The HIMAA Education Committee meets monthly via zoom, for 1.5 hours, on 10 months of the year. Its very busy agenda of work is shared amongst the Education Committee and its sub-committee and working groups. Our thanks to Andrea Gall, Executive Support Officer-HIMAA, for kindly uploading a list of the members of these committees and groups to the public-facing HIMAA website: https://himaa.org.au/education-committee/ All of these members are keen to keep you, our colleagues, informed as work progresses. Herewith, for your information, summaries of some of the discussions from the Education Committee’s July 2022 meeting.
It was reported at the July meeting that the Clinical Coder (Performance Standards) Working Group (CCWG) will present a paper at the HIMAA 2022 National Conference. This will be delivered by Jennie Shepheard, Convenor-CCWG. Jennie will provide conference attendees with up-to-date information on the CCWG’s work in developing national, Clinical Coder workplace-based Performance Standards. These Performance Standards (or Competency Standards) will be designed to replace the Health Information Management Association of Australia (1996) Clinical Coder National Competency Standards and Assessment Guide. Conference attendees will be invited to provide Jennie with informal consultative advice/input to help shape the very early (draft) version of standards that is currently being developed. This will precede a planned formal survey in 2023 of the population of the clinical coding workforce, comprising HIM-Coders and Clinical Coders, Australia-wide.
The HIMAA Board of Directors and the Education Committee wish to (re-)establish small subsets of Profession Entry-, Intermediate- and Advanced-level Health Information Manager (HIM) Competency Standards in clinical documentation integrity and, then, to develop competency standards for Clinical Documentation Specialists (CDIs), Clinical Coders (CCs) and others under the HIMAA umbrella who work in the CDI area. This large project will be undertaken by the re-established Clinical Documentation Integrity (Competency Standards) Working Group (CDIWG). The Chair of the Education Committee, on behalf of the Selection Panel, has received of Expressions of Interest for membership of the CDIWG. The intention is to establish a Working Group comprising HIMAA members who have high-level experience and expertise in CDI and a sound understanding of the competencies required for this specialist work. It is hoped that this Working Group will be up and running by around September-October.
As reported to you in a previous HIMAA Matters, the Education Committee decided this year to implement a rolling update of the Health Information Manager (HIM) Professional Competency Standards. The Standards document is very complex and comprehensive. It takes years to update. Therefore, an incremental, annual update is a practical alternative to undertaking a major overhaul every few years. It is also a better option for the key stakeholders. The Education Committee is now undertaking the 2022-23 update. Thus far, this has focused on the Profession-entry level component. It has involved consultation with the universities and includes the removal of errors, duplications and discrepancies and the addition of the new/revised sub-set of Health Data Analytics Standards – all at Profession-entry level. The updated document will be ready for release to key stakeholders including universities, the Accreditation Council, and the HIMAA membership, in the second half of 2022. The Education Committee will undertake further incremental updates in 2023, for the 2023-24 version.
The Education Committee welcomes contact from individuals, in all categories of the HIMAA membership, who may be interested in contributing to the work of the Committee, the Professional Development Sub-Committee (PDSC) or the various working groups. Interested members are most welcome to contact the Chair at: educationcommittee@himaa.org.au
Dr Kerin Robinson, Chair Cassandra Jordan
On behalf of the HIMAA Education Committee members Member, HIMAA Education Committee