Current Issues Summary
A thorough analysis of problems in multiple domains is necessary to merge the HIM departments from St. Catherine’s, St. Luke’s, and Hickman Community Hospital into Gateway Healthcare Systems. Staffing issues at St. Catherine’s are caused by fresher employees acclimating to the recent EHR installation and long-term employees who require more formal health information education. Inequitable adherence to break times and antiquated manual coding procedures among seasoned coders causes friction in departmental relationships. Productivity is hampered by the recent EHR changeover and antiquated coding productivity norms. Due to missing stamps on orders in the EHR, compliance concerns were identified, and a sanitation alert was sent out.
The departmental coherence at St. Luke’s is complicated by excessive worker turnover and the requirement for a permanent HIM manager. The antiquated needs need to be improved, and recreation, recent implementation, and out-of-date training hamper productivity. An external auditing firm’s rating of low coding quality puts compliance at risk. The primary staffing problem at Hickman Community Hospital is the need for employees with AHIMA credentials and established coding quality or quantity standards. The hospital’s reliance on paper records and manual coding books presents significant productivity and compliance challenges, particularly with ADA guidelines and cultural diversity training. Every hospital contributes advantages and difficulties to the merger. A single strategy is required for the newly established HIM department to operate more efficiently, guarantee compliance, and improve production.
SWOT Analysis
St. Catherine’s
- Strengths:
- Excellent code;
- Essential service mission;
- Varied workforce.
- Weaknesses:
- Limited efficiency in coding;
- Opposition to EHR and encoder implementation.
- Opportunities:
- Update coding productivity standards and enhance staff training on new technologies.
- Threats:
- Staff discontent and compliance issues brought on by out-of-date procedures.
St. Luke’s
- Strengths:
- A varied patient base and its founding as a teaching hospital.
- Weaknesses:
- Low staff diversity;
- Old EHR system;
- High staff turnover.
- Opportunities:
- Improve staff retention tactics and update EHR for more interoperability.
- Threats:
- Persistent challenges in retaining qualified HIM personnel;
- Inadequate coding quality affecting adherence.
Hickman
- Strengths:
- Long history of service and strong relationships with the community.
- Weaknesses:
- The reliance on paper records;
- Absence of personnel with credentials.
- Opportunities:
- Implement productivity and coding quality requirements and switch to digital records.
- Threats:
- Inadequate training on diversity and cultural competency; problems with ADA compliance.
Unified HIM Department
- Strengths:
- The possibility to take advantage of various patient demographics, community connections, and an extensive service mission among hospitals.
- Weaknesses:
- Staff credentials and training levels vary; current EHR systems must be consistently adopted.
- Opportunities
- Promote a culture of ongoing learning and development; standardize and modernize HIM technologies and procedures.
- Threats
- The current staff’s resistance to change and possible infractions during the changeover.
SMART Goals
Cultural Diversity
To improve cultural diversity within the unified HIM department, our goal is to have 25% more staff members by the end of 2024. This objective will be met by employing focused recruitment tactics that draw applicants with various skill sets and ethnic backgrounds. Findings by Pian et al. (2020), which emphasize the significance of comprehending and addressing the multi-dimensional components of consumer health information demands, including cultural and emotional dimensions, support this purpose. Partnerships with various professional associations and educational institutions will supplement recruitment efforts to guarantee that the staff makeup more closely reflects the different patient groups we serve. In addition, in keeping with Soroya et al. (2021) insights on health information behavior during a global health crisis, we will provide sensitivity and inclusion training to all current staff members to cultivate an environment that values and capitalizes on diversity, ultimately improving service delivery and patient care.
Human Resources
Our target for the next half-year is a 90% employee retention rate. This challenging but doable target recognizes the need to stabilize the personnel during the merger. This objective will be attained by implementing an extensive onboarding program to help new hires fit in with our company culture and provide them with the skills and resources they need to succeed. As Ranasinghe et al. (2022) noted, we acknowledge the rapid evolution of health information management techniques. We will continue to offer opportunities for professional development that center on the newest HIM technology and best practices. By ensuring that our team stays at the forefront of HIM advances, these measures should improve job satisfaction and employee concentration, sweetening departmental efficiency and patient development.
Compliance
We commit to certify complete commitment to all suitable healthcare decrees, such as ADA guidelines and The Joint Commission standards, by the end of the first quarter of 2025. This objective, which tackles the compliance issues found in the preliminary study, is essential for reducing risks and maintaining the integrity of our HIM activities. To do this, we will thoroughly examine all the department’s present procedures and guidelines to find any weak points or possible risks.
The results of Doktorchik et al. (2019) highlight how crucial accurate and reliable clinical documentation and coding are to the integrity and correctness of healthcare data. Our action plan, based on these insights, calls for updating current policies, making the required adjustments, and ensuring all employees receive the required training on the new processes. We will set up regular feedback channels and monitoring to improve and maintain our HIM procedures continuously.
References
Doktorchik, C., Lu, M., Quan, H., Ringham, C., & Eastwood, C. (2019). A qualitative evaluation of clinically coded data quality from health information manager perspectives. Health Information Management Journal, 49(1), 19–27.
Pian, W., Song, S., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Consumer health information needs: A systematic review of measures. Information Processing and Management, 57(2).
Ranasinghe, K., Sabatini, R., Gardi, A., Bijjahalli, S., Kapoor, R., Fahey, T., & Thangavel, K. (2022). Advances in Integrated System Health Management for mission-essential and safety-critical aerospace applications. Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 128.
Soroya, S. H., Farooq, A., Mahmood, K., Isoaho, J., & Zara, S. (2021). From information seeking to information avoidance: Understanding the health information behavior during a global health crisis. Information Processing and Management, 58(2).
