Director, Health Information Management

Summary

The Director of Health Information Management is responsible for coordinating health information management services for Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, planning, organizing, directing, and staffing the Health Information Department, and overseeing all on-going activities related to the development, implementation, maintenance of, and adherence to policies and procedures covering HIPPA in compliance with federal and state laws.

These duties and responsibilities described below represent the general tasks performed on a daily basis; other tasks may be assigned.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Daily Operations

• Develop and oversee processes in the HIM Department, ensuring that HIM processes and controls are evaluated against the organization’s internal and external information needs on an ongoing basis.

• Participate in various committees, such as the Medical Records Committee, Revenue Cycle Committee, HFAP Readiness Committee, Leadership, Directors, RAC Team, and ICD-10 Team.

• Initiate, review, implement, and maintain contracts with vendors for outsources HIM services.

• Take steps to actively move forward from paper based health records to a fully integrated electronic health record environment.

• Ensure that information systems support current and future needs of the department, working closely with the information technology department in transition planning, including but not limited to, testing, installation, and educating staff to produce and maintain high quality data integrity.

• Work with risk management, legal counsel, administrative staff, and key departments and committees to ensure that the organization has and maintains appropriate compliance regarding privacy, security, and confidentiality policies, procedures, forms, information notices, and materials which reflect current organizational practices and regulatory requirements.

• Instrumental in form/template design for the electronic health record to ensure compliance with external agencies and state/federal regulations.

• Develop, maintain, and implement policies and procedures, and constantly evaluate the effectiveness of instituted policies and work flow.

• Serve as an internal consultant on health information management issues including; the release of information, confidentiality, information security, information storage and retrieval, and record retention as well as authorship and authentication of health record documentation standardization of medical vocabularies, and the use of classification systems.

Strategic Planning

• Develop departmental services through ongoing planning which is consistent with the organization’s mission and values as well as the organizational objectives as outlines in the strategy plan, establishing, coordinating, and communicating departmental objectives and goals as well as organizational goals.

• Design and maintain the physical environment by organizing personnel and equipment within the space and budget available; arrange the physical environment to facilitate smooth workflow and optimize space efficiency to ensure safety.

• Prepare and utilize the annual operating budget for the Health Information Management department and capital expense requests; submit all annual budgets completely and in a timely fashion.

• Monitor spending and routinely evaluate monthly productivity levels against target staffing levels and make necessary operational adjustments to meet goals.

• Ensure resources are appropriate for departmental staff to meet job demands; consider future services and project the budget accordingly.

• Educate employees about financial goals and objectives in a way which encourages ownership and personal accountability.

Quality Management

• Monitor productivity and quality standards according to department and organizational guidelines; monitor staff’s adherence to these standards on a routine basis.

• Participate in the monitoring, evaluating, educating, and improving the quality of health information.

• Identify problems, track trends, and initiate actions to improve performance towards achieving departmental standards.

• Design, perform, and appropriately utilize the findings of performance improvement activities of health information services and follow-up on both positive and negative quality improvement findings.

Compliance

• Monitor the initiation, revision, and implementation of external regulations, statutes, and standards, facilitating implementation of revised regulations to ensure conformance.

• Interpret regulations for application and formation of facility policies; write and review policies to maintain compliance.

• Cooperate with the Office of Civil Rights, CMS, and other regulatory, accrediting, and legal entities and organization officers in any compliance reviews, investigations, or surveys.

• Work collaboratively with Risk Management, department heads, IT, and HR to minimize the potential risk of privacy and security breaches to mitigate damages, if any, and to resolve related issues.

• Initiate, facilitate, and promote activities to foster information privacy awareness within the organization.

• Monitor local, national, and international trends in healthcare delivery.

Human Resources Management

• Staff the Health Information Management department sufficiently to provide efficient and effective services; review and approve personnel matters pertaining to interviews, hires, and training for new employees; review provisions for staff development, training, and orientations as prescribed by the organization and departmental standards.

• Direct staff initial and refresher training to patient privacy and HIPPA compliance; plan for staff shortages through cross training.

• Implement a reporting system that incorporates a reasonable span of control including time and resource allowances to effectively perform services and communicate; organize the department in such a way that decisions are made and problems are solved at the appropriate level.

• Foster a strong working relationship between medical staff, administration, and HIM personnel.

• Motivate and empower staff in the successful performance of their tasks and responsibilities to support the organizational needs and encourages innovation.

• Provide education and guidance to clinical staff transitioning to the electronic health record.

• Support credentialed and supervisory staff in their continuing education effors and encourage and provide continuing education for all department employees through in-service programs, meetings, or other opportunities for professional growth.

• Maintain adequate dialogue with direct reports and employees and maintain presentations both orally and in writing; provide direct reports with the resources, tools, and training they require to meet and exceed expected performance levels; provide feedback on direct report’s performance and make recommendations for improvement.

• Utilize results of quality control monitoring as an integral part of employee performance appraisals; monitor, evaluate, appraise or discipline employee activities according to organizational standards.

Organizational Expectations

• Attend required hospital-wide orientations, meetings, and in-services.

• Demonstrate a commitment to flexible work scheduling when necessary to ensure patient care.

Reporting Structure

Reports to: Chief Finance Officer

Supervises: 10 employees directly, 35 additional employees indirectly through the Coding Operations Manager and the Operations Supervisor

Responsibilities

Qualifications

General Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education

Minimum Required Education: Bachelors of Science in Health Information Management

Preferred Education: Not applicable

Experience

Experience: 5+ years’ experience managing a Health Information Department in an acute care setting

Certification

Applicant must be RHIA certified.