Dichotomy of Healthcare
Dr. Zeev Neuwirth opened the 2023 American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA23) conference and spoke about the dichotomy of healthcare. He shared with the audience that is simultaneously frustrated at and excited by our industry.
On the frustrating side, clinicians have more regulations, financial uncertainty, and workload to deal with than ever before. These pressures are leading to an increase in moral injury (Dr Neuwirth’s preferred term for burnout) which is resulting in more clinicians leaving the profession. Dr. Neuwirth shared an especially poignant story of a colleague who took his own life, in part, due to these pressures.
On the exciting side, medical and technological advancements are happening faster than ever. mRNA vaccines, ambient voice scribes, and of course AI.
For me, dichotomy was the through line for AHIMA23.
Evolving Role of Health Information Management Professionals
I spoke with several long-time attendees (25+ conferences) who told me stories of the “golden age” when the conference was all about better ways to store physical records and when Dictaphone (the company, a piece of which is now part of Nuance/Microsoft) was the dominant sponsor.
“Back in those days we had 5,000+ attendees and the party featured bands like the Temptations,” recounted one attendee who was attending her 40th AHIMA conference.
With the widespread adoption of EHRs, the need for armies of people to handle paper dwindled and HIM professionals evolved to focus more on their information stewardship duties rather than on physically storing and retrieving medical files.
At AHIMA23 the dichotomy of HIM’s past and present was on full display. As I scanned the agenda there were an almost equal number of sessions on release of information (ROI) – a throwback to the historic role of HIM professionals, and sessions on data collection/quality – a nod to the continued evolution into healthcare’s information stewards.
I would not be surprised to see more interoperability companies and those that focus on data quality at AHIMA24.
Paper in an Electronic World
One of the companies I spent time with was Interlace Health. Dessiree Paoli, Director of Product Marketing & Strategy shared how there is still a lot of paper-based processes in healthcare organizations.
Despite a decade of progress implementing EHRs, 75% of healthcare organizations are still using paper consent forms and 40% still use paper intake forms according to Paoli. Because of this, she would love to see more organizations prioritize “people over paperwork”. By doing this, patients will have more time with their physicians, physicians will be less frustrated, and care overall will be smoother.
Collecting vs Using SDOH Data
On Day 2 of AHIMA23, Kevin Sowers President of the Johns Hopkins Health System and Executive Vice President of Johns Hopkins Medicine offered a thought-provoking statement during a panel discussion: “There is no doubt that data helps to address Social Determinants of Health, but collecting that data can be challenging. It is not easy to ask someone if they are undocumented and living in the US or whether they have full time work or if they can afford to pay for prescriptions. Yet that is precisely the information we need.”
The point Sowers was trying to make is that saying data is useful is, well, not very useful. Having that data is what is useful. He challenged the audience to really think more carefully on how that data can be collected without it being an imposition on patients or clinicians.
Sowers’ statement illustrated what Dr. Neuwirth alluded to in the opening keynote – that healthcare is both frustrating and exciting at the same time. The fact that we are waking up to, and doing something about, the inequity in healthcare is exciting. However, that is balanced by the frustration of trying to collect the data we need to fine tune the SDOH programs that we want to launch.
Final Thought
True to the theme, now that AHIMA23 is over I am both happy and sad. I’m happy that I had the opportunity to go to Baltimore and be part of the conference (Note: I was the conference emcee, which was an incredible honor – I hope people enjoyed my jokes!). However, now that the conference is over, I’m sad that I have to wait another year before seeing everyone again.
Check out my 3 key takeaways from AHIMA23:
