Transitioning into a Virtual Health Information Management Department Final Project

Transitioning into a Virtual HIM Department

Change is a brewing in today's health care system across the board within all health care disciplines from both a clinical and administrative standpoint. In particular, the HIM profession has seen changes in terms of the EHR and most recently, the highly anticipated transition to ICD-10-CM coding that will take effect Oct. 2015. In addition, another change that is slowly making a mark within the HIM profession, is the slow phase out of traditional HIM departments that are generally housed off-site, on the main floor, and the basement within a health care facility to remote virtual HIM departments.

Charles County hospital Health Information Management Department (HIM) Department has recently been approved to completely convert into a virtual department. Five years ago, the department was relocated next to the Patient Accounts Department in a newly remodeled wing of the hospital; however due to budget cuts, the need for more patient care space, and the vision of a new CEO the department will soon be used as part of a new expansion of the hospital as a sports medicine wing. As the HIM Director you are responsible for steering this large project smooth and successfully. The department currently employs 10 coders (7 FTE’s and 3 PTE’s), 1 Coding Manager, 3 file clerks (FTE’s), 3 assembly and analysis clerks (FTE’s), 2 Abstractors (PTE’s), 2 ROI clerks (FTE’s), 2 Birth Registry Analysts (PTE’s), 1 HIM Supervisor (FTE’s), 3 Transcriptionists (2 FTE’s & 1 PTE), 1 Risk Manager (FTE), and 1 Quality Improvement Coordinator (FTE).

As part of the outlined steps to transition, the CEO has asked for you to submit the following reports:

1. In 1-2 pages, identify the staffing needs for the transition. Is it feasible to remain with the same amount of employees, should you downsize, reassign staff members to new positions/job responsibilities, or should you outsource the department entirely to external vendors. Is it necessary to have any employees remaining onsite? If so, identify what employees and explain why.

2. Establish a list of basic technological hardware each employee will need for each position in order to perform all job related functions. In addition, create a spreadsheet that captures the projected costs to purchase and ship equipment to staff if the decision from item one above is to keep current staff as oppose to contracting with outside vendors for all positions and/or specific positions.

3. Based on your decisions made from item 1 (above) create a restructured HIM Department organization chart depicting the design schematic of remote HIM staff.

4. Create a work flow depicting how all functions will be performed virtually (remotely)

5. Create a 7 day work schedule that depicts both FTE’s and PTE’s

6. Create a 1-2 page contingency plan in the event of natural disasters, theft of equipment, system down time/issues, breach of patient confidentiality, privacy, and security.

7. Create policies and procedures for the following: employee remote work hours, ROI requests, coding, employee absentee requests etc. Develop at least 3 policies and 3 accompanying procedures. For example, if you create a policy on coding remotely you will also create the procedure(s) for coding remotely.

8. In 1-2 pages, explain how employee yearly evaluations will be conducted once the department goes completely virtual. Identify who will maintain the evaluations and where would the evaluations be stored. Develop a yearly employee evaluation form.

9. Identify a list of at least 3-5 potential vendors to provide HIM related software to perform daily departmental functions. In addition, identify at least 2-3 vendors that can be possibly contracted to perform HIM functions as a second option using a comparison chart that depicts services provided, cost, benefits, and other necessary specifications for the CEO to review.

10. Develop a monthly communication schedule that outlines departmental meetings, training etc. Research existing vendors that can support the communicative needs of the department and share at least 1 vendor of your choice by identifying the features provided and explain how it can meet the needs of the remote HIM department.

11. In 1-2 pages discuss the storage of health records. How will all authorize users within the entire facility be able to access health records on an as needed basis. Locate at least 2 potential vendors that can store, manage, and make accessible health information using a comparison chart to display comparing both vendors.

12. Finally, present 1-2 page plan that explains how the virtual department can support the education of aspiring HIM students by accepting students for internship/externship experiences (also referred to as Professional Practice Experiences (PPE’s)). Create at least 1 sample virtual assignment.