Creating the Future Every Day
By Patty Thierry Sheridan, MBA, RHIA, FAHIMA
DIGITIZED INFORMATION HAS had a
profound effect on the current generation of children. You just have to spend
a few minutes with an eight-year-old to
see how technology literate this generation has already become. Imagine how
different their lives will be from the current workforce because they began using technology at such a young age.
This intensely digitized world necessitates current HIM professionals obtain
additional education and training just to
keep up and remain relevant, contributing value to an organization’s health
information systems and practices. Today’s HIM educators and practitioners
also have the responsibility of creating
the future of health information management not only for ourselves but also for
future generations of HIM professionals.
The Future Is Not a Destination
As we think about the future it’s impor-
tant that we not think about it as a des-
tination. John Schaar, a futurist, states,
“The future is not some place we are
going to, but one we are creating. The
paths are not to be found, but made,
and the activity of making them changes
both the maker and the destination.”
Creating a successful future depends
on our ability to experiment, innovate,
adapt, collaborate, take chances, and
clearly define updated and new HIM
roles. This will require all of us to edu-
cate our employers and stakeholders on
how HIM roles are changing and how
new and evolving roles can help contain
healthcare cost while improving data
quality.
These new roles include:
x Facilitating the implementation and
maintenance of data standards to
achieve interoperability
x Ensuring health information privacy
and security and access
x Participating in community-wide
information exchange and clinical
documentation improvement
x Helping consumers use their health
information to partner with their
physician on decisions regarding
their health
x Managing data, including data cap-
ture, validation, analysis, and main-
tenance
Essential Competencies
Creating a successful future also means
mastering essential competencies.
Through my own work with HIM professionals around the country there are five
competencies that emerge as critical
success factors:
1. Critical thinking
2. Relationship building
3. Judgment (common sense and
practical decision making)
4. Project management skills
5. Taking chances
How would you rate your competency
in these areas? What additional educa-
tion and training would help you master
these five competencies?
Patty Thierry Sheridan (
ptsheridan@care-communications.com) is president of Care Communications, Inc.
