"Our HIM staff, administration, and providers have worked closely to redesign the documentation deficiency process. Specifically, the HIM team has worked with the providers to make sure they have all the tools they need to get their documentation done in a timely manner. Since the inception of our new policy and process the providers have bought into the new way. Communication has improved with the HIM and providers. This timely documentation has made a big impact on the overall atmosphere of the workplace and has helped with revenue and patient satisfaction."

"The team has been successful meeting goals and turnarounds with the organization’s growth of providers and patients. We continue to cross train, which has helped tremendously in achieving these goals. Always a team effort in HIM! In addition, HIM reviewed workflows and the findings allowed us to revise protocols that has led to better workflow efficiencies. Our overall training program for new hires has evolved into a much better way of presenting the information. All of these efforts by the HIM team demonstrates how important HIM is to the healthcare organization. Kudos to the HIM team!"

"We have increased the number of coders utilized in our organization on the professional side. This has allowed us to enhance the relationships we have directly with providers (both physicians and APP's). We are able to work together and collaborate towards a common goal of documentation and coding integrity when we know coding and clinical worlds do not always mesh. This has improved efficiency for both providers and coders and has assisted in reducing burnout related to documentation by creating standards by which each note type is constructed."

We see firsthand every day the importance of having quality health information to drive our choices, whether they are decisions about how to treat a patient or how to better serve our community. Our HIM department plays a critical role in our organization.

We are pleased to receive this prestigious Grace Award, which recognizes our excellent, innovative health information management team. This award celebrates our dedicated employees who work to bring best practices in health information management to Children’s so that we can continue to deliver the right care, at the right time, in the right place as efficiently as possible.

Every facet of our operation is touched by our HIM professionals. They are critical to our success as they lead and direct regulatory affairs, privacy and compliance work, helping us streamline workflows, improve clinical quality and operational efficiency, and reduce our total cost of care.

"We’ve provided reports with information that helps the early identification of PAD in certain patient population. Using analysis and data, we’ve implemented algorithms in an electronic system to identify chronic conditions while patients are seen by the provider."

"Working in a large oncology physician practice, it was our HIM staff that provided a process that satisfied our corporate compliance team as well as our physicians when discussing records retention and destruction."

On Impacting Patient Care... Complete accurate coding to reflect complete data picture of patients cancer journey.

I advocate for the profession by serving my local organization for nearly 10 years and doing lots of work with students.