HIMAA ONLINE

The monthly digital newsletter of the Health Information Management Association of Australia Limited
Volume 8 | Issue 10 | Digital
Catherine Garvey
Catherine Garvey

President - HIMAA

Catherine Garvey
Catherine Garvey

President - HIMAA

President's Report

Our February HIMAA Board meeting kicked off the 2023 calendar year and work programme with great energy and enthusiasm, as always.

We have a diverse and wonderful team on the Board this year. Meet the Board Governance (himaa.org.au) on our Members website. First and foremost for our attention: our progress with the Strategic Plan for the upcoming twelve months. Education, the cornerstone to all professions, is a key consideration for the Board, be it the tertiary availability of suitable courses and access to these, our own HIMAA Education Services’ programs e.g. HLT50321 Diploma of Clinical Coding, or ongoing webinars and micro-credentialling considerations. We are reviewing all offerings to ensure we cover the entire membership community in continuous professional development. In addition, we are reviewing and will be consulting on our course accreditation process. Our students are our legacy. We need to prepare them with the appropriate skills and knowledge for the next generation of Health Information Management in the existing digital/electronic environment.

One of the many ways in which our profession can contribute to the wider health community is to ensure we are at the table for key topics. The Board has identified one such topic, namely the feedback being sought around Health Identifiers where we hope to help shape, with your contribution, this federal conversation. A number of other topics have come to our attention, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), and where this fits with our profession now and in the future? The Aged Care and Mental Health record management sectors, NDIS, and planning for pandemics, all of which have digital platforms and spaces where our skills can be readily used, are opportunities awaiting us. We want to be able to represent the profession in as many of these spaces as possible at the policy and strategy levels. We are curious to have your thoughts on forums where we can present and offer the skills and professionalism where our members excel. Write to me and the Board to let us know of such opportunities. Join our forums and committees to contribute to these discussions.

The 20th IFHIMA Congress and 40th HIMAA National Conference Committee is working hard to create a programme of both depth and diversity. Registrations have opened to allow you and your teams time to plan and budget for attendance. This event in Brisbane will be of interest especially to local members and our many international colleagues who share our professional passions. In addition to our current planning, we are reviewing the HIMAA policy on conferences for 2024 and beyond with a view to content of interest and inspiration.

Our CEO Jae and I are planning to visit as many branch events as we can this year. We would like to engage with your local health jurisdiction on matters of workforce, qualifications and skills. Drop me an email or plan a meeting with us to discuss any of these topics with your state/territory health departments.

Catherine Garvey
President
catherineg@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

The joint 20th IFHIMA Congress and 40th National HIMAA Conference registration is now open. Please go to https://ifhimacongress2023.com.au/ to view the Draft Program as well as the partnership prospectus.

Confirmed speakers include:

Dr Stephen Duckett is a health economist and an Honorary Enterprise Professor in the School of Population and Global Health and in the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne. He was responsible for the design and implementation of activity-based funding in Victoria, Australia in 1993 and subsequently was a consultant to Australia’s Independent Hospital Pricing Authority on the design of activity-based funding Australia-wide. Dr Duckett has held top health sector leadership positions in Australia and Canada and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Rob Heferen was appointed to the position of AIHW Chief Executive Officer, commencing in July 2021.

Prior to this, Mr Heferen was Deputy Secretary Higher Education, Research and International in the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. He has also served as Deputy Secretary, Energy at the Department of the Environment and Energy and had responsibility for energy policy including electricity and gas markets, and fuel security. Mr Heferen was also Australia’s representative on the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board.

Professor Michael Kidd AM is Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Principal Medical Advisor with the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, where he is leading Australia’s national primary care response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also has appointment as the foundation Professor of Primary Care Reform at The Australian National University. He is a general practitioner, a past president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, a past president of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), and a past Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University.

Jason Trethowan commenced as CEO of Headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation in January 2017. Since then he has overseen an expansion of the headspace network of digital services for young people, school-based programs, and an ongoing commitment to 164 Headspace centres nationally. With strengthened community and government support for Headspace, Jason understands the importance of embedding and integrating national models of service delivery in communities to ensure all young people across Australia can benefit from Headspace services in the areas of mental health, general health, work and study, and alcohol and other drugs.

