Tuesday, October 27, 2009: The election of Texas AHDI 2010 officers is underway. Read about the candidates here and then access the online ballot and vote! Voting ends at midnight on November 10, 2009. President Cynthia Alder will announce the election results.
Thursday, October 8, 2009:
Texas-AHDI recently had the privilege of having Peter Preziosi in Texas this week. Today, Peter, myself, and Laura Bryan met with John C. Wood, North Texas Regional Director for Senator John Cornyn (R) of Texas. We were able to discuss with Mr. Wood the initiatives in our industry and the importance of bringing AHDI and MTIA to the table in the current discussions regarding the current Administration’s healthcare initiatives. I am happy to report that Mr. Wood was very receptive to our ideas and said that he would be happy to take our concerns and suggestions to the Senator. We are already well represented in Washington, DC by Peter and Greg Doggett, and it was beneficial for all of us to know that by speaking out and bringing our concerns to our legislators, we can make a difference. Knowing that, consider attending Lobby Day in Washington, DC next year – every voice counts, and our legislators are happy to listen!
We discussed the importance of the healthcare documentation specialist in the overall framework of a patient’s healthcare record. Mr. Wood listened to our concerns and agreed that we have a vital role in the ongoing process of the advent of the electronic health record. Tomorrow, Peter and I will be going to Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas to meet with their HIM Director, Don Carr, and thanks to the wonderful efforts of Jerry Shoemaker, President of the Greater Fort Worth Chapter, Cindy Liesenfelt, President of the Greater Dallas Chapter, and Diana Anderson, President-Elect of the Greater Dallas Chapter, Peter will be interviewed by a local news reporter after our meeting with the HIM Director of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. We are excited about the momentum that seems to be sweeping Texas and all of the nation, and are grateful to everyone who continues to make that happen.
We will be attending the Greater Dallas Chapter of AHDI’s symposium on Saturday, and plan to have an extended round-table discussion among local MTs about current initiatives, and what our national representatives are doing to make sure we are at the forefront of clinical documentation.
I will be happy to keep you posted over the coming days about our initiatives here in Texas, and we hope that it gives everyone renewed vigor to get our message out there, to ensure the continued integrity of the patient health record and our role in that effort.
We look forward to seeing all of you at the ACE event in Austin in 2010 – August 4th through 7th. We really do things bigger in Texas, and we hope the spirit here is contagious!!
Cynthia C. Alder, CMT
President, Texas AHDI 2009-2010
Member, AHDI Ethics Committee 2009
Member, AHDI Compliance Outreach Council 2009
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Friday, October 9, 2009 – Meeting with Don Carr and Meet & Greet
Advocacy on the Move in Texas Continues!
Texas members continued to benefit from Peter Preziosi’s visit here last week in Dallas. On Friday, we met with Don Carr, RHIA, Manager of Transcription for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Visiting Don were Peter, myself, Diana Anderson, Cindy Liesenfelt, and Jerry Shoemaker. We initially talked about the organizations name change to AHDI and the reasoning behind it, recognizing the changing roles in healthcare documentation delivery, and why we are healthcare documentation specialists, encompassing all of the emerging technologies in the system. We also explained how the House of Delegates reinforces the contributions we make to healthcare delivery, the integrity of the patient record, and ethical considerations that must be addressed on an ongoing basis.
Peter presented Don with a recent study of errors occurring in records compiled using new technologies. Don mentioned that this was part of what he wanted to address in his presentation the next day at the Greater Dallas Chapter’s annual symposium. We gave Don information on the new Speech Recognition Technology training developed in conjunction with 3M and TRS Institute, and how this can help increase production and reduce errors. The program is not specific to any particular platform, but rather gives an overview of how SRT Editors manage the production of reports. For more information on that program, feel free to visit http://www.trsinstitute.com/store/speech_rec.shtml. It is a $450.00 course, but reduced to $395.00 for AHDI members. If you do not yet have experience with SRT, it would be well worth the investment!
