HIM Weekly Wednesday - AHIMA Career Map

Hi everyone, Happy Wednesday! This week I would like to point you towards the career map that AHIMA has available. I love this map for several reasons:

1. It organizes potential jobs into the main areas that HIM graduates tend to work, giving you a better understanding of where your career will be headed;
2. It lists many, many job titles so you can see all of the types of opportunities you will have upon graduation;
3. It shows a progression of jobs that you may strive for as you gain more and more experience.

Take a look at the map and find your area of interest and click away! I hope that this will clarify a career path for you and get you even more excited about this great profession!
This will be our last Weekly Wednesday until the new year. The next two Wednesdays are holidays, and I hope that they find you all happy and healthy. Enjoy your break and Happy Holidays!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM Weekly Wednesday - Course Scheduling Guide

Hello! I hope this finds you all merry with holiday preparations and the anticipation of a break from school soon! I hope that the break will rejuvenate you and bring you back in mid-January with new energy and a fresh outlook.
This week I am linking to a document that we hope will assist you with scheduling your classes for each term. It can also help you with your long-term plan and goals for graduating.
Before you take a look at the document, please understand that this is only a GUIDE. It is not written in stone, and it will likely go through some updates as we work with it and find what is good about it and what might need some tweaking. Having a “written in stone” document for sequencing your courses is impossible because our students can start in any term and each and every one of you come to COSC with differing educational backgrounds which means all different course transfer scenarios. In fact, few of you will likely be able to follow the suggested course scheduling exactly as written. But we decided that this would be a good start, and it may help you to feel more confident and organized when you are choosing your courses.
Frank Valier and I will help you to navigate this document if you have questions or concerns. When you are having an advising meeting with Frank, the two of you could use the document to map out your own personal schedule. I am happy to help as well! Please do not hesitate to email me or Frank with any questions you may have.
Happy Wednesday!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM Weekly Wednesday - AHIMA Student Academy

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday! I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving.
Today I bring you a fantastic opportunity from AHIMA. Each fall at the AHIMA Convention they offer a Student Academy. This year they recorded all of the presentations and they are offering them to you for free! You can pick and choose which presentations you would like to listen to - or be really ambitious and listen to them all! I hope you are as excited as I am about the topics covered in these presentations. Really good stuff! The quality is really good and I think it would be so beneficial for you all to take the time to view these. I know you are all busy - but how about viewing just one each week? Most only last about 20 minutes.
Simply visit the AHIMA Student Academy and then enter this for the member number required: 0463379.
Enjoy! And I welcome any feedback about them once you have had a chance to view them!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM WEEKLY WEDNESDAY - ICD-10 Puzzle

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Here is a little HIM puzzle fun for the Thanksgiving Holiday! You will have to do some looking up of ICD-10-CM medical codes and you don’t need ANY coding experience to do this (you could even have your kids do this for you!). Simply type each of the codes in the story below into the search box at the IDC-10-CM Code Search and you will find your answers to finish this little story.
Here is the story puzzle.
Enjoy and have a wonderful holiday break everyone!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM Weekly Wednesday - ICD-10

Let's talk about ICD-10!
Do you know that this country's medical coding system is changing from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS on October 1, 2014? This is less than a year away and healthcare facilities are scrambling to learn, prepare and plan for the transition. This is perhaps the biggest change in our healthcare industry for many decades.
Medical coding is directly related to reimbursement. Coding is one of the primary functions of the hospital HIM department and any facility that bills insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid for services must have someone on staff who is a coding expert. A large sized hospital may employ as many as 10 coders! Coding is also one of the HIM careers that can be done remotely - it is the trend now that many coders are working from home.
Here is a nice fact sheet that will give you the basics. (Note that it says the implementation date is 10/1/2013. This is because it WAS supposed to happen this year but it got pushed back a year in 2012). The fact sheet also includes some helpful websites that will give you more information. This is a good one to check out: ICD-10 on CMS.gov
If coding interests you, now is a good time to become an ICD-10 expert. Everyone will be on a level playing field on 10/1/14 - even coders with years of experience will be a brand new ICD-10 coder. Employers will be looking for those who have solid knowledge of ICD-10 and will want Coding Supervisors who can lead the way!
Have a great week! Until next Wednesday...
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM Weekly Wednesday - AHIMA Code of Ethics

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope your term is going well and you are enjoying the fall weather.
Did you know that a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) has a Code of Ethics that they are to uphold? When you pass the RHIA exam after graduation, you will enter in to a profession that first and foremost is all about protecting patient’s privacy and confidentiality. We also understand ethical issues in healthcare and take professional behavior very seriously.
Take a minute to read about the expectations and the Code of Ethics. Notice that there is also a Standards of Ethical Coding. Become familiar with these standards and think about how you can start practicing them now!
Have a great day!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM Weekly Wednesday - AHIMA Membership

