AHIMA Survey Shows Need for Healthcare Information Governance

Most healthcare organizations have not established a comprehensive strategy for information governance (IG), according to preliminary results of an American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) survey.

AHIMA leaders shared the initial results of the association’s survey, in conjunction with Cohasset Associates, during a panel discussion at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) eHealth Summit on May 19. Complete results and analysis of the survey, the first benchmark survey on information governance in healthcare, will be released in the coming weeks, AHIMA officials say.

The results of the survey provide an understanding of the state of IG in healthcare and a map establishing steps the industry should take to govern its information.

Recognizing that organizations need to value and control their information as noted in the survey results, AHIMA leaders in their presentation outlined steps the association is taking to help healthcare organizations establish or continue to work toward a governing framework.

These steps include:

• Publishing white papers on the results of the initial and subsequent surveys of healthcare organizations
• Establishing an expert advisory group to review and provide input into development efforts
• Convening healthcare stakeholders to develop principles for governing information in healthcare, and a model for assessing maturity level of organizations
• Developing resources, guidelines, tools and materials to aid in operationalizing IG in healthcare
• Undertaking awareness raising and educational initiatives on IG for healthcare

“With the technological transformation and increasing proliferation of data we are experiencing, there is a critical need to manage information to ensure its security and integrity,” AHIMA Board President/Chair Angela Kennedy, who was one of the AHIMA leaders presenting at the eHealth Summit, said in a statement. “The time has come for the healthcare industry to govern its information—trust in health information depends on it.”