Bonnie Cassidy, vice president of HIM product management at Reston, Va.-based QuadraMed and the president-elect of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), sat down with Healthcare IT News at AHIMA's 82nd annual convention and exhibit to talk about the importance of the health information management profession, and her vision for the future.
When you look at AHIMA at this unprecedented time for healthcare IT, what do you see?
We just increased to more than 60,000 members. It's a large organization of highly skilled individuals. So we really want to promote the profession, and ensure that we're providing all the tools that the members need. We've focused on influencing policy, creating standards and providing evidence-based research. All of those are key components for the HIM profession to progress. And we have to continue to move forward.
How important is HIM to EHR adoption?
There's much in the EHR content area that is falling in the HIM domain. And it hasn't all been addressed yet, because everyone is just now moving to the EHR. So we have the time now to be preparing our members for that transformation. Right now, for hospitals that are transitioning to EHRs, thinking in terms of what to tell their physicians and how to implement, HIM should be integrally involved in setting up that structured data, and in what's going in. Because HIM has the knowledge of ICD-10. You have to be visionary to see what the future is. Right now, we're kind of living in both worlds. You have those hospitals that are paper, those that are hybrids, and those that are electronic. So you have to provide programs and services to address all those.
But you have to have education as a key foundation. And that's where AHIMA comes in. You've got academic education, you've got continuing education and professional development, and the way that gets fueled is by the evidence-based research. So we as an organization have to continue to push what the best practices are for HIM. Because you can't go from working in paper, to all of a sudden having these highly detailed systems that you have to be managing, overnight. What are some other crucial areas for HIM? We're hearing so much these days about how data integrity and security and privacy – all the areas HIM works with – are moving into the HIEs. They're moving into the regional extension centers. So the careers that you have in HIM are just expanding so much. And we have to continue to influence policy. Because that's the only way you're going to know what's being done with medical record information. Also, increasing the awareness, so the healthcare industry knows the value the HIM professional brings to the table.
What do you see as your primary mandate, and what changes will you be implementing?
First, to continue to refine our strategic focus. In the past, we didn't have a vision statement, if you will. We have to continue to focus our mission, vision and values – our guiding principles and strategic plan – so we can really move forward and address healthcare's needs.
We've addressed the education, policy, standards and research. We now have to expand that and really make sure we're doing everything we can to be refining those roles.
Because we can't just have the president of AHIMA go tell, say, ONC what a great job we're doing at AHIMA. Instead, it's the members who are going to be out there doing it: talking to their own senator and trying to influence policy. Getting into the strategy sessions of their own organizations to build the EHR content or to help them with an ICD-10 steering committee. It's the member that makes the difference, not the organization. We just have to make sure the members are prepared and confident.
AHIMA has been around a long time – since 1928. What do you think its founders would say if they could see this sea change in technology, this huge conference, and this massive show floor?
I think they probably had the vision. They knew things would be changing, and that there would be innovation. I don't think something on this scale, with complete IT adoption nationwide, was really in their mindset. But I think they'd be so proud to see the changes that have been made. And especially that we have stuck to our convictions, and to the professional code of ethics of the HIM profession. Because ethics is what differentiates the HIM professional: the code of ethics for privacy and confidentiality and protecting the patient's health information.