Hello, this weeks message is coming a day late but let me tell you why! I was attending the annual convention of AHIMA in Atlanta, GA and arrived home late last night. I had limited internet access, but I couldn't wait to get home to encourage all of you to get familiar with AHIMA!
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is the premier professional association for HIM professionals. It is the organization that provides a wealth of valuable resources, a robust website, and they track our required continuing education each year. If you are not already familiar with AHIMA, please take the time now to go to www.ahima.org and explore all of the information. Concentrate especially on the Career and Student Center tab. I would highly encourage you all to become a student member at this time - it is $35.00 a year and it will give you access to all resources on the website plus you will begin receiving the HIM student newsletter.
DID YOU KNOW? Every state has a state chapter of AHIMA. You will be automatically enrolled as a member of your state association when you join AHIMA as a student member. This is important because you will begin to receive announcements from your state association - such as notices of conferences that typically have special low pricing for students! State associations also have volunteer opportunities for students and that looks great on the resume.
Be sure to locate your state's AHIMA association now and get familiar with the website. Most have a job board so spend a little time looking at the types of jobs that may be in your future! You may even be able to find entry level jobs that you could apply for now. Be sure to check back often!
If you don't become an AHIMA member now, be sure to do so as you near graduation. A $35 student membership gives you a $70 discount on the RHIA exam fee! I hope you will all start attending your state association meetings and I hope some day each of you will get to experience a national AHIMA convention. They are big and amazing and inspiring! I have returned with new motivation and continued pride in all of the amazing leaders of the HIM profession!
Have a great day!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

HIM Weekly Wednesday - CAHIIM Accreditation / Textbooks

Hello HIM Students! Today I will be starting my Weekly Wednesday email to you all. It will be a way to keep in touch, give you information about the program, share helpful tips, and remind you that I am here to assist you!
News of the Week: We have submitted our Application for Candidacy to CAHIIM as our first step toward CAHIIM accreditation. This is exciting and I will let you know when I hear back from CAHIIM about our status.
Helpful Tip: This is important! I know it is tempting to sell all of those used textbooks back, but please keep in mind that you will want and NEED the core HIM textbooks for HIM 499 Capstone and for studying and preparing to take the RHIA exam after graduation. It is also a very good idea to start your “professional library” with those textbooks. You should keep all textbooks for courses starting with a HCA or HIM. Keep them on a shelf for later. You will be surprised how many times you will pull them off the shelf for other courses. I remember when I graduated and got my first job I hauled my box full of textbooks to work the first week and had fun setting up book shelf in my office. Being a brand new HIM professional, I was so glad to have those books to refer back to!
Please let me know if you have any questions! Remember, Frank Valier is always happy to assist you with any course issues or scheduling.
HAPPY WEDNESDAY!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu

New HIM Program Director - Introduction and Welcome!

Dear HIM Students:
I am very excited to say hello and introduce myself!
I am your new HIM Program Director here at Charter Oak State College and I am looking forward to working with all of you. I have been in the HIM profession since 1988 and it has been very good to me! I have enjoyed a variety of positions but most of all I have loved my past 17 years teaching students at a number of colleges at both the associate and baccalaureate level of HIM education. I have been teaching online since 2003 and I have also designed many online courses, managed and mentored online faculty, and managed online programs. I love the flexibility that online learning allows you – I was an online student myself when I decided to get my master’s degree.
I think you will find that this is a career path that offers many options and you can take it in many different directions based on your strengths and interests. Careers in health information management are diverse and exciting, especially today as we move into new roles, focus on information technology, and find positions in a big variety of healthcare facilities as well as government agencies, software companies, colleges, and more. I am certain you can find the perfect niche for yourself.
It is only my sixth day here, and already I am loving my job! I have a lot to learn, and a lot to do, as I continue the great work others have started on this excellent program, but I am very excited about the tasks ahead of me. One of my first objectives will be to lead the Charter Oak program through the AHIMA accreditation process. I look forward to getting to know you and traveling on this path along with you. Frank Valier will continue to work with you as well, and he is looking forward to teaching more courses. Together we will be here to guide and support you as you work toward the awesome goal of graduation.
Please do not hesitate to email or call me with any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!
Cindy Glewwe, M.Ed., RHIA
Director, Health Information Management Program
Charter Oak State College
55 Paul J. Manafort Drive
New Britain, CT 06053
(Ph.) 860-515-3833
cglewwe@charteroak.edu