THIMA eNews
December 16, 2009
President's Message
RAC Letters Arrive in TN Hospitals
Consultation Codes
Release of Information Practices Survey
Volunteer Spotlight: Rita Bowen, AHIMA President-Elect
Mountain States Health Alliance Success with EHR and Advancements
President's Message
Dear THIMA Members:
 As
we enter the holiday season, we should take time to reflect on the past year and
what we accomplished as a profession. 2009 was truly a great year!
We started with a great New Year’s bang with the ARRA and the passage of HITECH
bill and ended the year with a roll of thunder with the HITECH “Connect the
Dots” seminar that was a joint venture with THA, TMA, TMGMA, TNHIMSS, and SVMIC.
This seminar had more than 300 attendees. All I can say is wow; what a
great turnout!!!
Your representatives on the THIMA Board of Directors
have also been busy elves this year planning the new Legal Handbook, gaining
passage of the “Resolution for Professional Guidelines/Best Practices of
Electronic Documentation” at the AHIMA House of Delegates in October at Dallas,
and creating an ICD-10 Coordinator position to assist our membership on the
upcoming ICD-10 training.
Members of the Program Committee
continue to work extensively on the upcoming 2010 THIMA annual meeting in
Chattanooga. We hope you plan on attending because it will be an exciting
program with great agenda items for all areas of our profession.
In conclusion, I wish to thank everyone for their hard work and continued
commitment to advancing our profession and, on behalf of the THIMA Board of
Directors, wish everyone a Happy Holiday and a wonderful and joyous New Year!!!!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth A. Delahoussaye, RHIA
President-THIMA
RAC Letters Arrive in TN Hospitals
Several HIM Directors have
reported receiving requests for copies of medical records for review by the RAC
(Recovery Audit Contractor). Many of the requests are related to MS-DRG
983, previously DRG 468. Providers are given 45 days to respond to the
requests.
Consultation Codes
The recent CMS ruling that eliminated the use
of consultation codes is still being debated. You will want to review this CMS
Transmittal published on December 14. Please visit
http://www.cms.gov/transmittals/downloads/R1875CP.pdf
Additionally,
an amendment (SA 3113) has been introduced in the Senate to delay implementation
of the CMS ruling to allow time for HHS to work with CPT Editorial Panel to
establish new codes and guidelines to prevent coding errors.
Release of Information Practices Survey
The THIMA Legislative
Committee and Board of Directors are requesting that you complete this short
three question survey (one per organization/facility please). We are
attempting to determine current practice so that we can better participate in
efforts to modify current legislation/regulation pertaining to release of
information.
To complete the online survey, please
click here. The survey will be available until midnight on
Thursday, December 31st.
Volunteer Spotlight: Rita Bowen, AHIMA President-Elect
 Rita
Bowen, MA, RHIA, CHPS, is the Enterprise Director for HIM services at Erlanger
Health System (EHS), with over 30 years of experience in managing health
information. Ms. Bowen's past responsibilities include HIPAA privacy for
EHS and served as the Privacy Officer from 2001 until 2008. Her
current focus is Enterprise HIM strategic planning for the electronic health
record.
She finds that sharing her knowledge with diverse groups of
people is one of her most satisfying responsibilities within EHS and as a member
of AHIMA. Ms. Bowen spoke in front of the Privacy Subcommittee of the
National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics October 29, 2002 on the
subject of healthcare privacy and presented to a Senate Sub-committee in the
spring of 2006. She was a member of the workgroup that developed both the
privacy and security certifications exams, and has been a featured speaker at
AHIMA's Privacy Institute. Ms. Bowen has written and taught on the subject of
HIPAA privacy for the last several years. She has been a featured
speaker on privacy at several Privacy Institutes as well as the National
Convention. She has been a featured presenter at several state meetings on
the topic of Privacy, Health Information Exchange networks, Electronic Health
Records, Revenue Cycle and Work Flow related topics. She completed the
Renaissance for the 21st Century: Leading the Change to e-HIM – presented by
Care Communications, Inc. and most recently has spoken on Change Management
within HIM and the re-structure of HIM jobs throughout a healthcare system.
Ms. Bowen is also Green Belt Certified by the Juran Group in Six Sigma process
development and leadership. She has successfully led a project regarding
Clinical Documentation Improvement. Her current projects include
Revenue Cycle Improvement and also Coding Productivity.
Ms. Bowen served
three years on AHIMA’s Council on Certification. She served three years on
AHIMA’s Board of Directors and is serving her second three year term, currently
as AHIMA’s President-Elect.
As a member of AHIMA and BOD she strongly
supports:- Information integrity
- Establishment of a national
healthcare information infrastructure
- Privacy
- Workforce
improvement
She was AHIMA’s 2005 Triumph winner of the Mentor
Award. In 2001 she received the distinguished member award from AHIMA’s Quality
Management Section – for outstanding achievement. She has received both the
Visionary and Distinguished Member awards from THIMA.
Ms.
Bowen has served as the state HIM president in Arizona and in Tennessee and has
served in numerous state and national association capacities.
Mountain States Health Alliance Success with EHR and Advancements
Mountain States Health Alliance (MSHA) is a locally owned healthcare system that
encompasses 14 hospitals located throughout Upper East Tennessee and
Southwestern Virginia. The flagship hospital is Johnson City Medical
Center located in Johnson City, Tennessee.
MSHA currently operates a
centralized electronic health record (EHR) system for all facilities. The
EHR at MSHA is a document imaging application which the legal medical record
resides post discharge of the patient. Leadership at MSHA felt it was
critically important to have the hospitals legal medical record reside in one
location, EHR. The EHR application was initially implemented at nine (9)
MSHA facilities, and as new facilities were added, the EHR implementation was a
priority focus. As hospitals have been acquired by the system, the EHR has
been implemented at these facilities. According to Carol Pafford, RHIA,
Tennessee Operations Manager, “having this system throughout the enterprise
gives us an advantage.” Those advantages include the ability to have team
members cross-trained and able to help out in times of staffing shortages across
the system. Additionally, physicians have the capability of
accessing patient records at the system level for all facilities which
facilitates faster retrieval of patient information and visit history, and
promotes continuity of care between providers, more efficient patient care, and
patient safety.
Another benefit for the organization has been the
improvement in delinquent record rate. One facility has improved
their delinquent record from 30% to 6%. “This is all attributed to the
EHR,” states Carol Pafford. Completing record deficiencies in the
EHR is very user friendly for the physicians. Physicians can access the
system from their office, within the hospital, and even from home thru a secure
website. Whereas in the past, they would have to call the Health
Information Management Department and have their records pulled for completion.
The implementation of EHR at MSHA is part of the paperless journey for the
organization. The implementation of the clinical documentation application
is also well under way with ten (10) of the fourteen (14) MSHA facilities
already utilizing online clinical documentation applications and work underway
for the implementation of computerized physician order entry(CPOE).
With the implementation of new technologies at MSHA, efficiencies will continue
to be gained; information will be shared easily from provider to provider which
can provide better continuity of care; and patient’s safety will be maintained.
Melissa Johnson, RHIT
Director of Health Information Management
Norton
Community and Dickenson Community Hospitals
Mountain States Health Alliance
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