April 18-24 is Health Information Professionals Week, which recognizes health Information management (HIM) professionals who work in coding, revenue cycle, informatics, data analytics and information governance.
This year’s theme is “Keeping Health Information Human” because behind every piece of health information is a patient. HIM professionals help give patients easier access to their health information, which empowers them to take a more active role in their health care.
By ensuring the integrity of health information, HIM professionals also play a key role in delivering quality care to patients. This includes developing and maintaining policies and standards to strengthen identification of patients to enhance patient safety and improve interoperability and efficient workflows.
HIM professionals also play a vital role in:
- Leading the efforts to ensure the availability, accuracy, integrity and security of the health record
- Handling mandatory reporting to various state agencies/registries about births, deaths, traumatic brain injuries, etc.
- Coding of diagnoses and procedures for all patient visits
- Overseeing release of information activities to assure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Office for Civil Rights, Office of Inspector General and state and federal regulations
- Participating in the revenue cycle process
