Lauren Carmean

Intro to HIT
Dr. Lankisch
4.18.17
Future of HIM

Our societys welfare depends on the quality of healthcare available in our communities.

From the beginning of time the evolution of healthcare has changed and developed to keep up

with the latest technology and diseases in our areas. Converting from the manual process that

used to be a time consuming, tedious and inaccurate has now become a safe, quick and easy

electronic process that also meets the needs of the healthcare workers and our patients. Although

many organizations are still using both methods side by side it has overall made the entire

process more efficient for all involved.

The future of the Health Information Profession may continue to evolve throughout the

coming years. Some have the perception the HIM role will not be as needed in the future as

things continue to evolve within the IT world in the hospital setting as it stands right now. To a

certain extent, that's true, because huge filing areas of MRDs will disappear, and so will

functions, such as filing, retrieving, lab report mounting, assembling, deficiency checking, record

completing, and statistics collecting. HIM personnel without IT knowledge will find themselves

insignificant and jobless. (AHMIA, 2004) The HIM department should not look at this new era

as barrier but as an exciting opportunity to open doors and be more involved in the health care

industry. The truth is that HIM can benefit multiple service lines and fill the voids that others
may not be able to piece together. The Health Information Profession is actually an important

and positive influence to the bottom line.

Currently the majority of the HIM professions role is made up of organization and

managing the extensive medical record department including but not limited to the staff,

equipment and medical records. Leadership within the health information department currently

focus their time on personnel, organizational needs (medical, nursing, patient care services, lab,

and X-ray) and administering insurance and third party payment.

HIMs leadership future may look to be quite different than present day functions. They

should be seeking to develop new software for the HIM systems that coincide with the up and

coming technology. Once the HIM leadership teams tests the new software, customizing it to

meet the needs of their specific area would be the next step. They would then train their staff and

others that would be utilizing the EMR to use this new technology. Once training is complete

and the software is in place, leadership would then observe the process through to the end

confirming that it is sufficient for their job duties.

Additionally, the role of the HIM professional will also include analyzing healthcare cost,

quality, research and productivity. Within the system there will be multiple data systems that the

HIM role will be responsible for manipulating within the data base management systems. HIM

professionals have to find new ways to demonstrate their worth to healthcare management by

expanding their roles as analysts of data. (AHMIA, 2004)

Staff within the MRD will be responsible for 1 of 3 categories within the department:

managerial, which will include all administration functions; supervisory, will work with

information technology, cost, quality and privacy; operational, will work side by side with the
section supervisor to develop learning material for staff. HIM professionals and the AHIMA

will continue to play a key role in the future of health care and the complex, integrated

information system needed to support the delivery of efficient, quality care in an expanding and

transforming health care system. (Hanken, 2016)

As healthcare evolves, more players are getting involved in the success of the medical

record. Physicians, nurses, and other clinicians are entering the field of informatics, joining task

teams to help derive greater insight from clinical data. Its becoming a perfect storm of

collaboration: patients are interested in becoming engaged with their own health information,

and clinical teams are asking to join the conversation of data analytics and metrics. (Nuance,

2016)

Change is nothing new to the HIM departments, the last three decades have been filled

with transitions. Looking ahead to the next decade, the healthcare system is expected to drive

more change that will impact the systems more than the last three combined. There are four areas

that will be effected the most: integrated and interconnected electronic systems, more controlled

access to patient data, sophisticated and coordinated HIM teams, more analysis of data to support

clinical and business decisions. The focus of the EHR will be turning more towards patient

centered environments and quality outcomes. As information grows in importance, and as more

and better information is linked to quality decision making, the EHR will become increasingly

important for both clinical effectiveness and administrative efficiency. It is around the EHR that

the most visible and most profound changes are occurring. The EHR will redefine HIM practice

and HIM roles. (Langelier, 2004) As hard as change is, HIM will effectively evolve and come

out of all of this on top to be more important in the long haul.

 Citations:

Mogli, G., Dr. (2004, October). HIM Professionals' Endurance in 21st Century.
Retrieved from http://bok.ahima.org/doc?oid=57915
Cassidy, B. (2016, June 21). Home-field advantage: the future success of the HIM
profession. Retrieved from http://whatsnext.nuance.com/healthcare/future-success-
him-professionals/
Company, I. G. (2015, January). HIM's Future in Population Health Management.
Retrieved from http://www.fortherecordmag.com/archives/0115p8.shtml
Hanken, M. A. (2016) Health Information Management of a Strategic Resource.
St. Louis. MO: Elsevier.
Wing, Paul, and Margaret H. Langlier. The Future of HIM: Employer Insights
into the Coming Decade of Rapid Change. Journal of AHMIA, no.6 (June 2004)