Like other critical organizational assets—people, capital, inventory, etc.—information is a strategic asset that requires high level oversight in order to be able to effectively use it for organizational decision-making, performance improvement, cost management, and risk mitigation. Complementary to the traditional approach and practices of health information management (HIM), which is bottom up, information governance ensures that information is trustworthy and actionable through alignment with organizational strategy and engagement of senior leaders and important stakeholders across the enterprise. In an increasingly connected world, this extends outside the proverbial four walls of an organization to make sure that information is available in the right place and the right time to support health and healthcare.
AHIMA is committed to advancing information governance in the healthcare industry to ensure the quality and integrity of all types of information necessary to safe, high quality, cost effective care and the improvement of the health of individuals and populations. Both information governance and information management are necessary to meet the existing and new requirements of an increasingly complex healthcare ecosystem.
IG serves the dual purpose of optimizing the ability to extract clinical and business value from healthcare information while simultaneously meeting compliance needs and mitigating risk. Without some level of information governance, it is difficult – if not impossible– for HCOs to address these needs.
The HIM professional’s training, experience, and understanding of the clinical, financial, regulatory, and technology aspects of healthcare and information management often makes her/him a natural fit for IG. Working in concert with senior business and clinical leaders, HIM professionals can help strengthen an organization’s performance related to managing information and data that is necessary for achieving strategic goals.
Once you’ve gotten a snapshot of your health with IG PulseRate™, you’ll want to complete a whole physical to ensure the integrity of your organization’s information. That’s where IG HealthRate™ comes in! IG HealthRate™ is a robust, in-depth assessment that can:
Look for more information to come in early 2016 or talk to an AHIMA representative at (844) 554-4447 or IGAdvisors@ahima.org.
There are many reasons IG is necessary across the healthcare industry. For instance:
The following materials and resources from AHIMA are tools that provide guidance for developing an IG framework that healthcare organizations can utilize as they either start or refine their own IG programs.
To access AHIMA’s IG resources, click here. Remember to check back often for new resources.
Information Governance Toolkit
This toolkit provides a variety of resources for healthcare professionals who are developing an information governance initiative whether they are reviewing and trending healthcare data for a healthcare entity, reporting on quality measures in a physician’s office, managing an enterprise master patient index, or working with other operational, health, or financial information. The toolkit discusses current healthcare initiatives and programs that are increasing the demand for information governance.
Keep up with the latest on information governance as this key strategy emerges for addressing a myriad of information management challenges in healthcare. This blog will highlight the trends and opportunities IG presents for ensuring information is treated as an organizational asset.
Read the IG Blog
Find additional articles and resources in AHIMA’s BoK.
The Journal of AHIMA serves as a professional development tool for health information management professionals. The Journal keeps readers current on issues that affect the profession and contributes to the field by publishing feature and best practices articles and disseminating new health information-based knowledge.
Visit the Journal website at journal.ahima.org or read the digital edition.
IGAdvisors™ provides consulting services to help organizations understand and improve trustworthiness of its information. Services are comprehensive, customizable, and will assist organizations in creating an effective IG implementation. With the help of IGAdvisors™ organizations will be able to develop an enterprise wide information governance(IG) strategy, develop an organizational IG framework, provide oversight for business integration, help manage risk, security, privacy, protection, and compliance, and so much more!
Consulting services include:
For more information email IGAdvisors@ahima.org or call (844) 554-4447.
FACE-TO-FACE IG BOOT CAMP
IG Boot Camps are one-day, intense, exercised-based meetings that focus on ensuring participants are positioned for success with IG in their organization.
June 17 | Chicago, IL
August 12 | Princeton, NJ
August 26 | Mesa, AZ
August 26 | Minneapolis, MN
November 9 | Portland, OR
September 16 | Warren, MI
VIRTUAL IG BOOT CAMP
Leadership Forum: Driving Information Governance
July 28, 2016 | Denver, CO
This forum will assist healthcare leaders in building an Information Governance (IG) roadmap. Healthcare organizations and stakeholders need the right information at the right time to make accurate decisions regarding patient care and to optimize business and clinical processes. Yet the role of information, and how an organization’s leaders, front-line staff, patients, and consumers are interacting with that information, is rapidly transforming and is constantly changing. Take advantage of hands-on, practical exercises and in-depth discussions on timely topics that include real-world case scenarios, and essential tools and techniques to help you initiate an enterprise IG strategy for your organization.
Enterprise Health Information Management and Data Governance
Merida L. Johns, PhD, RHIA
Price: $84.95 | Member Price: $69.95
e-book also available!
This textbook provides the fundamentals, principles, and practices for managing the data asset and tackles how healthcare organizations can manage their data in this era of dramatic data explosion and growing deployment of information technologies.
Implementing Health Information Governance: Lessons from the Field
Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA
Price: $64.95 | Member Price: $54.95
e-book also available!
This publication outlines lessons from healthcare organizations that have already made progress in formalizing information governance and it offers tested practices for aligning governance to the organization's goals, organizing and staffing governance and enterprise management, building on what is working, and guiding incremental improvement. By learning from the achievements and challenges of these case study organizations, other entities may chart their course and plan a future-facing governance implementation strategy to improve organizational performance, compliance, and control costs.
Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices
Robert F. Smallwood
Price: $96.00 | Member Price: $80.00
Product #: VB224015
Information Governance (IG) is a rapidly emerging "super discipline" and is now being applied to electronic document and records management, email, social media, cloud computing, mobile computing, and, in fact, the management and output of information organization-wide. IG leverages information technologies to enforce policies, procedures and controls to manage information risk in compliance with legal and litigation demands, external regulatory requirements, and internal governance objectives. Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices reveals how, and why, to utilize IG and leverage information technologies to control, monitor, and enforce information access and security policies.
HIT or Miss: Lessons Learned from Health Information Technology Implementations, Second Edition
Jonathan Leviss, MD
Price: $64.95 | Member Price: $54.95
e-book also available!
The second edition of this publication combines the 17 case studies, from the first edition which highlighted specific failures in health information technology projects, with 17 new cases—including examples of hospitals and practices pursuing Meaningful Use objectives. Each case provides analysis by an author who was involved in the project plus the insight of an HIT expert.
To purchase IG publications, visit ahimastore.org.
Member Price: $99.00
All webinars last 60 minutes, begin at 12 noon CT. Registration for live webinars closes 24 hours
before the event. After that time you can purchase a recorded version of the webinar.
March 22, 2016
Maturing Information Governance into an Enterprise Information Program
Kathleen Addison, Health Information Management, Alberta Health Services,
Calgary; and Karanne Miller Lambton, CHIM, CLMC, Health Information Management, Alberta Health Services
April 19, 2016
Conquering the Privacy Risk Assessment with IG Principles for Healthcare: Practical Steps for HIM Professionals
Sharon Lewis, MBA, RHIA, CHPS, CPHQ, FAHIMA, Primeau Consulting Group, Inc. (PCG)
May 3, 2016
Tools for IG Program Success
AHIMA IG Team
June 7, 2016
Leveraging your Information Governance Program to Support Legal
and Regulatory Compliance
Ron Hedges, J.D., Ronald J. Hedges LLC
December 6, 2016
Information Governance v Data Governance: What It Means and
Why It Matters
Deborah K. Green, RHIA, MBA, EVP/Chief Innovation and Global Services Officer, AHIMA and Stephanie Crabb, Principal, Immersive LLC
To purchase webinars, visit ahimastore.org and click on “webinars”.