Wow. Been awhile since I posted here -- OBVIOUSLY! I intend for that to change with the advent of my being appointed District 1 Director this week by the AHDI National Leadership Board.
To catch you up some, if you weren't aware, the position was recently vacated by Jay Vance who, for health reasons, was compelled to resign. Now those are some tough footsteps to follow!
Per the bylaws, the NLB is to fill any such vacancies with a member in good standing who lives within the district in question. Okay: membership dues: check. Live within Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona or the Canadian territories in the district. Check (Hillsboro, Oregon)
What I haven't said anything about is the NLB tagging someone who wants the job. I am ready to move from the national level to greater involvement with the west coast rather than spreading myself over all of AHDI. It was challenging and exciting being an officer of AHDI, including president 2010-2011, but I am ready for another challenge. Count me in.
I hope District 1 members and others will join me in a conversation here and elsewhere once in awhile, about healthcare, about our profession, about our association, about what is on your mind and mine.
Meanwhile, I am headed over to the AHDI District 1 blog to post my first message there. And I'll be back here soon to update this whole thing! See you later!
Barb
AHDI District 1 Director
AHDI Immediate Past President
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Monday, August 10, 2009
Vision 2010: No Limits!
I recently had the pleasure and responsibility of introducing my vision for 2010 when I have the honor of being AHDI president. My remarks were given at ACE, after the Integrity Awards, during the "after" party. In case you weren't there, I would like to share my message:
Picture this: Yours truly dressed as a road construction flagger, I called a halt to the music and dancing to ask, "WHAT are you thinking? You KNOW healthcare is under construction! Heaven knows healthcare documentation is a work in progress, but you have just sped on ahead with all that you are doing!
Carrie Boatman, President of AHDI-West (a 7-state regional component): Has no one explained to you that there are state lines and boundary limits?
Lynette Shipp, President of Arkansas-AHDI: Did you not notice the "no trespassing" signs on those 12 or so military bases you have visited over the past few months?
Kathy, "used-to-be-Rockel", the new Mrs Nichols: Did no one warn you of the dangers of international travel?
Brenda Hurley! (Speaker of the HOD): There are speed signs all over, but I don't see you slowing down one bit!
And students! Has no one made it clear that there are only 24 hours in a day??
As I chastized for the seeming inattention to limits, my cell phone rang. It was Austin calling. You know, Austin, Texas, where next year's annual convention will be?
In speaking with Cynthia Alder, president of Texas-AHDI, it turns out that for music in Austin, we can have anything we want. For lunch choices, well, Austin has everything. In fact, Austin is a city of every culture, every flavor, every color. Austin has No Limits!
As your AHDI president in 2010, I would challenge you to consider that we have no limits on our profession, on our association or on each of us personally as to what we can achieve with together.
We have so much work ahead of us; heaven knows that, too. Our message MUST be crystal clear and spoken with ONE voice: That the preservation of the narrative story of every patient's healthcare encounter matters to their healthcare.
We must not use our time to squabble over structure or commas or tablecloth colors because we realize this week more clearly than ever that time is short for us to relay that message for the future of our profession and quality healthcare.
I challenge each of us to consider moving outside ourselves and not keep asking, "What's in it for me?" but rather "What is in it for our profession and our future?"
We must pursue a credentialed profession, not because it might mean 4 cents more per line somewhere down the road or allow MTSO services to charge more for work done, but because our professional body of knowledge and critical thinking skills deserve it and quality healthcare documentation deserve it.
I know first hand what levels of knowledge and intelligence we bring to our jobs every day that we work. But I also know that we use our hearts. Is there any one of us not touched with the healthcare story of a small child with an undeserved broken arm, or an elderly patient receiving comforting hospice care, or a young man or woman with a positive, hopeful cancer prognosis?
I invite you to open your hearts and stand with me next year to consider how we might impact hungry children in our communities.
I also ask each one of you to consider what kind of impact you and your collegues are making on our profession. Are we moving ahead to higher levels of professionalism and expertise? As each year turns to the next, are we leaving our profession a better place by virtue of our involvement and care?
I challenge each one of you to continue with me this journey that has no limits. We'll throw away the stop signs and cautionary notices. It's going to be full speed ahead, and I hope to see everyone one of you and more next year in Austin!
