HIM WEEKLY WEDNESDAY - HIP Week

Hello HIM Students! Each year we celebrate Health Information Professionals week, sponsored by AHIMA, and the week is fast approaching. March 16-22 is the official HIP Week.
Here at Charter Oak we will celebrate with an Open House on Thursday, March 20, at 5:30 p.m. If you live in the area we would love to have you join us and I would love to meet you in person! If you are not close by you can still attend via Webex.

The event includes brief presentations by Mark Laudenberger, Director of HIM, Middlesex Hospital, Cindy Glewwe, our own HIM Program Director, Liz Taylor, Director of Health Information, Sharon Hospital and President of CT HIMA, and Patricia Hawthorne, one of our current HIM Program students who will discuss the Charter Oak online classroom experience.

We hope you can join us!

Another important note for your calendar: BOTH Summer and Fall registration will go up on ACORN for viewing on March 1st. Why not register right away for both terms? Email Frank Valier or set up a time to talk with him via phone to discuss which courses would be the best fit for your degree plan.

Have a great week!

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 - Registration

Hello, I hope you are having a great week! Do you still need to register for your Spring Term 2 classes? The deadline is 4:00 p.m. on March 12. Be sure to give your advisor, Frank Valier, a call for some guidance! 860-515-3834

And it is not too early to begin thinking about your summer courses. I would like to recommend if you have not yet taken HCA 115 Principles of Health Information Management (formerly Medical Record Science) that you be sure to register for that for the summer. It is an introduction to the HIM profession and after completing the course you should have a pretty good idea about many of the jobs and tasks that are involved in the HIM field. It will also help to make the other HIM courses more relevant to you. I am going to be teaching it this summer and I am excited about the chance to get to know some of you and answer any questions that you may still have about the HIM program and profession.

On another note, coming up quickly is the 25th annual Health Information Professionals (HIP) Week. During the week of March 16-22 we will be celebrating you and this great profession that you have chosen. Look for some extra emails and activities that week. We will also be holding an open house the evening of March 20th. More on that to come! Get more information on HIP Week!

Have a great 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 - ICD-10 Coding

Hi Everyone! I have found an excellent video that describes how ICD-10 coding is different than ICD-9. As most of you know, we will be transitioning to ICD-10 on October 1 of this year.

The video is 26 minutes long and I hope you will take the time to view it. Even though you may not understand everything because you have not had the coding courses yet, you will still be able to get a feel for the changes that coders will be experiencing. HIM departments have been preparing for this change for the past couple of years and coders are getting trained and practicing with ICD-10 so they will be ready on October 1st.

Enjoy!

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 AND CAREER

We are very happy to report that we are officially in Candidacy for accreditation with CAHIIM! I am busy working on the next step which is our self-assessment report. Following the self-assessment report, our final accreditation visit will be scheduled. This is what you will now see on our website and in publications about the HIM program:

The HIM Bachelor of Science program at Charter Oak State College is in Candidacy Status, pending accreditation review by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM).

Accreditation is very important because it ensures that we have a quality program that meets the needs of students and employers, and it allows you to sit for the RHIA exam. I will always keep you updated with any future accreditation news.

And the next big news (although this probably isn’t new to most of you)... there is a shortage of HIM/HIT Professionals! Need I say more? You will want to read this article!

If you are receiving this Weekly Wednesday email for the first time and would like to receive past editions, just let me know!

Have a great week 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 - AHIMA Virtual Student Open House

Oops, I am a day late! A day off on Monday for MLK, Jr. day has me a little off.
I want to let you know today about a Student Open House that the AHIMA Foundation is holding. It is virtual, so you can attend from anywhere! If you happen to live in Chicago you can also attend in person. Be sure to put February 11th on your calendar. There are two sessions so you can choose which one is best for you. There will be 3 hours of excellent information that will be helpful both now and in your future career in HIM.
See the AHIMA Foundation Events. Notice that you do have to register. Also notice that the times are posted in Central Time so be sure to translate that to your own time zone. When you register you will also get reminder emails so be sure to register, even if you are not sure if you can attend!
I hope you will all plan on attending at least part of the sessions!
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 - Scribes

Hello HIM Students! The Weekly Wednesday is back. I hope you had a fantastic break and you are off to a great start after the first week of classes in 2014!
Today I am going to share with you a fairly new job in the healthcare field. It is called a Scribe, and they are used to partner with physicians to complete the documentation so the physician can focus all of their attention on the patient. The Scribe is typically typing the information into the electronic health record while the physician is doing the exam and reporting results. Many traditional medical transcriptionists are finding their way into this new role and it is a perfect fit for them. I am also hearing of students in pre-med taking a job as a scribe. I am certain that HIM professionals will work with Scribes in some way – we may be the ones to help train them on the use of the EHR and the policies for quality documentation and patient confidentiality, and it may even be possible that they would be part of the HIM team.
I found an article for you to read to become more familiar with this new job title that you may encounter. I hope you find it as interesting as I did!
New York Times article on scribes
Have a great week!
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 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