Discussion Week 4

By Lesley Kadlec, MA, RHIA, CHDA, and Annessa Kirby

We hear so much about the amount of data available in healthcare today. But we are just beginning to understand the

importance of analyzing that data to make decisions. As buzzwords like “information governance” and “data analytics”

are becoming more mainstream, the analysis of data is becoming an expectation—a requirement, in fact—for

healthcare organizations. It is no longer an acceptable practice to ask for information and not do anything with it. In

order to continue to be progressive in healthcare and to meet the “triple aim” we need to analyze and use healthcare

data more effectively to produce the kind of outcomes in healthcare that are needed and that our consumers expect.

Given this lofty goal, the members of the AHIMA Informatics and Data Analytics Task Force were asked to share some

thoughts about how HIM professionals are putting this expectation into action. One task force member started with

sharing some background definitions: “In general, informatics is the natural progression of health information

management. Webster’s definition of informatics is: the collection, classification, storage, retrieval and dissemination of

recorded knowledge. HIM has been doing that even with the use of paper records—providing the records to other

people—and natural progression into the electronic world, free text, structured data fields.”

Resoundingly, the overwhelming feeling of the team members echoed the importance of HIM to the progression of

informatics and data analytics in healthcare organizations. One of the respondents stated, “We are the profession who

has this knowledge to manage and analyze data accurately. We have the text book knowledge and best practice

experience (and) can contribute to the informatics war, the new terminology, the new demand and broader aspects and

domains of healthcare.” In fact, another member went on to say that “Our profession needs to emphasize that we

understand the data and what it is saying. It justifies that we are needed for that [type of new role]. HIM professionals

make the best data analysts because they truly understand the data!”

One of the members also mentioned that HIM is the perfect middleman. So, we looked up “middleman” and found this

book called “The Middleman Economy” and the editorial about it on this link. It states:

“Middlemen are more prevalent—and more important—than ever. Agents, brokers, dealers, and resellers get a bad rap,

but they play a crucial role in almost every platform today—including the ones that were meant to cut them out of the

transaction. As a result, being an effective middleman has become an even more valuable skill than it was in the past.”

The book’s author, Marina Krakovsky, outlines six roles to embrace and execute to be an effective middleman:

 The Bridge

 The Certifier

 The Enforcer

 The Risk Bearer

 The Concierge

 The Insulator

While an HIM professional could play all of these roles within a 24-hour period, the role that seems to complement HIM

the most is that of the Concierge. “The Concierge reduces hassles and helps clients make good decisions in the face of

information overload.” Sound familiar? Our clients could be the patient, the clinician, the health information exchange

organization, the payor, the federal government… the list goes on and on.

So what does all of this mean for today’s HIM professional? One task force member summed it up best: “[There is] huge

potential in the direction that HIM is going toward. It will take time to convince people of the value that we as HIM

professionals hold. The return on investment needs to be envisioned and the HIM profession needs to be sold—[HIM

professionals must be the] lobbyists in making the change happen in today’s healthcare environment.” Another task

force member described our value and the value of data as being able to “…bring about a proactive versus a reactive

approach. Being able to identify and mitigate the ‘why’ and be proactive for these situations can have a financial impact

on facilities. HIM can prove this benefit of a proactive approach.”

We’re in an economy—whether the financial, housing, or healthcare sector—where convenience is expected. When

online shopping, we expect websites such as Amazon.com to know our preferences because of what we’ve clicked on in

the past. We expect our social media accounts such as Facebook to remember our password and only show us posts

from friends and businesses that we’ve demonstrated preference for within the website. All of this convenience is based

on data. Amazon and Facebook have made the data meaningful to the consumer. Healthcare is in the process of doing

the same thing. Person-centric care is an expectation, not just a quality measure. HIM is the perfect and essential

middleman. We just need to put ourselves in the right light.

Lesley Kadlec ([email protected]) is a director of practice excellence and Annessa Kirby

([email protected]) is practice council manager at AHIMA.