Picture this: Yours truly dressed as a road construction flagger, I called a halt to the music and dancing to ask, "WHAT are you thinking? You KNOW healthcare is under construction! Heaven knows healthcare documentation is a work in progress, but you have just sped on ahead with all that you are doing!
Carrie Boatman, President of AHDI-West (a 7-state regional component): Has no one explained to you that there are state lines and boundary limits?
Lynette Shipp, President of Arkansas-AHDI: Did you not notice the "no trespassing" signs on those 12 or so military bases you have visited over the past few months?
Kathy, "used-to-be-Rockel", the new Mrs Nichols: Did no one warn you of the dangers of international travel?
Brenda Hurley! (Speaker of the HOD): There are speed signs all over, but I don't see you slowing down one bit!
And students! Has no one made it clear that there are only 24 hours in a day??
As I chastized for the seeming inattention to limits, my cell phone rang. It was Austin calling. You know, Austin, Texas, where next year's annual convention will be?
In speaking with Cynthia Alder, president of Texas-AHDI, it turns out that for music in Austin, we can have anything we want. For lunch choices, well, Austin has everything. In fact, Austin is a city of every culture, every flavor, every color. Austin has No Limits!
As your AHDI president in 2010, I would challenge you to consider that we have no limits on our profession, on our association or on each of us personally as to what we can achieve with together.
We have so much work ahead of us; heaven knows that, too. Our message MUST be crystal clear and spoken with ONE voice: That the preservation of the narrative story of every patient's healthcare encounter matters to their healthcare.
We must not use our time to squabble over structure or commas or tablecloth colors because we realize this week more clearly than ever that time is short for us to relay that message for the future of our profession and quality healthcare.
I challenge each of us to consider moving outside ourselves and not keep asking, "What's in it for me?" but rather "What is in it for our profession and our future?"
We must pursue a credentialed profession, not because it might mean 4 cents more per line somewhere down the road or allow MTSO services to charge more for work done, but because our professional body of knowledge and critical thinking skills deserve it and quality healthcare documentation deserve it.
I know first hand what levels of knowledge and intelligence we bring to our jobs every day that we work. But I also know that we use our hearts. Is there any one of us not touched with the healthcare story of a small child with an undeserved broken arm, or an elderly patient receiving comforting hospice care, or a young man or woman with a positive, hopeful cancer prognosis?
I invite you to open your hearts and stand with me next year to consider how we might impact hungry children in our communities.
I also ask each one of you to consider what kind of impact you and your collegues are making on our profession. Are we moving ahead to higher levels of professionalism and expertise? As each year turns to the next, are we leaving our profession a better place by virtue of our involvement and care?
I challenge each one of you to continue with me this journey that has no limits. We'll throw away the stop signs and cautionary notices. It's going to be full speed ahead, and I hope to see everyone one of you and more next year in Austin!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
What Time IS It?
Do you remember that song from long ago by Jim Croce? The title was, I think, "Time in a Bottle." Some of the lyrics went "If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do...."
I think there are different kinds of times throughout each day, each week, each year and season. We all understand "work" time: that time we necessarily devote to whatever we do to have an income to pay the bills.
There is also "spare" time. Now that is something most often in short supply! By definition that may be just time that has not been claimed by another activity or schedule, or is there due to a cancellation of something we thought we had to do. And how do we spend it? Do we automatically fill it with a "have to" we haven't found time for, or do we allow ourselves some space to do whatever comes along?
Then there is "value-added" time. These spaces are not "have to's" but a space we consciously allow ourselves to use that somehow adds to what and who we are. Such as spending an afternoon with a granddaughter. Or sitting on the beach listening to the waves. Or calling an old friend and catching up with all that is going on with your lives.
The time we spend nurturing our professional lives is part of the "value-added" time I think. When we spend time learning a new skill, adding to our understanding of medicine, using technology more effectively, learning how to advocate for our profession, it adds to our value.
Don't you think it is past time for us to get serious about spending the time to fully credential our profession? All around us in the heathcare field -- the coders, the cancer registrars, the records clerks, the lab techs, the phlebotomists, the nurses, the rad techs, the healthcare providers! -- practically every entity you can name is required to have a credential.
