Modern hospitals rely on accurate, reliable, and accessible patient records for a number of reasons. Information from patient records, for instance, is used to guide clinical decisions. In turn, this helps ensure that patients receive timely treatment.
So, who’s in charge of making sure that patient data and records are secure, accurate, and readily available to healthcare professionals when they need them? A health information manager (HIM), who is essential in maintaining records to foster better patient outcomes, innovation, and operational efficiency.
What Is Health Information Management?
Specifically, health information management involves overseeing and managing the collection, storage, analysis, and protection of patient health records. Through proper HIM protocols, it is possible to maintain comprehensive and secure records that are easily accessible — but only to authorized users.
The Scope of HIM in Healthcare
Whether working with paper records or more advanced electronic health records (EHRs), HIM professionals have a responsibility to adapt to changing technologies and apply the latest regulatory standards. In doing so, they can maintain high data quality while leveraging data analytics to inform decision-making within medical facilities.
How HIM Differs from Health Informatics or IT
Though HIM and health informatics or IT are somewhat related, HIM places a greater focus on the design of information systems, whereas health informatics leans toward system development and analytics. Ultimately, the primary goal of HIM is to maintain the accuracy and ethical use of data while following regulatory compliance laws.
Why HIM Matters in Healthcare
HIM is crucial in the healthcare field for a range of reasons — from its role in enhancing patient care to supporting research and population health initiatives.
Enhances Patient Care Through Accurate Data
Accurate and reliable patient information ensures that clinicians and other healthcare professionals have the complete picture, including any medications the patient is taking, allergies, and treatment histories. This can help medical professionals make better-informed decisions, thereby reducing errors and optimizing patient outcomes.
Streamlines Operations and Reduces Costs
For starters, following HIM best practices maintains better-organized records, which can help prevent duplication of tests while saving healthcare professionals time in searching for data. Meanwhile, HIM facilitates smoother billing and insurance claims for healthcare facilities, helping them run more efficiently while minimizing operational costs and boosting productivity.
Compliance and Risk Management
It’s no secret that healthcare is a heavily regulated industry with plenty of oversight. Health information managers, then, are tasked with navigating the complexities of today’s healthcare regulations (such as HIPAA and GDPR). At the same time, they must adhere to accreditation standards, ensuring that patient privacy and confidentiality are maintained at all times. With proper data management, healthcare facilities can mitigate legal risk and build trust with the public.
Supports Research and Population Health Initiatives
When aggregated health data is properly managed, this can support better medical research and public health monitoring. Health records, for example, can be used to identify trends that may indicate the prevalence of a chronic disease. HIM ensures that data used in these efforts is accurate, ethically sourced, secure, and anonymized when needed.
Drives Healthcare Innovation
In many ways, quality and accurate data can drive innovation because organizations can leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to fuel new ideas.
The Evolving Landscape of HIM
In an increasingly digital world, the HIM landscape has seen quite the transformation — especially now, as we witness an ongoing shift toward value-based care and the emergence of remarkable new technologies.
Digital Transformation in Healthcare
In recent decades, paper charts have gradually fallen to the wayside as the use of electronic health records has expanded. HIM professionals have a responsibility to adapt to these increasingly digital environments, keeping pace with necessary software updates, changing data standards (including HL7 and FHIR), and even entirely new data formats.
Emergence of Telehealth and Remote Monitoring
The past several years have demonstrated the emergence of telemedicine and wearable devices, which can generate large amounts of patient data remotely. HIM professionals continue to navigate new challenges related to these technologies that encompass issues with integrating disparate data sources, ensuring security across networks, and guiding policies for sharing data remotely.
AI and Advanced Analytics
As more healthcare facilities rely on AI and advanced analytics to inform decision-making, HIM professionals need to collaborate with data scientists to ensure that the data sets feeding AI algorithms are clean and representative. This means taking measures to mitigate biases and ensure continuous legal compliance.
Globalization and Health Data Exchange
Today’s international data exchange frameworks and global health initiatives require HIM professionals to understand complex cross-border regulations, nuances surrounding data harmonization, and universal coding systems as part of their everyday work.
Shift Toward Value-Based Care
With the relatively recent shift from volume-based to value-based patient care, quality metrics have become even more significant. This makes the work of HIM professionals more relevant, namely in regard to their responsibility to track these metrics accurately while influencing reimbursement models and healthcare policies.
Roles and Responsibilities of a Health Information Manager
What exactly does a health information management job entail? Although no two jobs may be exactly alike, there are some basic roles and duties you can expect to take on in this line of work.
