Now Available! QA Best Practices for Clinician-Created Documentation

AHDI and AHIMA have released a new whitepaper and resource kit calling for healthcare organizations to reinstate quality assurance (QA) programs with electronic health record (EHR) documentation, and specifically clinician-created documentation. The materials are now available on the AHDI website as a free download by clicking the button below.

To learn more, read the press release from AHDI and AHIMA and attend the webinar September 24 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Pacific.

AHDI Members Save 10% on the AHIMA Convention

AHIMA's 86th Annual Convention will take place September 27 – October 2, 2014, in San Diego, CA. AHIMA is offering AHDI members a 10% discount on registration; use the code AHIMACON3 when registering for the event. To learn more about the convention, please visit AHIMA's website.

AHDI will be exhibiting at the AHIMA Convention at booth #1246. Please stop by to say hello if you’re attending the event! We hope to see you there.

AHDI and AHIMA to Partner for 2015 Conference

We're delighted to announce that our 37th annual conference will be held in conjunction with AHIMA's Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) Summit in 2015 at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Mark your calendar for August 6-8 to attend both events: the CDI Summit August 6-7 and AHDI's 2015 Healthcare Documentation Integrity Conference August 7-8. Visit the AHDI website to view the tentative schedule at a glance and to download the flyer.

AHDI at 2011 AHIMA Convention

AHDI volunteer leaders and staff had the opportunity to meet and greet attendees at the AHIMA convention last week in Salt Lake City, UT. Visitors to the AHDI booth had an opportunity to learn about our valuable membership benefits, credentials, and programs. Over the course of three days, we met hundreds of convention goers, including many AHDI members in attendance. Read the event recap by Jay Vance, District 1 Director, on the AHDI Lounge blog as well as this recap by Lisa Johnson, AHDI Secretary.

Pictured left to right (top row): Linda Brady, Director, Member Relations; Barb Marques, Immediate Past President; Cynthia Alder, District 5 Director; Nancy Brighindi, CEO; Karen Fox-Acosta, President-elect. Front row: Sherry Doggett, President; and Jacque Taylor, President, AHDI-West

AHDI/MTIA Booth at 82nd AHIMA Convention & Exhibit in Orlando

If you plan to attend the AHIMA Annual Conference September 25–30, 2010, at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida, don’t forget to stop by the AHDI/MTIA booth in the exhibit hall, booth #2233. We will have staff on site to answer questions, or just stop by to say hello!

An Unprecedented Month of Standards

Developing standards and best practices is a critical objective for any professional association. Beyond advocacy and representation, an industry looks to associations for guidance on a wide array of professional issues. Within the last 30 days, AHDI and MTIA (in collaboration and/or coordination with AHIMA) have published an impressive compendium of professional standards and best practices guides to assist this sector in planning, executing, and managing critical programs around the delivery of healthcare documentation services. Medical transcriptionists, editors, quality assurance coordinators, managers/supervisors, and transcription service organizations should look to these resources when adopting best practices in these areas:

• EBP: Resource Guide for Healthcare Documentation Specialists: This companion guide to the Ethical Best Practices Manual was released this month to provide guidance in HIPAA/regulatory compliance, ethical practices in employment and compensation, and provision of services specifically for the working transcriptionist/editor. This resource manual was a quick sell out at the AHDI annual convention in Austin, so get your copy today!


• Healthcare Documentation Quality Assessment and Management Practices: The culmination of over 3 years’ collaborative effort between AHDI, MTIA and AHIMA, this quality assurance best practices guide has finally been released to guide the healthcare documentation sector as well as healthcare facilities in the establishment and oversight of quality assurance programs that meet the evolving needs of health information management.


• Dictation Best Practices Tool Kit: Developed by AHDI and endorsed by AHIMA, this completely updated tool kit provides resources and training materials for healthcare organizations, transcription service providers, and SRT vendors to use in training healthcare providers toward quality dictation practices and SRT readiness.

Associations Promote Start-to-Finish Quality Standards

On the heels of the recently announced final rules for meaningful use of EHR systems, implementable standards for improving the quality of the healthcare documentation process have been released this week by AHDI in collaboration with AHIMA. The two associations are sending a message to the sector that accuracy in the capture process will be critical to making sure high-integrity information is consumed and repurposed in the EHR. Leaders from both associations, as well as contributors from MTIA, collaborated to produce Healthcare Documentation Quality Assessment and Management Practices, a resource for establishing a comprehensive transcription QA program for healthcare organizations. In addition, the association will be releasing the newly revised Dictation Best Practices Tool Kit, designed to assist healthcare facilities in improving dictation practices, thereby addressing quality from the document creation point to ensure quality reporting outcomes. The tool kit has been reviewed and endorsed by AHIMA and is being distributed through both association websites. AHDI promoted these new standards this week at its 32nd Annual Convention and Expo, August 4-7, 2010, in Austin, Texas. Read the full press release here.

Dictation Best Practices Tool Kit—Newly Revised and Adopted by AHIMA!

AHDI and AHIMA are taking a collaborative step forward in support of documentation quality. Recognizing that quality documentation outcomes begin with high-integrity dictation, the associations have jointly released the latest edition of the Dictation Best Practices Tool Kit as a resource for managers, supervisors, HIM directors, and practice coordinators for training and preparing dictators to generate high quality dictation and be better prepared for migration to speech recognition. If you are charged with orienting/training dictators for your facility, we encourage you to download this tool kit as part of your strategy for new provider training and SRT "readiness" training.