Can you do your MT job without a CMT or RMT behind your name? Of course you can. But committment to a credential also means committment to continuing education. And what might a speech recognition editor's credential do for your credibility? There is no arguement that healthcare continues to change, most often at the speed of light, and we are all challenged to keep up with what we need to know to stay effective.
There are critics of AHDI-promoted credentialing, saying that it is just a way for AHDI to make money. I promise you that nothing is further from the truth. Promoting, testing, verifying, tracking and recredentialing is practically a losing proposition from the standpoint of income. So why bother? Because it is the right thing to do.
When you look at the level of knowledge required to verify that the information in a healthcare document is accurate, and that our critical thinking skills are crucial to risk management, our profession puts us squarely in a tremendous seat of responsibility, whether you like it or not. It is a profession that should be credentialed. Not because it might earn us 4 cents more per line, but because our profession deserves the respect, consideration, inclusion and status accorded a credentialed professional workforce. Let's make the time to do this. I promise, it will be worth all our time.
I think there are different kinds of times throughout each day, each week, each year and season. We all understand "work" time: that time we necessarily devote to whatever we do to have an income to pay the bills.
There is also "spare" time. Now that is something most often in short supply! By definition that may be just time that has not been claimed by another activity or schedule, or is there due to a cancellation of something we thought we had to do. And how do we spend it? Do we automatically fill it with a "have to" we haven't found time for, or do we allow ourselves some space to do whatever comes along?
Then there is "value-added" time. These spaces are not "have to's" but a space we consciously allow ourselves to use that somehow adds to what and who we are. Such as spending an afternoon with a granddaughter. Or sitting on the beach listening to the waves. Or calling an old friend and catching up with all that is going on with your lives.
The time we spend nurturing our professional lives is part of the "value-added" time I think. When we spend time learning a new skill, adding to our understanding of medicine, using technology more effectively, learning how to advocate for our profession, it adds to our value.
Don't you think it is past time for us to get serious about spending the time to fully credential our profession? All around us in the heathcare field -- the coders, the cancer registrars, the records clerks, the lab techs, the phlebotomists, the nurses, the rad techs, the healthcare providers! -- practically every entity you can name is required to have a credential.
Can you do your MT job without a CMT or RMT behind your name? Of course you can. But committment to a credential also means committment to continuing education. And what might a speech recognition editor's credential do for your credibility? There is no arguement that healthcare continues to change, most often at the speed of light, and we are all challenged to keep up with what we need to know to stay effective.
There are critics of AHDI-promoted credentialing, saying that it is just a way for AHDI to make money. I promise you that nothing is further from the truth. Promoting, testing, verifying, tracking and recredentialing is practically a losing proposition from the standpoint of income. So why bother? Because it is the right thing to do.
When you look at the level of knowledge required to verify that the information in a healthcare document is accurate, and that our critical thinking skills are crucial to risk management, our profession puts us squarely in a tremendous seat of responsibility, whether you like it or not. It is a profession that should be credentialed. Not because it might earn us 4 cents more per line, but because our profession deserves the respect, consideration, inclusion and status accorded a credentialed professional workforce. Let's make the time to do this. I promise, it will be worth all our time.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Follow Me! Part I of a Campaign
A long time issue has been this: Where do we find healthcare documentation practitioners and students coming into the field who do not know they have a professioinal association? Who knows best where other MTs are? Existing MTs know other MTs, and their employers know who the MTs are! And how do we get them to take a look at AHDI?
In a campaign just rolling out of our AHDI association, you will see more and more tag lines -- you know, those "sayings" associated with an email signature -- everywhere you look. They will say things like "Want standards? Follow me to AHDI!" and "Need professional resources? Follow me to AHDI!" "Want to become an MT? Follow Me!"
The idea here is to give greater visibility to AHDI and make it an obvious choice as a resource for all things professional. We really do have answers to many of the issues. Just one quick example is the frequent complaint you hear about dictators -- "If someone would please just tell them to speak clearly, calmly and not at 4000 mph!" The result of that request was development of the "Dictation Best Practices Tool Kit." Anyone looking for ways to work more efficiently can check out Benchmark KB for a total resource solution. All that information, all those tools, all those possibilities are there, just waiting for healthcare documentation professionals to utilize.
And when you see something often enough, aren't you just a little bit tempted to check it out? Follow ME to AHDI! And stay tuned in a few short weeks for news of Part II of our campaign.
