HIMAA ONLINE

The monthly digital newsletter of the Health Information Management Association of Australia Limited
Volume 8 | Issue 04 | Digital
Cheens Lee
Cheens Lee

President - HIMAA

Cheens Lee
Cheens Lee

President - HIMAA

President's Report

Hello Members,

 

Last week was National Volunteer Week. My team at Telstra Health had the chance to spend a day at the Asylum Seeker Centre in Sydney as part of our corporate volunteering efforts. This gave us an opportunity to remove ourselves from our day-to-day roles and engage directly with refugees waiting for asylum who shared their stories of being stuck in limbo for as long as 15 years with an unknown future. Some of my colleagues were overcome with emotion hearing the journey of our fellow humans, which provided a different viewpoint to the narrative we typically hear in the media and from our politicians. As well as giving us an appreciation on the lives we lead, volunteering offers the chance for us to give something back to the community or make a difference to the people around us.

 

HIMAA relies on our volunteers to continue to make our community vibrant, whilst advancing our profession and association. Everyone from the Board to members of our branches, committees and CoP are essential in the work we do. We do it because we want to ensure the HIM profession continues to support the Australian healthcare system in providing the highest level of care that is safe and sustainable. Personally, volunteering for HIMAA has allowed me to develop skills beyond what my “day job” offers, grown friendships whilst having a lot fun along the way.

 

One of our long serving members who has generously volunteered her time for HIMAA is Kim Osborne. She recently resigned as co-convenor from the NSW Branch after 15 years supporting the branch. Over the years Kim has been a regular at the National Conference, growing friendships and having fun along the way. I want to thank her for her service. She will stay on the branch to mentor the next generation of HIMAA volunteers.

 

Onwards and upwards!

Cheens Lee

President

Email: cheensl@himaa.org.au 

Table of Contents
From the CEO's desk
From the CEO's desk

Jae Redden | CEO, HIMAA

From the CEO's desk

From the CEO's desk

Jae Redden | CEO, HIMAA

Abstract submission for the 2022 HIMAA National Conference are now closed! They are being sent out for review. We hope to open the Conference registration in June 2022 so please look out for this announcement in our eDM and social media communication.  


From June we will be starting the membership renewal process for the 2022-2023 subscription year. The Health Information Management Association of Australia Limited (HIMAA) began in 1949 as the New South Wales Association of Medical Records Librarians and the Victorian Association of Medical Librarians. You can read about our brief history on our website or read it in more detail in A History of the Medical Record / Health Information Management Profession in Australia written by Professor Phyllis J. Watson, AM.


HIMAA is proud of its history which has been built by support from members. Today we are an established Registered Training Organisation (RTO) with approximately 700 students going through our courses domestically and internationally, and around 1,000 members.


Your membership benefits include:

  • Free subscription to the leading peer-reviewed HIM Journal published by Sage
  • Free subscription to HIM-Interchange
  • Free subscription to Pulse+IT
  • Membership discounts to all HIMAA events/activities, education enrolment fees, national conference, books, job advertisements (Work Web)
  • Opportunities to develop and contribute to the profession by participating in HIMAA activities, committees and EOIs, and be recognised through the Professional Credentialing Scheme (PCS).


Most of all it is about uniting to promote, develop and advocate for the profession. You can read more about what it means to be a HIMAA member. Should you have any enquiries, please email membership@himaa.org.au. With the recent cyber security breach with this email, if you are having problems receiving or sending emails to this address, please contact us at support@himaa.org.au.   


I am pleased to let you know that we are supporting the interactive online modules developed by Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) with HIMAA PCS points. There are 18 educational modules that cover the key changes for ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS Twelfth Edition and an introductory module to guide users on how to engage with the content. Further details about accessing and completing the education is available from the IHPA website: ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS Twelfth Edition education. Upon completion of these 18 modules you can log 20 PCS points. These are short modules and should take approximately 10 hours to complete in your own time.


HIM Week is from 22-26 August 2022. It will be based on the 2022 National Conference theme of Keeping Health Information Human. I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions on activities you would like to hold during this week and how we can support your organisation. Please feel free to email me.


The HIMAA National Office has been preoccupied with the change of our accounting software, migrating to new software for both Membership and Education Services, rolling out new courses, including the long-awaited Skill Set, and business-as-usual. We are excited to host the national board meeting in our Sydney office on 27-28 May 2022 when we look forward to meeting the Directors in person.