Data Governance and Quality Control
HIM professionals are responsible for setting policies related to data entry, coding, indexing, and retrieval within their healthcare facilities of employment. They also ensure the completeness and consistency of data so that decision-making isn’t compromised by inaccurate or missing records.
Coding and Classification
Meanwhile, medical coders (who are typically part of the HIM team) take care of translating diagnoses, treatments, and procedures into standardized codes for billing (e.g., ICD-10 or CPT), insurance, reimbursement, and even research purposes.
Privacy, Security, and Compliance
Additionally, HIM professionals may be responsible for implementing safeguards against data breaches while ensuring compliance with privacy laws and regulations. They may also carry out regular data audits to check for errors or other ongoing issues while providing training to staff on important topics, such as confidentiality protocols and handling patient requests for record access.
Technology Integration
It is also common for HIM professionals to work closely with IT departments, particularly when it comes to selecting and maintaining EHR systems and ensuring operation between different platforms. These teams may collaborate to troubleshoot and resolve data-related issues, too, focusing on both healthcare workflows and technical requirements.
Leadership and Collaboration
In addition to data tasks, HIM professionals are often responsible for overseeing and supervising entire teams, managing budgets, and contributing to overarching organizational strategy. By communicating with clinicians, administrators, insurers, and even regulators, they can bridge gaps to improve the delivery of healthcare.
Continuous Improvement and Performance Metrics
Health information management professionals also track key performance indicators (KPIs) — including record completion times, coding accuracy, and compliance with regulatory deadlines. This data can then be used to make recommendations for process improvements, training opportunities, and more.
Patient Advocacy and Satisfaction
Even though HIM professionals aren’t patient facing in the traditional sense, they do influence the overall patient experience by ensuring that the records to which healthcare providers have access are as accurate as possible. This can benefit patients when they receive smooth referrals, timely test results, and accurate billing.
Advantages of Pursuing a HIM Degree
No matter if you get your HIM degree online or in person, having this designation under your belt accompanies numerous benefits.
High Demand and Job Security
According to the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), “HI professionals can expect to be in high demand as the health sector continues to expand.” This is especially true as technology evolves and regulations regarding healthcare information management continue to change.
Versatility and Transferable Skills
The skills needed to work as a healthcare information manager can also be transferred to any number of other roles, allowing for added versatility along your career path. Familiarity with EHR systems, healthcare coding, and data management tools can prove valuable in other healthcare-related positions.
Impact on Patient Care and Outcomes
Although healthcare information managers don’t work directly with patients, they still have a major indirect impact on patient care and outcomes. That’s because healthcare workers depend heavily on updated and accurate medical records in order to provide the highest standard of care.
Upward Mobility and Specializations
Those with enough experience as healthcare information managers may be able to move into even more advanced roles in their fields, including healthcare information directors and other executive positions. Others may prefer to specialize in a certain area of the field, such as medical coding, compliance, or documentation.
Alignment With Future Trends
As healthcare technology advances, more patient data is likely to be collected. This, in turn, creates a need for more robust HIM systems. With new technologies emerging, more regulations and compliance standards are expected to be created and enforced as well — so healthcare facilities will need to rely on experienced and knowledgeable HIM professionals to streamline operations.
Common Misconceptions About HIM
Still wondering whether a career in HIM may be right for you? Be aware of the following few myths and misconceptions before making your decision.
It’s Just “Filing Paperwork”
In reality, HIM professionals do much more than just managing records and filing paperwork. Notably, they must apply their analytical and critical thinking skills as well as advise healthcare facilities on compliance and shape data governance strategies on a daily basis. This is not a simple administrative role but rather a career that requires a considerable level of skill and technical knowledge.
You Need a Clinical Background
While some familiarity with medical terminology can be helpful when you work in HIM, a HIM degree will provide all the context you would need to function in a healthcare setting. Students in these programs often come from diverse backgrounds, ultimately finding success by focusing on data and system management skills with no clinical experience required.
You Have to Be Tech-Savvy
Even though HIM does involve working with technology, it’s a far cry from an IT position. Instead, HIM is more focused on ensuring data is accurate while guiding policy and communicating effectively with stakeholders. In this sense, working in HIM is less about being tech-savvy and more about the ability to combine your technical and interpersonal proficiencies.
Baker College’s HIM Program
For those striving toward a health information management role where you’re in charge of managing and overseeing important healthcare data, it may be time to pursue your Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Information Management from Baker College. This 120-credit hour program covers such critical topics as privacy and security management, digital literacy in healthcare, and healthcare systems analysis and design.Get in touch to request more information or explore the full curriculum of this program. If you’re ready to take the next step today, you can also fill out an online application for admission.