By Debi Senger
This week is Health Information Management Week and WCH is taking the opportunity to recognize and thank our Health Information Management (HIM) staff for all the amazing work they do! HIM staff are instrumental in supporting patient care, quality improvement initiatives, and research by ensuring timely access to complete, accurate, and confidential health information.
The HIM department is comprised of clerical support staff, a medical transcriptionist and certified health information management professionals (HIPs). Clerical staff scan, index and perform quality assurance on incoming referrals and paper charts to facilitate timely and accurate availability of health information. With the implementation of digital referral management, clerical support staff also register patients in Epic.
Our Medical Transcriptionist oversees the quality of clinical reports dictated in our transcription system (eSOne) as well as the distribution of all transcribed notes to referring physicians. Health information professionals ensure the completeness, accuracy, integrity and accessibility of personal health information as per hospital policies and provincial legislation. They code and abstract health care data using the International Classification systems (ICD-10-CA/CCI) for diseases and interventions.
Our HIPs are also responsible for Release of Information requests for copies of patients’ health records. They manage requests from a wide variety of stakeholders including patients, lawyers, insurance companies and police. Our team of professionals have deep knowledge in health information legislation and regulation. This includes performing analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical coded data to support management decision-making.
In addition, the team uses the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS) to submit data to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and the Ministry of Health. Database oversight and administration also falls under their responsibilities. The team is the data steward of our hospital’s clinical document management system (Hyland/OnBase) and our dictation/transcription system (eScriptionOne) and our Health Information Management software (Med2020/WinRecs).
In celebration of HIM Week, HIM is setting up an information booth in the Atrium. Drop by the booth to meet and learn about our Health Information staff and their roles in the hospital, view displays and enjoy some cupcakes! Staff who stop by will also have a chance to play HIM Games and win exciting prizes!
Atrium Booth:
October 17, 18 and 19 | 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. | Peter Gilgan Atrium
