It's September-time to hit the books again and get back to school. If you're an aspiring HIM professional, that means learning about medical record retention.
If HIM professionals needed another reason to be concerned with protected health information (PHI) outside of paper records, a surgery center in Arizona provided one in April.
Summers can be wonderful, it's true. But they can also be a glowing reminder of what you don't have in your HIM department: a bountiful staff and endless resources.
A presumption is a belief or hypothesis about something. An assumption is taking a piece of information (as in knowledge about a topic) as a given fact. When you put them together, a presumptive assumption is troublesome because you can assume in error.
The question today for healthcare facilities isn't, "Does your facility use social media?" It's more like, "Who is using social media, for what purpose, and what are your hospital's policies and procedures around it?" It's good to have a strong social media policy and procedure in place for your organization, says Phyllis A. Patrick, MBA, FACHE, CHC, president of Phyllis A. Patrick & Associates, LLC, in Purchase, N.Y. She developed this accompanying checklist for those looking to beef up their policies on social media use in the hospital setting.
If your hospital doesn't plan to take advantage of government financial incentives for those who become "meaningful users" of EHRs, it is in the minority. According to HHS, 85% of hospitals plan to demonstrate meaningful use and earn incentives by 2015.
