HCPro.com: Medical Records Briefing

Guiding Health Information Management professionals through the continuously changing field of medical records and toward a stronger process for fifteen years!

To view the entire newsletter issue, click the “View Entire Issue” link below

November 2006 (Volume 21, Issue 11)	view entire issue

Make security a priority when going electronic
Switching to an electronic health records system (EHR) is supposed to make life easier for your organization and its patients. So, if your organization is considering an EHR, choose one that has features that support your HIPAA compliance efforts. Electronic records require a whole different mindset than paper records, says Kevin Beaver, CISSP, founder and principal information security consultant at Principle Logic, LLC, in Acworth, GA. With paper, someone has to physically steal the records. But electronic records are more vulnerable. "They're a sitting duck waiting to be taken, especially without proper access controls."

Take time now to address these deleted DRGs
Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series. This month, we will cover the first four of the eight deleted DRGs. Look in the December MRB to read about the remaining four. The 2007 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule brought 20 new severity DRGs, but it also eliminated eight existing DRGs. And part of training staff on how to use the new codes is teaching them what not to use.

Focus on abbreviation, data use to comply with IM.3.10
Editor's note: In the coming months, Jean S. Clark, RHIA, will review the JCAHO information management (IM) standards and provide tips for compliance. Clark is service line director for HIM at Roper Saint Francis Hospital in Charleston, SC, and author of the HCPro book Information Management: The Compliance Guide to the JCAHO Standards, Fifth Edition. There is only one standard that addresses the need to have processes in place to effectively manage information-IM.3.10. Processes have to address the following activities concerning clinical/service and nonclinical data and information

Cost accounting: What it means to HIM directors
Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from the November 1986 MRB. To celebrate the newsletter's 20-year anniversary, each month we will include an excerpt from some of its first issues, along with insight from MRB founder Jennifer Cofer. In their efforts to controls costs and respond to increased financial pressures, many organizations have begun the lengthy and involved process of implementing a cost-accounting system. If your facility is one of them, then you, as medical records director, will probably have a double role to play in setting up that system. At the very least, you'll participate as a department head who will analyze, estimate, budget, and monitor fixed and variable costs.

Other recently-published articles from Medical Records Briefing:

Know how the EHR could reshape your department and job

Confront ROI challenges: Proceed with caution in situations involving sensitive conditions

AHIMA practice brief provides general ROI guidance

Comply with IM.01.01.01 as information flows throughout your organization

Updated CoP reflect privacy, security, EHRs, and more

Understand how your EHR or hybrid record may affect Joint Commission compliance

Take ownership of patients’ background health risks

Form a RAC response team before it’s too late

Understand new Joint Commission scoring systems, symbols, and chapters for 2009

Understand the myth of the paperless record

One health system implements a patient portal as a first step toward a fully integrated PHR

Ensure a plan for legal holds during an EHR transition

Benchmarking survey: PHRs remain unchartered territory for some

Electronic health IT advances create opportunities, challenges for HIM directors and staff members

Requirements for patient discharge and transfer

ABOUT HCPRO

PRESS

CAREERS @ HCPRO

ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES

ONLINE STORE

200 HOODS LANE

P.O. BOX 1168

MARBLEHEAD, MA 01945, USA

PHONE: 800/650-6787

FAX: 781/639-7857

Copyright Statement	Privacy Policy

*MAGNET™, MAGNET RECOGNITION PROGRAM®, and ANCC MAGNET RECOGNITION® are trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The products and services of HCPro, Inc. and The Greeley Company are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the ANCC