On the subject of credentialing, Don Carr agreed with us that education and credentialing are key to going forward in our industry. We talked about being the only part of the healthcare delivery process that does not yet require a credentialed workforce, and how that fact continues to perpetuate the theory, in some peoples’ opinions, that we are not “professionals” and do not bring enough knowledge and expertise to the table in this ongoing EHR process. Don agrees that if we can continue to commit to lifelong learning, as all other healthcare professionals do, and move toward required credentialing, we will have a better stake in the changes and decisions to come.
We went on to discuss the Joint Commission’s coalition of 18 healthcare systems who are involved in studying and improving patient safety. The first problem they identified as a patient safety risk was hand hygiene (or lack thereof) and the second was the hand-off communication between professionals and facilities. As we already know, inaccurate or untimely communication is a serious patient care risk, and discussions are being held to improve this across the entire healthcare spectrum. If you would like to read more about these findings, please visit http://www.jointcommission.org/AccreditationPrograms/LaboratoryServices/Standards/09_FAQs/NPSG/Communication/NPSG.02.05.01/hand_off_communications.htm and read the questions and answers from December 2008. As Peter said in the meeting, “Even among hospital systems, the practices, demands, and workloads differ, so the Joint Commission is setting up standards” in cooperation with the participating facilities.
Dictation Best Practices was also discussed, and Don said that they often have success in actually taking sample dictation to difficult dictators, asking them to listen to their own dictation. He said that they often have physicians who did not realize how difficult it was to hear them or how unclear their dictation could be. Don said that this works well for them, and he feels it is important for administrators and even healthcare documentation specialists to be able to approach physicians with these problems, to clarify and streamline the documentation process. We also discussed the importance of narrative notes in patient records, and having a specialist involved in the process. The Health Story Project was reviewed and the efforts to incorporate that narrative, how to approach it, and how to standardize reports across the system. If you are not familiar with The Health Story Project, please take a few moments to visit http://www.healthstory.com and become familiar with what is going on with that endeavor.
We also discussed issues regarding HL7, quality control issues with outsourcing and offshore practices, preparing the changes that ICD-10 will bring involving a greater level of specificity. There was a great discussion regarding KB Benchmark, how AHDI partnered with Stedman’s and InterFix to produce this program that helps provide greater value and productivity, and less errors in clinical documentation. Peter offered an explanation of our movement toward the credentialing process and the potential advent of a third level of expertise in our field, in accordance with RMT and CMT certification, which could possibly add a Health Data Analyst role, adding data integrity specialists to the list of current healthcare documentation roles. As you can see, this was an extremely productive meeting, and Don Carr was very receptive and in agreement with AHDI’s initiatives and goals for the future.
Later that evening, we hosted a Meet and Greet event, where everyone was invited to come and meet Peter and have an open discussion on pending issues and ask any questions they may have had. While the turnout was smaller than we had hoped for, it was productive, nonetheless. Many great questions were asked and Peter, Laura Bryan, and myself were able to discuss the above mentioned issues as well as others that were raised by attendees. The event went very well, and we enjoyed the informal nature of a general discussion among healthcare documentation specialists and representatives from local, state, and national representatives.
Check back soon for information on the Greater Dallas Chapter’s symposium on Saturday, October 10th, and learn how a round-table type presentation energized the attendees and gained focus for AHDI initiatives and goals. AHDI is continuing to have meetings like the one described here, and the one the previous day with John Wood of Senator Cornyn’s office, to ensure that our future in healthcare documentation is bright, secure, and recognized across the healthcare spectrum. As we move toward more education and credentialing requirements, we are sure to show our value in the healthcare delivery process, and we all need to stand up and speak out, continue our education, and continue to gain more visibility for our expertise and backgrounds. Look for more information soon!
Cynthia C. Alder, CMT
President, Texas AHDI 2009-2010
Member, AHDI Ethics Committee 2009
Member, AHDI Compliance Outreach Council 2009