In a campaign just rolling out of our AHDI association, you will see more and more tag lines -- you know, those "sayings" associated with an email signature -- everywhere you look. They will say things like "Want standards? Follow me to AHDI!" and "Need professional resources? Follow me to AHDI!" "Want to become an MT? Follow Me!"
The idea here is to give greater visibility to AHDI and make it an obvious choice as a resource for all things professional. We really do have answers to many of the issues. Just one quick example is the frequent complaint you hear about dictators -- "If someone would please just tell them to speak clearly, calmly and not at 4000 mph!" The result of that request was development of the "Dictation Best Practices Tool Kit." Anyone looking for ways to work more efficiently can check out Benchmark KB for a total resource solution. All that information, all those tools, all those possibilities are there, just waiting for healthcare documentation professionals to utilize.
And when you see something often enough, aren't you just a little bit tempted to check it out? Follow ME to AHDI! And stay tuned in a few short weeks for news of Part II of our campaign.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Expectations
As we swing into this new year -- and it always astonishes me how quickly these months fly by! -- I have to wonder what our expectations are: for the year, for our family, for our friends and certainly for our profession.
I know that Christmas this season past wasn't what I expected. Here in the Portland, Oregon, area we broke 40-year records for how much snow we had. We couldn't get out easily to shop. I know, many people shop over the Internet. But I do not comprehend how I could pick just the right new wool jacket for one of my daughters without seeing it in person. Getting together with friends for the holidays was cancelled or postponed. My Christmas cards went out late because by the third time my husband had to dig his truck out of the snow drifts and the driveway, he didn't go into town to mail them. Our Christmas morning expectations for time with the grandkids simply didn't happen -- too much snow to risk the roads and travel.
Even though the holidays are behind us for 2008, what are our expections for 2009? As president-elect for AHDI this year, what do I expect?
I know what I want to happen: I want to gain an even greater understanding of all the various facets of AHDI. Our puzzle is not an easy one: if you look at all that is involved in striving for quality healthcare documentation, there is education, workforce development, continuing education and, not the least of the list, public and industry understanding of what our knowledge base brings to the legal medical record. For those who say we try to do too much, what would you have us put on the back burner? Which of these pieces is not as important as the others?
I want to work to help others understand the larger picture. As entrenched as we become in our day to day operations and work flow, we simply have to realize that we cannot exist in a vacuum with only immediate issues at the forefront. We must continue to speak up for our profession and understand that it is evolving all around us, while some of us are digging our heels in and insisting that we don't want to be expected to change.
AHDI continues to speak to vendors, to the Dept of Labor, to the Justice Dept, to those involved in healthcare documentation, to the Dept of Defense, to the AMA, to everyone and anyone who will listen that OUR workforce understands what needs to go into medical records, and furthermore what ends up in those records without our attention and care.
If you are one of those who find yourself in a room of 500, with only a couple of people there who understand what it is you contribute to their medical records, my question to you is this: What are you doing about it?
Yes, I expect every one of us to look for opportunities to speak up this year, and AHDI and I will help you gather the words if you are having any problem getting your thoughts in order. And I expect we will work together on public understanding of why we are an important part of the work force and the quality everyone expects in their medical records.
What are your professional expectations for this year?
I know that Christmas this season past wasn't what I expected. Here in the Portland, Oregon, area we broke 40-year records for how much snow we had. We couldn't get out easily to shop. I know, many people shop over the Internet. But I do not comprehend how I could pick just the right new wool jacket for one of my daughters without seeing it in person. Getting together with friends for the holidays was cancelled or postponed. My Christmas cards went out late because by the third time my husband had to dig his truck out of the snow drifts and the driveway, he didn't go into town to mail them. Our Christmas morning expectations for time with the grandkids simply didn't happen -- too much snow to risk the roads and travel.
Even though the holidays are behind us for 2008, what are our expections for 2009? As president-elect for AHDI this year, what do I expect?
I know what I want to happen: I want to gain an even greater understanding of all the various facets of AHDI. Our puzzle is not an easy one: if you look at all that is involved in striving for quality healthcare documentation, there is education, workforce development, continuing education and, not the least of the list, public and industry understanding of what our knowledge base brings to the legal medical record. For those who say we try to do too much, what would you have us put on the back burner? Which of these pieces is not as important as the others?