Jason is also a Board Director of Barwon Health and Gforce Employment Solutions, and has achieved qualifications in Health Information Management, Health Informatics, and a Master’s in Business Administration.

Take advantage of the Early Bird offer which will close 29 July 2023. Please kindly note there will be no extension to this date. There is a lot of anticipation for this event and we are getting early enquiries for sponsorship and registration so don’t miss out on your opportunity to attend an international event! Members can register through the HIMAA member portal to register at member discount. I encourage you to review your member profile and update as appropriate.

It’s business as usual in the HIMAA National office. Intake for HLT50321 Diploma of Clinical Coding is now open until 25 March 2023. Information about HIMAA courses and enrolment dates can be found at https://www.himaa.org.au/education-services/

Unfortunately we have been informed of organisations who have claimed their course is endorsed or accredited by HIMAA in attracting students. If you sight any suspicious claim, please feel free to alert us.

We are excited to launch the Emerging Professionals Community of Practice with Samara El-Youssef and Gowri Sriraman as Convenors. We are looking forward to supporting HIM/Clinical Coding students and new graduates in navigating into this great profession. I look forward to our members’ support with this CoP.

Look out for member consultation opportunities on our social media posts on LinkedIn and Facebook for HIMAA issues or government bodies such as Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. It is essential that we add our voice to the development of the profession and/or health related matters.

As usual, please feel free to reach out to me to chat.

Jae Redden
Chief Executive Officer
ceo@himaa.org.au

Member News

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

IFHIMA/ HIMAA Members

Australian & Western Pacific Region IFHIMA Director I   Sharon Campbell If you are a member of IFHIMA in Australia then I would be interested in

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22/02/2023

Privacy Matters

Privacy and Security Community of Practice article   I   Sharon Campbell Welcome back to 2023! I don’t want to jinx it by saying it is going

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22/02/2023

Education News

HIMAA Seeking Experienced Clinical Coding Trainers

Are you experienced in training clinical coders in the workplace? Interested in a permanent or temporary position with one of Australia’s foremost providers of Nationally Recognised Training in the field? The Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA) is seeking suitably qualified and experienced individuals for a 1.0 FTE permanent position and a 0.4 FTE 6 months temporary position which has the potential to become permanent after the 6 month

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22/02/2023

Student Profile

Our student of the month for February is Sweta Naik from Ferny Hills in Queensland. Sweta scored 96% for clinical coding and is due to complete the 22274VIC Certificate IV in Clinical Classification very soon. We asked Sweta the following questions. What led you to enrol in our entry level course? I am a qualified nurse but enjoyed working on more analytical work preferably on computers. For this reason, I

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22/02/2023

HIM-Interchange

HIM-Interchange Update

In case you missed it, a new issue of HIM-Interchange went live in November 2022. It was our second issue for 2022 and includes some great articles from students on the projects they worked on during their professional experience placements. Read about classifying and scoring injuries in emergency departments, reviewing incomplete and preliminary notes in an electronic medical record system, and a documentation audit looking at obesity.   Interested in understanding how new technology gets rolled out in hospitals and how Health Information Managers are involved? Read Nina Palibrk’s article on her role in implementing robotic technology in a hospital. Two recent graduates also share their experiences of their first health information management roles at the Australian institute of Health and Welfare.   The issue also contains updates on the Health Information Management Association of Australia’s (HIMMA) Clinical Coder Working Group, ICD-11 and the International Federation of Health Information Management Associations White Paper on the health information management workforce.   Thanks to those people who participated in the HIM-Interchange evaluation survey that was released at the HIMAA conference in 2022. Feedback is so valuable, and we intend to investigate ways to survey those members who couldn’t be at the conference to ensure we seek a wide range of views. In the meantime, I encourage you to provide feedback on the journal and website at himinterchange@himaa.org.au.   We have some big plans for HIM-Interchange in 2023, so keep an eye out for updates.   Joanne Fitzgerald Editor, HIM-Interchange

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Joanne Fitzgerald 10/02/2023

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