Lynne Thomas Gordon, AHIMA’s new CEO, began her first days on the job at the organization’s 83rd annual convention in Salt Lake City this week. She joins AHIMA after serving as associate vice president for hospital operations and director of the Children’s Hospital at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She is also a member of the Rush University faculty in the graduate program in health systems management. She succeeds Rose Dunn, who has served as interim CEO since May, after then CEO Alan Dowling and COO Sandra Fuller stepped down.
Thomas Gordon, who received a standing ovation from the membership at the convention, spoke with Healthcare IT News about her expectations, and about the challenges ahead for the 63,000 member organization.
What is your vision for AHIIMA?
Before I can really say what is my vision, I’m going to reconnect, listen to the members and the board, connect with the staff and take the pulse of the industry. We can’t be all things to all people. We’ll have to develop a strategy, and we’ll have to execute. You don’t do it alone. You have to share the dream, build the team, and make it happen.
Any special challenge with the previous CEO stepping down with no explanation from AHIMA?
No, AHIMA has fabulous leaders, and the organization will move on. AHIMA is strong.
Will most healthcare organizations be ready for ICD-10 by 2013?
I don’t think they are going to be able to not to be ready. The consequences are that they’re not going to get paid. So what’s going to happen to their accounts receivable? Take your vitamins and put on your roller skates.
Besides the ICD-10 conversion, what are the biggest challenge facing the HIM profession today?
The health information manager is the person between the IT geek and the clinician. There are many people retiring and the number of people we need is unbelievable. We have to make sure we have enough properly trained people to manage the data so that it can be transformed into information and knowledge that will help improve the way we provide care.
What are you reading?
I’m re-reading The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, by Michael Watkins. Also recently read There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America, by Alex Kotlowitz; The Help, by Kathryn Stockett; and Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't, by Jeffrey Pfeffer.
