AHIMA Update: Philadelphia, PA
Saturday: 10/6 - The managers and supervisors special interest group 2nd annual meeting was held with 30 attendees. Brenda Hurley and Carol Croft were there and were active participants. I had attended the one in Denver last year and was pleased to be there for this year’s event. Also from the board, we had Vallie Piloian, Betty Honkonen, and Cathy Baughman in attendance. Sherry Doggett a new board member and Jefferson Howe hosted this event for the second year doing an outstanding job of putting together meaningful speakers and topics of interest. During this day-long session, various panel discussions and presentations on timely topics such as compensation, dictation best practices – experiences from Maine Medical Center, Training for MTs and SRT MT/editors, templates and standards, among others. It was a great day of learning and networking.
Sunday: 10/7 - The day began with the MTIA quarterly board meeting with CEO, Peter Preziosi seated between Jay Cannon, MTIA President and Cathy Baughman, AHDI President. Vallie as the liaison for the board and Betty as President-elect were seated at the table. I attended the morning sessions of the board meeting and then spent some time in the AHIMA House of Delegates meeting. They do struggle with so many of the same issues we do. Worker shortages, instructor shortages, changing technologies, preparing for a future transformed and the presence of healthcare system that is moving from treatment of disease to prevention and then ultimately to prediction. They are in favor of higher levels of required college education at the master’s level for the RHIA credential as evidenced in the Vision 2016. (as an aside, I remember well hearing President then, Merida Johns, PhD talk about Vision 2006 in 1996 thinking how far in the future that seemed – now we are past that and moving towards 2016 – can you believe how time flies?).
Monday: 10/8 - Opening Session: Robert Kolodner, MD is head of the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT (ONC). He reminded everyone that even with the advances in technology that we have, most of our health information remains in silos where it is not interconnected and readily available between systems. To this end, ONC is collaborating with HHS to create the federal health IT architecture. He says we need 5 pieces to solve our healthcare puzzle. 1. Standards in health IT products. 2. Privacy and security policies. 3. The national health information network (NHIN) “to link us together.” 4. Adoption of interoperable health IT. And 5. Governance to coordinate all the pieces of the puzzle.
At the ribbon-cutting, AHDI members Betsy Ertel and Monica Haddox stood right next to Bryon Pickard, President of AHIMA as the exhibit hall was opened for the 79th annual conference. Their picture appeared in the daily newspaper provided to all attendees of the convention.
Monday afternoon, Peter Preziosi along with the AHDI board members from the MTIA Steering committee and MTIA board members met with the AHIMA board to discuss projects we had been working on together and a general update along with ideas and possibilities of future collaborations. I am working on the TAT white paper with MTIA and AHIMA as the co-chair with Sean Carroll.
Tuesday: 10/9 - Two excellent speakers kicked off the day in general sessions. The first was Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum talks about the damage of medical identity theft and the big problems that occur and downstream from this. Trying to solve and restore information when this occurs is not so easy. HIPAA does not provide the support or teeth for access and swift resolution when this occurs. To solve, we need: 1. National set of processes to standardize handling of medical identity theft. 2. Create red flag alerts for medical records that prompt healthcare organizations to react in the potential presence of fraud. 3. Create Jane/John Does file extractions in cases where fraud is evidenced. 4. Have dedicated healthcare personnel trained to respond to medical identity theft incidents. 5. When insiders commit this, asking for ID won’t help. 6. Create materials to educate patients and providers.
Next up was Benjamin Carson, MD who did a great job in framing the understanding and content of the nation’s first NHIN. Nine RHIOs have been awarded the contracts worth $22.5 million to create the blueprint for how to develop this on a national scale. This is a very exciting first step towards a fully interoperable healthcare network. For more information go to www.hhs.gov/healthit
Wednesday: 10/10 - General sessions today close the convention. First up with was a panel discussion on Quality, Data and EHRs – Will They Come Together? Dennis O’Leary, MD, (head of the Joint Commission) Janet Corrigan, PhD, MBA, (National Quality Forum) and Richard Umbdenstock, FACHE (CEO of the American Hospital Association). During this panel, the group presented on their special areas of expertise in how all these items will work together to bring us to an electronic health record that ensures quality for all.
The closing keynote was John Walsh from America’s Most Wanted speaking on living life with a mission. Through his tragedy in 1981, John has been instrumental in getting so much done for missing children and missing people across the nation. He was happy to report that they had just caught their 961st criminal the day before. He reports that when you are driven with a purpose and goal, you can make things happen and more than once, he was escorted out of media sessions and hearings. But he persisted. He related his personal story with sorrow and grief and the outcomes in establishing missing children networks when at the time his son went missing there was nothing like that. Not even the FBI would take the case, because it simply wasn’t something they did. He encouraged all in attendance to live their lives with purpose and he commended the excellent mission of solving the challenge of medical identity theft among the others to which health information professionals are dedicated.
This summary above just highlights some content from the general sessions which represent about half of each day. The exhibit hall was overflowing with vendors – about 220 in all. There were 8 different tracks for educational sessions, 3 scheduled for each day and each day, the tracks were different, as well. On Monday, in the Data Capture track, Brenda Hurley and Holly Woemmel did an excellent job presenting on the need to standardize healthcare formats, a topic very timely and relevant for everyone in HIM.
This conference was one of the best ever and they just seem to be growing every year and becoming more valuable. I don’t have the exact attendance of this conference yet, but it is likely the best attended conference yet. We must all strive to reach MTs in the same way and let them see and hear the exciting changes that are taking place in healthcare. Interest in our profession and how it evolves with the advent of these new technologies has never been more needed. This is the time to be engaged, involved and keeping up with the transformation that is taking place each day.
If anyone would like more information on the convention or has any specific questions on the tracks, educational content or just information in general about this incredible week, please contact me at slucci@transrs.com.
