by Tonya Bates, RHIA
On October 17, 2020, AHIMA held its first virtual House of
Delegates (HoD) Meeting. There were just a few technical glitches, but
for the most part all went well from that perspective. The six hour long
meeting did however run over by more than an hour. Dr. Wylecia Wiggs
Harris spoke and introduced ACCESS which stands for AHIMA Curated
Communities to Enhance Success and Sustainability.
This will replace the current Engage platform. This will be an avenue
where members will go to build their Health Information and Professional
networks. It will be My Digital Health Community (myDHC). You’ll
have the opportunity to be a part of 8-10 groups at a time. There will be
ambassadors for each group.
There was also discussion about the Professional Enhancement
Community (PEC). The theme of PEC is “Health Information is Human Information”.
The goal is to articulate what Health Information Professionals do and develop
a structured educational plan. AHIMA has three strategic outcomes that
will be the focus.
Strategic Outcome #1 Advance and advocate for
the creation and use of trusted information across the evolving health
continuum.
Strategic Outcome #2 Shape the health information
profession by growing the influence and competitiveness of health information
skill sets.
Strategic Outcome #3 Drive strategic transformation
and renewed growth as a great partner and place to work.
The remainder of the meeting was spent on discussing and
voting on proposed changes to the Bylaws. The two biggest points of
discussion regarding the proposed changes was regarding Article IV, Sections
4.2-4.5 (membership). The proposal was to change from the current five
membership types to Professional and Student with both Emeritus and Honorary
still being intact. This proposal also included late fees for failure to
pay membership dues on time. This section required some clarification as
Delegates were confused about the Emeritus status. The second biggest
discussion point was Article VII, Section 7.1 and 7.2. This was a
proposal to change the language of the section to ensure consistency.
Essentially, the proposal was to remove the word Management and change
membership types Professional and Student. There were heated comments
regarding the removal of Management. Delegates were calmed down once it
was clarified that the organization is not removing Management from its
title. The proposal is just to remove the word management to be
consistent with AHIMA’s purpose. After all discussions, all proposed Bylaws changes were
approved.
I attended the breakout session entitled: “The Role of
The HI Professional Shaping Health Equity.” The discussion entailed how
we as HI professionals can keep the profession intact. We discussed what
barriers currently exist that keep us out stagnated. The argument from
the delegates was that our biggest barrier is HIPAA and its constraints.
There was arguments from both sides. The most compelling argument was
that HIPAA has been in our lives for a while now and we’ve learned to
adapt. There is no reason that it should factor into us moving forward as
a profession.
In order for the HI professional to ensure that health
equity is achieved we must be a part of the educational process of individuals. We must educate the whole person. Educating the whole person means
to have the ability to use clinical data as a part the process. Bring to
the table how HI professionals can use their clinical knowledge to have a voice
at the table with the “C” Suite.
Ultimately, the clinical knowledge we possess gives us an
advantage over no HI professionals. This advantage needs to be exploited
more. We have to make others know what are skillset is and what we can
bring to organizations. To continue the growth of our professional we
must train and educate current students afforded them the opportunity to take
this profession to new heights. We have to be the stewards to change.
It was an interesting conversation. We were unable to
get through our entire discussion of hypothesis because conversations were a
bit intense.
Having attended several HoD meetings in the past, I decided
that an in-person meeting is much better. The 2020 AHIMA HoD Meeting was like no other that I have
attended. The fact that it was virtual is what made it so very different
than previous years. The virtual aspect took away from the
interaction, networking and camaraderie. Despite, this we were able to
accomplish a lot.
