The American Health Information Management Association has posted a new consumer engagement toolkit to help HIM professionals understand how best to engage patients by using a variety of existing and emerging technologies.
AHIMA’s new Consumer Engagement Toolkit brings resources that focus on the opportunities that patient advocates and navigators presents in terms of collaborating with clinical staff and the role of information specialists in accessing records while maintaining compliance with federal regulations.
Another piece is geared to help HIM professionals take on a leadership role, including training staff to prepare them for consumer engagement, educating them about available technologies and widespread industry trends such as health information exchanges that they should know about to perform well in their jobs.
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AHIMA’s intention with the Consumer Engagement Toolkit is to not only help users understand the technologies including EHRs, mHealth, telehealth services, and social media that are increasingly coming into their work lives but also to know how to better engagement patients that are open to using those resources.
“Traditionally the clinical care team played the major role in the patient experience,” AHIMA CEO Lynn Thomas Gordon said in the announcement. “But the change in the way patients consume their health information means today’s HIM professional plays an important role in giving healthcare consumers the tools needed to make all interactions and communications with their providers meaningful and efficient.”
To that end, AHIMA’s Consumer Engagement Toolkit also offers patient engagement background on programs such as the Blue Button Campaign and the Open Notes Project, as well as guidelines and advice about patient rights under HIPAA.
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