; Mikels, Debra A; Bowen, Rita K.; Hjort, Beth M.

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: November 2006

This practice brief has been updated. See the latest version here. This version is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: Rinehart-Thompson, Laurie A.

Source: AHIMA Convention

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

Introduction

The importance and challenges of health record retention are not new to the HIM professional; however, the practice of health record retention has shifted into high gear in today’s fast-paced healthcare environment. The healthcare industry has embraced electronic health....

Author: AHIMA e-HIM Work Group on e-Discovery

Source: AHIMA practice brief | Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: September 2006

This practice brief has been retired. It is made available for historical purposes only.

Author: Brick, Frank

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2006

Computer systems are feeling the effects of HIPAA. That's because the act's privacy and security rules require covered entities to securely store and manage more data than ever before. The latest computers to feel the effect are those in small covered entities, where the security rule takes ef....

Author: Carol, Ruth

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: April 2006

EHRs demonstrated their promise during Hurricane Katrina. But the storm's greatest lesson for HIM is the necessity of contingency planning for health information.
By now we've heard numerous stories about the piles of pulp that used to be patient medical records and the shelves of mildewe....

Author: Rollins, Gina

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: March 2006

Not all EHR products deliver strong audit and verification functions. A key HIM consideration is not always a key product feature.
Given the ability of computers to log each user's every keystroke, electronic health records (EHRs) have great potential for robust auditing and record verif....

Author: Tossell, Beth; Stewart, Emily; Goldman, Janlori; AARP Public Policy Institute

Source: External web site

Publication Date: February 15, 2006

Author: Harford, Joseph P.; Rizzo, Karen

Source: Journal of AHIMA

Publication Date: January 2006

One of the many challenges of the HIPAA age is handling the millions of outdated computers and associated peripheral devices. Once a back-burner issue, computer disposal is now front and center in the healthcare industry. The need to secure a health organization’s network goes well beyon....