New Mexico Health Information Management Association an affilate of AHIMA.

NMHIMA News vol. 4 October 2021

Coffee & Coding and the 2021 Fall Conference

NMHIMA offers networking opportunities with a focus on coding quarterly at our Coffee & Coding Zoom meetings.

The October 9 Coffee & Coding is still scheduled. Register here. It's FREE. For questions please contact Gail Fuller @ grhfll@nmsu.edu.

But wait! We've got something exciting coming our way on October 29.

Please SAVE THE DATE, October 29, as NMHIMA joins AzHIMA for their Virtual Fall Conference.

Meeting and registration will be posted soon!

2021 House of Delegates and AHIMA21 Update

House of Delegate & AHIMA21 - September 19-22, 2021

This year NMHIMA was represented at the House of Delegates by four NMHIMA Board members, Mechel McKinney (President), Shawna Ramey (President-elect), Jennifer Jimenez (Member-at-large), and Cynthia Kinnaman (Delegate). As a Delegate, attendance and registration are paid for by NMHIMA.

Let's hear from Jennifer and Cynthia about their takeaways from the House of Delegates and AHIMA21.

Jennifer

My key takeaway from this year's AHIMA21 conference is taking the time to "Tell Your Story." These experiences are teaching moments, whether it be sharing your journey into the HIM profession or telling the patient's story for billing and coding, or the healthcare systems story for financial planning and quality of care planning.

My final point of the AHIMA21 conference and the HOD annual meeting, which is to SHINE. While managers and leaders are often encouraged to SHINE, we also need to make room to allow our staff to SHINE and to take advantage of their eager energy. An environment that nurtures listening, growth and strives for implementation at all levels within an organization adds value.

For Jennifer's full summary, see the document below.

Cynthia

House of Delegates meeting proposed that HIM professionals be more involved with consumers, teaching consumers about patient portals, their health information, privacy, and helping patients learn how to use their health information. Other discussion points were about how HIM has transitioned to remote working and how do we fill those gaps where employees may never meet their Manager or Director face to face, and how do we keep those workforce models engaged? There is also a generation gap which can lead to work ethic and communication differences. How do we team build in a remote environment? How do we advocate for educational, technical, and other skills amongst these challenging environments? It is challenging to grow and engage our younger workforce in the importance of a versatile skill set for health information.

AHIMA 21 was technology information-filled! ...there was everything from defining the EHR (per AHIMA guidelines) to Cybersecurity with beautiful speakers such as Ali Pabrai, Global Cybersecurity & Compliance expert, David Marc, Ph.D., Cassi Birnbaum, MS, RHIA, CPHQ, FAHIMA, and so many others.

Leadership and engagement of not only consumers but our workforce was also a part of the conference, with great speakers such as Jill Christensen, who also has an excellent book called If Not You, Who? and uses the Wizard of Oz as the basis for her talk as well as her book referring to power we all have but need to use.

All in all, a great conference-it would take many pages to tell you all about the inspiring talks, motivation, and talent this conference presented.

For Cynthia's full summary see the document below.

House of Delegates Meeting Summary.docx

HOD AHIMA 21 Cynthia.docx

Message from NMHIMA Board

We are sure many NMHIMA members may be wondering what's been brewing at NMHIMA.

As a Board, our mission remains the same to be the professional community that promotes quality health information for the benefit of patients, healthcare facilities, providers, and other users of health information through education, advocacy, and collaboration.

Like everyone else, we are gradually returning to the new post-covid normal. We recognize that worldwide the virus variants keep us from life as we know it. But we are doing our best; with representation from across the four corners of our state, the NMHIMA Board continues to create opportunities and be the go-to for health information for NMHIMA members.

As a Board, we are all volunteers, have employer requirements, and some are continuing their education - - - work, school, family, volunteerism. It takes a village and we are doing our best for NMHIMA.

Why so many virtual conferences?

We acknowledge that NMHIMA members seek affordable continuing education opportunities and more visibility from NMHIMA.

The Board opted to hold our conferences in the virtual format at least until Spring 2022 for several consumer-focused reasons. Some of the reasons are:

To keep in line with NM's Covid guidelines and venue restrictions.
The unpredictability of planning around potential restrictions.
The costs associated with travel for conferences as organizations remain in recovery status.
The flexibility benefits of virtual format meetings.

As mentioned in this newsletter, NMHIMA will join our AzHIMA colleagues at their virtual Fall Conference, October 29. We hope that you'll take advantage of this information-packed conference.

Looking ahead to the Spring Meeting, the information is still being prepped backstage. We will present the Spring 2022 conference information with NMHIMA members as soon as the information is ready. The information will be available no later than December, with plenty of lead time for the March 2022 conference. Stay tuned!

We, like you, hope to resume in-person meetings again, too. Please bear with us as we transition to this new normal.

Coffee & Coding

Our quarterly Coffee & Coding Zoom sessions have been well attended. The next session is on Saturday, October 9 @ 9 am MT. Oh, and IT'S F R E E !

When: Oct 9, 2021, 09:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting - click on the link to register.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We need you...

stay connected with us. Update your AHIMA profile. Make sure that you OPT-IN to emails from NMHIMA. We cannot share information with you via e-blasts if this is checked as an opt-out.
join us! We are seeking candidates for our 2022-23 Board. Want to know more about the board positions? Click here for training on Understanding NMHIMA Board Member Roles, responsibilities, and time commitments. You may also access the training here: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/8c306aae-5f05-44c4-b9ea-3af5d927f284/review

Coming soon!

NMHIMA will be transitioning its web services to KnowledgeConnex. We will join over 60 other AHIMA CSAs and regional CSAs on this platform. We hope to increase our social media presence and virtual offerings in the future. This is one example of how the NMHIMA Board is working for members to create a better infrastructure for our association.

Best regards to all,
Mechel on behalf of the NMHIMA Board

Photo credit Know How Studios

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