Putnam County Hospital and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) will honor and celebrate health information professionals during the 25 ^th annual Health Information Professionals (HIP) Week, March 16‒22, 2014. This year’s theme is “Transforming Healthcare with Information.”

“The work health information management (HIM) professionals do to ensure the integrity of health information is imperative to clinical and administrative decision making. Access to accurate information helps all of us make important decisions and leads to a healthy society,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA. “AHIMA’s Health Information Professionals Week spotlights the important role HIM professionals play in our healthcare system.”

HIP Week 2014 will coincide with AHIMA’s Hill Day, an event where AHIMA members visit Capitol Hill and share the importance of advancing HIM. Information governance, privacy and security, and fraud and abuse concerns continue to be key issues for HIM professionals, and AHIMA is ready to provide guidance to the healthcare industry and government leaders seeking counsel.

“AHIMA’s vision is a world in which healthcare decisions are informed by instant access to intelligence,” said Thomas Gordon. “In this vision, data is a critical asset. This year’s theme, ‘Transforming Healthcare with Information,’ describes the future we want to see and reminds us that HIM professionals’ work is supporting quality of care and population health today.”

As the focus in healthcare shifts from the ability to collect data to using information effectively, healthcare organizations will continue to depend on HIM professionals as leaders in this area. With their expertise in management of information, as well as data integrity and analytics, health information professionals are well positioned to move the healthcare industry into a transformed future.

About AHIMA

Representing more than 71,000 specially educated HIM professionals in the United States and around the world, the American Health Information Management Association is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research, best practices, and effective standards in health information, and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. AHIMA’s enduring goal is quality healthcare through quality information. ahima.org