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A Final Message | | |
Dear Members,
It was a pleasure and an honor to serve you this past year as President of CTHIMA. I believe every new endeavor we chose to embrace leads to new skills and the possibility of opening new doors in our career, and life in general. I have learned it is not always the magnitude of what we accomplish, but how we achieve results, both large and small. I've learned it takes courage, desire, emotional stamina, accountability, dependability, stewardship and loyalty. I've also made some new friends!
In my role as Past President, I will continue to serve CTHIMA and work with the new leaders to meet the challenges and expectations of the membership. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Emily Macko, RHIA |
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Emily Goes To Washington | | |
submitted by Emily Macko
Hill Day was held in Washington DC Marcy 29, 2011. What is Hill Day? Hill Day is an opportunity for interaction between the AHIMA membership and policymakers.This is an opportunity to build relationsihps as we are the experts in our field. The invitees are the Presidents from the component State organizations who have scheduled meetings with their state Representatives. I had the oppportunity to meet with the representatives from Joe Courtney D-CT 2nd District and Christopher Murphy D-CT 5th District. Talking points and areas of strategic focus brought forth were:
- Accelerating adoption and appropriate implementation and management of electronic health records.
- Protecting privacy and security of health information while assuring access.
- Implemention of ICD10-CM
- Growing the thealth information management workforce through expanding educational and professional opportunities to meet the current and projected needs of the healthcare workforce.
- Setting professional standards of excellence through certification.
An additional also on the table was the initiative to support the Health Information Professions Advancement Act, realizing HIM professionals serve patients and healthcare industry as not only the stewards of health information, but also as the clinically based workforce leading the adoption of standards-based electronic healthrecords and HEI's. AHIMA is also asking that Congress request the Government Accuontabiltiy Office to initiate a study on the existing patient identify options and to evaluate the cost/benefit and practicality of implementing an infomed patient identify solution.
In addition to my trip to Hill Day, here's what every member can do now to help lead change in policy and legislation tomorrow: 1) Write your local, state and Congressional representative on issues that matter most to you! 2) Make appiontments to see each of your elected state and congressional representatives at least once a year. Activism begins with strong personal relationships. 3) Talk to your local newspaper about HIM issues of which are are most familiar and that have the greatest impact in your day-to-day professional life. 4) Be the vital information hub in your network and professional contacts.
Remember, before you can get someone to act, you first have to get them informed! |
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Blast from the Past | | |
Dedicated HIM Employees
Taken from the minutes of the April 27, 1960 meeting -
"It was announced that C. Hodges of Mt. Sinai Hospital had a baby boy and is continuing to be active in her field, has a typewriter and a transcriber in her home."
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A glimpse into our history! | | | CLICK HERE to view an old treasurer report from 1937. |
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Volunteering | | |
submitted by Marty Cohen
Why does CTHIMA need volunteers? How important are Volunteers to CTHIMA? What type of volunteers are needed by CTHIMA? How much time would I have to give as a volunteer? I have tried to volunteer before but no one contacted me, will this continue to happen?
These are all questions I think we have all asked when the call goes out for volunteers. I think our jobs have gotten harder and we are all doing more with less time to take on volunteering.
Let me start by answering these questions.
Why does CTHIMA need volunteers? First all Board members are people that have volunteered to help lead our CSA. They have made the commitment to give as much time as needed to work on our board, and help set up educational sessions, as well as do all the work needed to run our association. We have 8 people on the board, and a coordinator. That is not many people to help plan a 6 state meeting and all that goes into planning something of that size. They also plan educational sessions and Coding Roundtables throughout the year. We also have to work with AHIMA and the House of Delegates to handle AHIMA issues as they arise. We also need volunteers to work on our committees. The Coding Roundtable Committee is an example of why we need volunteers. This committee has had several members that have been on this committee for almost 12 years helping to develop meetings, get speakers, locations, and address current issues. We need people on our other committees that can do the same thing. We need volunteers to work with our directors who will chair these committees, and develop what direction the committees need to go in order to help our association. We cannot do it alone.
How Important are Volunteers to CTHIMA? As stated before, the Board cannot do it alone. The more volunteers we have the easier it is to provide you with quality educational sessions, and we can do more as an association. The more Volunteers we have the more new ideas that are produced to help each committee do things that benefit the association.
What type of volunteers are needed by CTHIMA? We can use anyone that would like to make a difference in the association. You can be a member of a committee, working on issues like the coding roundtable, fundraising, working with vendors, legislative issues etc. You can also volunteer to run for office as a director and work in the planning phase of all aspects of the association. If you don't have the time, or want to get involved a little at a time, then you can volunteer to help at a meeting or at the 6 state conference. You can volunteer by being a speaker, or suggesting a speaker or even a vendor that might like to be a corporate sponsor. As you can see there are many ways to Volunteer.
How much time would I need to give as a volunteer? That is up to you. You may start off small by volunteering to help at a meeting, or suggesting speakers, or vendors. Or you can run for a director's position, or work on a committee. Remember the more volunteers we have the easier it is for all, and the less time needed to perform our duties.
I have tried to volunteer before and no one has contacted me. Will this happen again? I will make this promise that if you volunteer someone will contact you. You can either contact Kristen our coordinator, or any member of the Board. We will contact you and see where you would like to volunteer, and how to get started. Our contact info is on our website, or you can contact any member of the board that you may know.
Again we need your help. We want to make this a fun year, and get a lot accomplished. How much we do will depend on you our membership, and how much help we can get. I look forward to a great year and am looking forward to working with many NEW volunteers.
You can contact me at mcohen@srhs.org
Thank You
Marty Cohen, RHIT
President-Elect CTHIMA
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| In The News...... | | |
An article from "The Advisory Board Company" as reported in the New York Times:
Search giant Google last week announced that it will shut down personal health record (PHR) system Google Health less than four years after its launch, the New York Times reports.
In 2008, Google introduced Google Health, which the company hoped would attract millions of regular users. According to Google Health's senior product manager, the company intended to "translate our successful consumer-centered approach from other domains to health care and have a real impact on the day-to-day health experiences of millions of our users." Unlike electronic health records kept by physicians or hospitals, the PHR system allowed consumers to directly input, monitor, and alter their health information.
At first, Google Health was "a mild sensation" that attracted many well-known partners, such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Modern Healthcare reports. However, PHRs have long struggled to engage regular users because they rely heavily on individual motivation and effort. A recent survey by research firm IDC Health Insights found that 7% of consumers had tested online PHRs, but fewer than half continued to use them.
Google plans to shut down Google Health on Jan. 1, 2012, but preserve all user data until 2013. Users will be able to download data from the program in supported formats before it vanishes. The company also will add support for the Direct Project protocol, an open standard for health data exchange (Lohr, Times, 6/24; Conn, Modern Healthcare, 6/24 [subscription required]; Claburn, InformationWeek, 6/24).
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