I want to work to help others understand the larger picture. As entrenched as we become in our day to day operations and work flow, we simply have to realize that we cannot exist in a vacuum with only immediate issues at the forefront. We must continue to speak up for our profession and understand that it is evolving all around us, while some of us are digging our heels in and insisting that we don't want to be expected to change.
AHDI continues to speak to vendors, to the Dept of Labor, to the Justice Dept, to those involved in healthcare documentation, to the Dept of Defense, to the AMA, to everyone and anyone who will listen that OUR workforce understands what needs to go into medical records, and furthermore what ends up in those records without our attention and care.
If you are one of those who find yourself in a room of 500, with only a couple of people there who understand what it is you contribute to their medical records, my question to you is this: What are you doing about it?
Yes, I expect every one of us to look for opportunities to speak up this year, and AHDI and I will help you gather the words if you are having any problem getting your thoughts in order. And I expect we will work together on public understanding of why we are an important part of the work force and the quality everyone expects in their medical records.
What are your professional expectations for this year?
Sunday, September 30, 2007
What's In a Name -- Revisionist?
I was reading a recent article on speech recognition technology making a strong comeback, improving patient care and productivity. A contributing expert asserted that medical transcriptionists are now called "revisionists."
This was a new one for me! And yet, I shouldn't be surprised. We as a group of medical transcriptionists seem to be the last to be told that we are no longer MTs. We are medical language specialists, we are medical editors, we are document integrity specialists, we are backend speech recognition verifiers, we are ... what? Where is our identity?
We continue to understand best what we do. I visited with an MT and her husband one morning in Reno at the annual meeting. She asked what I thought of the name change to AHDI and then told me what she thought: “We have spent so many years explaining to everyone what we do, and we were finally getting some understanding. Now we have to explain AHDI?”
After that conversation, someone said that the message we need to be spreading is not what we do, but why it is important. We have spent years hearing the joking at various gatherings that we have a truly dead-end job because “transcription is going away!” And I have to ask: What have we gained with all these years of explaining what we do? Fewer questions at cocktail parties?
Technology vendors continue to try and sell chief financial officers on eliminating their transcription costs. Healthcare providers are beginning to do their own documentation in some arenas with I think ridiculous results. Any one of us can point to almost daily encounters with misspeaks in dictation that involve drug names, doses, diagnoses.. the list of course goes on and on. And the spelling!
I have to believe that respect for our position as the key piece in quality documentation and
verifiers of the content accuracy will continue to gain momentum. There simply has to come a point when the inaccuracies currently appearing will tip the balance back to an understanding that we revisionists have an important role in "capturing America's Heathcare story." Until then, we can
continue to work our magic on documentation for the sake of accuracy and quality patient care,
but we also need to each speak up about why it is important.
This was a new one for me! And yet, I shouldn't be surprised. We as a group of medical transcriptionists seem to be the last to be told that we are no longer MTs. We are medical language specialists, we are medical editors, we are document integrity specialists, we are backend speech recognition verifiers, we are ... what? Where is our identity?
We continue to understand best what we do. I visited with an MT and her husband one morning in Reno at the annual meeting. She asked what I thought of the name change to AHDI and then told me what she thought: “We have spent so many years explaining to everyone what we do, and we were finally getting some understanding. Now we have to explain AHDI?”
After that conversation, someone said that the message we need to be spreading is not what we do, but why it is important. We have spent years hearing the joking at various gatherings that we have a truly dead-end job because “transcription is going away!” And I have to ask: What have we gained with all these years of explaining what we do? Fewer questions at cocktail parties?
Technology vendors continue to try and sell chief financial officers on eliminating their transcription costs. Healthcare providers are beginning to do their own documentation in some arenas with I think ridiculous results. Any one of us can point to almost daily encounters with misspeaks in dictation that involve drug names, doses, diagnoses.. the list of course goes on and on. And the spelling!
I have to believe that respect for our position as the key piece in quality documentation and
verifiers of the content accuracy will continue to gain momentum. There simply has to come a point when the inaccuracies currently appearing will tip the balance back to an understanding that we revisionists have an important role in "capturing America's Heathcare story." Until then, we can
continue to work our magic on documentation for the sake of accuracy and quality patient care,
but we also need to each speak up about why it is important.
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