Health Information Management Pros Need Security, EHR Data Skills

The health information management (HIM) profession is changing rapidly alongside the evolving needs of healthcare organizations concerned about the quality of their EHR data – and their ability to safeguard that data with an appropriate level of privacy and security.

In a new study published in the Journal of AHIMA, researchers found a significant spike in job postings demanding health IT data security certifications alongside the advanced informatics competences and IT infrastructure skills required to manage health information in the modern digital environment.

Since the advent of the HITECH Act in 2009, the HIM profession has been undergoing a series of rapid transformations in order to keep up with the evolving technical landscape, explained a team of AHIMA representatives.

A 2015 workforce study found that “HIM professionals anticipate they will spend a lower percentage of their time on diagnosis and procedural coding in the future while leadership, teaching, and informatics were identified as tasks that will increase the most significantly,” the article says.

As a result, HIM professionals have been making a concerted effort to develop the big data analytics, informatics, interoperability, and EHR optimization skills required to support healthcare organizations across the care continuum.

“It is important for HIM professionals to not only meet current requirements, but also stay apprised of the future needs of the field,” said American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA.

Job postings are already strongly reflecting these trends, the new study revealed.  While operations medical records administration remains the most popular sub-category of HIM openings, healthcare organizations are also looking for specialists with advanced experience in a number of associated fields.

Mid-level openings for HIM professionals with revenue cycle management, coding, and billing skills comprised more than 8 percent of job postings, while 6 percent of advertisements were geared towards experienced health IT infrastructure experts.

Healthcare organizations concerned about meeting the stringent data integrity and information governance requirements necessary to succeed with big data analytics are generally looking for HIM workers at the height of their careers.