Pamela S. Greenstone, the program director for the online Health Information Management program at the University of Cincinnati, writes of the dangers of moving health information management (HIM) offices away from close proximity to parents.
She writes:
“{H}ealthcare providers across the country have moved billing, human resources and HIM offices to different campuses to maximize hospital space for other medical purposes. Unfortunately, by moving HIM off site, healthcare providers are effectively isolating HIM departments from patients and physicians.
“Due to this disconnect, HIM professionals are now more isolated from the patient and the big picture than ever before. This disconnect makes it harder to equate the troves of data that they deal with on a daily basis with actual patients, which could potentially affect quality of care and accountability on a large scale.
“In the past, when HIM professionals worked within the hospital, there was an easy-to-follow flow of paper records from physicians and nurses to the HIM department. With paper, HIM professionals could still hand-deliver records, giving them a chance to interact with physicians and patients in the hospital setting. However, the change from paper to digital health technology has distanced the HIM department from the medical sphere, since HIM departments no longer have to be onsite to function.”
To read her entire article, please hit this link.