I remain keen to work with you in leading HIMAA to serve the health information management profession. Please feel free to reach out to me to chat.


Jae Redden

Chief Executive Officer

ceo@himaa.org.au


Latest News

Education News

Education Committee Update

The Education Committee is HIMAA’s authoritative body on tertiary level education and professional development. Its Terms of Reference (v.2022) can be found on the HIMAA website.   The work The work is shared amongst the Education Committee and its sub-committee, working groups and working party: Professional Development Sub-Committee (PDSC) Clinical Coder (Performance Standards) Working Group (CCWG) Clinical Documentation Integrity (Competency Standards) Working Group (CDIWG) – Refer Expression of Interest (EoI),

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24/05/2022

What's on

Stay up to date with the upcoming events and activities across the board at HIMAA

Member News

Latest news and updates submitted by members. Any member updates, please submit to membership@himaa.org.au.

The Illawarra Schools Workplace Learning Program (ISWLP) conducted a schools careers event, after a three-year hiatus, on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 May 2022 at the Illawarra Sports Stadium, south of Wollongong. These events commenced approximately 39 years ago and provide school to work education, training links, industry knowledge and expert advice. This year would be the third event that the Health Information Managers have volunteered at an exhibition. The volunteers this year were Jacqueline Kelly, Catherine Muratore and Mai Schettino from the NSW Illawarra region and Filippa Pretty and Cassandra Jordan from Sydney.

Our philosophy was to engage with as many of the approximate 5,000 visitors as possible to advocate health information management as a university course and clinical coding as a VET course. The visitors included school students ranging from Year 9 to Year 12, Careers Advisers, Teachers, Deputy-Principals, parents, friends, other exhibitors, staff from the ISWLP and other visitors. 


Students were keen to learn about the volunteers’ types of jobs, options for working overseas, travels, subjects in courses, state, national and international professional activities, salary range, changes in the health industry etc.

We believed the students and visitors were extremely engaged and the layout of the exhibitions provided space conducive to students and visitors engaging with the exhibition and conversations with the volunteers.


The volunteers worked consistently as students arrived by coaches at staggered arrival times and deserve a huge thank you and acknowledgment of the contribution to their profession. The volunteers concluded it was a positive experience and an opportunity for advocating courses and careers. Thank you to Jae Redden, CEO, HIMAA for funding the exhibition.


From Cassandra Jordan, Catherine Muratore, Mai Schettino, Jacqueline Kelly and Filippa Pretty.

17 May 2022

Volunteers wanted

Call for a minimum 2 volunteers to assist at the Careers EXPO at Knox Grammar, Wahroonga, NSW,  on the evening of 31 May 2022.

 

There will be 71 exhibitors and HIMAA will be a participant.  Volunteers arrive between 4-5pm. Please contact Cassandra Jordan, Honorary Careers Officer, NSW Branch 0409137260 or c.jordan2@latrobe.edu.au

Knox Grammar School – Senior School campus map 2022 

Editorial Board

Latest from HIMJ

Since last month’s HIMAA Matters, HIMJ has published two On-line First articles. Research article The suitability of government health information assets for secondary use in research: A fit-for-purpose analysis. Merilyn Riley, Kerin Robinson, Monique F Kilkenny, Sandra G Leggat. 26 April 2022 | OnlineFirst This study investigated the secondary uses, in research, of population health and administrative datasets (information assets) of the Department of Health, Victoria, Australia. The authors identified research based on these datasets (published between 2008 and 2020), described the data quality studies for each dataset, and evaluated ‘fitness-for-purpose’ of the published research. Research article Electronic health records post-implementation challenges in selected hospitals: A qualitative study in the Central Region of southern Ghana. Nathan K Mensah, Richard O Boadu, Godwin Adzakpah, Obed U Lasim, Ruth D Amuakwa, Hannah B Taylor-Abdulai, Samuel T Chatio. 15 May 2022 | OnlineFirst This article reports on the post-implementation challenges affecting the deployment and use of EHRs through in-depth interviews with health workers in two health facilities in southern Ghana. The authors identified a number of surmountable concerns, common among users of EHRs in other countries: the need for technological, logistical and managerial support, improved telecommunications infrastructure, and budgeted ongoing funding.

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Andrea Gall 24/05/2022
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