As the digital age advances, health information managers are key to keeping digital information accurate, accessible, updated, and secure. This is mainly because of their important role in information systems.
The 21st century has seen a nationwide shift from paper health forms to electronic health records. This shift from analog to electronic health records (EHRs) has increased healthcare efficiency, not only for physicians but also for patients. It enables doctors to provide more special care by easily reviewing a patient's medical history and enables patients to be more actively involved in their health.
What is Health Information Management?
Information saves lives. Access to patient health data enables healthcare business administrators, doctors, and nurses to make important care decisions that can make all the difference in the world for patients. Health information systems integrate health services and information technology seamlessly and effectively.
They are critical to getting health data into the right hands as quickly as possible. Healthcare organizations can use health information systems to collect, store, and manage data. Doctors and nurses use health information systems to make data-driven judgments about many aspects of patient care. For example, a quick visit to a patient's medical history can reveal previous treatments.
But they're not the only ones benefiting from it. Administrators can use the health information system to study statistics about different departments or programs to better allocate or manage resources. In addition, health information systems include specific clinicians or healthcare organizations, such as therapies or interventions that are used regularly in relation to the most important outcomes. Here are some of the benefits of digital healthcare information systems:
- Increase the speed and accuracy of patient care
- Easy access to medical office management data improves hospital management
- Cost control to make service more accessible
- Expand service capabilities
- Reduce labor costs and inventory levels
- Above all this improves the quality of patient care
Anyone who wants to become a valued member of healthcare management needs to be familiar with these systems. This is the fine line between poor and excellent patient care. In order to provide excellent service in this department, you need a qualified health information manager.
What Does a Health Information Manager Do?
A Health Information Manager (HIM) is a professional who oversees a medical center's health information system. They protect information, such as patient health information data. These include symptoms, medical history, test results, and procedures. In simple terms, they organize, oversee, and protect medical data.
As administrative specialists, health information managers ensure the quality, accuracy, accessibility, and security of traditional and digital health data. They are an important link between doctors, patients, and third parties. They are educated in information technology and often link clinical, operational, and administrative responsibilities. They also help hospitals comply with federal legislation requiring the use of electronic medical records.
As mentioned earlier, health information systems have transformed healthcare delivery. However, history shows that the benefits of these technologies do not become apparent immediately after implementation. There may be operational issues that affect the timeliness, accessibility, and accuracy of the information. Therefore, hiring a competent HIM is one of the paths to a successful information system.
Typical responsibilities
It's an exciting career, and people wear a lot of hats even when working in small facilities. Here are some of the tasks that health information managers need to perform:
- Enter and maintain information in the electronic medical record (EMR).
- Organize and maintain clinical databases and registry data.
- Keep electronic patient health records secure.
- Keep up with the latest best practices and emerging trends in health information security.
- Manage health data, encode and classify information using classification systems.
- Maintain an accurate patient history.
- Retain reliable patient data for insurance reimbursement.
- Maintain electronic and analog (paper) records.
- Review records for completeness and accuracy
- Track medical outcomes to assess quality.
- Secrecy.
- Establish and implement departmental goals and strategic initiatives.
- Ensure compliance with legal requirements from regulatory agencies at the federal, state, and municipal levels.
- On-site and remote hiring, training, and managing health information technology personnel.
- Communicate with physicians and other technicians, clinical informatics and service staff.
- Medical record documents
- Medical coding
- Preparation of internal and external audits as well as written assessments and reports.
- Design information processes and systems
- Health information security
- State and Federal Privacy Practices and Laws
- Data integrity at the enterprise level
These and many others are some of the duties of health informatics specialists who often work with you as doctors, your patients, registered nurses, and other healthcare professionals. In this way, they can clarify the information needed to maintain the accuracy and completeness of medical records.
Health information management growth
Health information managers guarantee the reliability and security of medical information. Nurses, doctors, and other health care workers can use it when and when needed. Without a doubt, they are essential in every medical institution.
Doctors and the Medical Regulatory Board are also working to improve these systems for tracking medical data. In addition to this, the sector is growing dramatically with an aging population, requiring more medical services.
Important qualities and skills
- Attention to detail – Accuracy is critical when coding and recording patient information, as health records affect the patient's health and the responsibilities of those involved in record keeping.
- Technical skills – They must be understanding the classification and coding softwares. They must be particularly knowledgeable about the electronic health record (EHR) system used by the organization or practice they work for.
- Interpersonal skills – HIM must clearly and directly communicate the complex issues of patient information and data requirements to other professionals who are not subject matter experts. They must also pay attention to the patient's status in order to establish a positive relationship with them.
- Strong analytical skills – They must be able to read and understand medical records and know how to code them.
- Integrity – Because health information specialists are entrusted with the handling of personal patient information, they must have a strong sense of integrity, obligation, and ethics. To protect the privacy of patients, they must remain vigilant and cautious.
Protect patient information
The digitization of patient data, combined with the sensitivity of patient information, requires someone to handle all of your patient information. Management training in this area and compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HIPAA) patient safety rules.
As a doctor, you can rely on HIM to meet your data security concerns. Healthcare IT teams ensure that healthcare practitioners have secure access to patient health information. These groups are overseen by health information managers who control the storage, protection, and accessibility of electronic medical records.
