Your Record Speaks Walking Public Service Announcement at A

August 2, during AHDI’s Annual Conference & Expo, attendees came together in Downtown Disney to educate the public about obtaining and reading their health record for accuracy during our Your Record Speaks campaign. With more than 125 sold at ACE, attendees wore our campaign T-shirts to share life-saving information with the public about the importance of checking their medical record. Blue shirts could be seen throughout all of Downtown Disney!

We wish to extend a special thanks to everyone who participated in this important campaign and to our exclusive T-shirt sponsor Transcription, Etc., for their support.

A number of T-shirts in various sizes are still available for purchase from the AHDI online store. Components are encouraged to organize Your Record Speaks walking public service announcements in their own areas, and further information will be provided soon.

Purchase a T-shirt today! (while supplies last)
$10 – Large
$10 – X-Large
$13 – 2X
$13 – 3X

CHDS Bridge Course Open for Registration

The CHDS Bridge Course is now open for registration. Designed for elligible certified medical transcriptionists (CMTs) as a means for bridging to and earning the certified healthcare documentation specialist (CHDS) credential, this course will address only the expanded healthcare documentation objectives—i.e., content and knowledge domains not covered on any prior CMT exam: advanced editing, regulatory compliance and technical standards, applied clinical medicine, speech recognition, and health information technology.

The 8-week online course is only available to current CMTs who certified prior to January 2011. CMTs who took the beta exam in 2010 or certified after January 2011 will automatically become a CHDS this fall. This course is optional for current CMTs. Click here for complete information and FAQs.

The CHDS Bridge course has been approved for 10 CECs. Upon successful completion of the course, CMTs will earn their CHDS designation and your recertification cycle will not change. The CECs earned by taking the bridge course may be applied to your current recertification cycle.

AHDI firmly supports the Credentialing Commission for Healthcare Documentation's (CCHD) pursuit of rebranding the credentials for relevance in today’s healthcare marketplace. To that end, the CHDS Bridge course is being subsidized by AHDI and offered at below market value in order to confirm our commitment to the new credentials and make it accessible for current CMTs who wish to bridge to the CHDS. The price for eligible members is $45, with a list price of $70.

Register today to bridge from a CMT to a CHDS! The first course will begin on October 1 and registration closes September 25. From thereafter, registration will be open each month prior from the 1st to the 25th for the start of the course on the 1st of the following month (e.g., the next enrollment cycle will be October 1-25 for the course starting on November 1).

Back to top

A Word From Your National Leadership Board

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy…” Do you know the tune? I hope your summertime is going well. My husband and I just returned from a 4500-mile trip from Louisville through Colorado and Wyoming and back again. I wish I could say it was all easy, but work follows me everywhere I go. We did have some fun, easy times though. There is something about all that wide-open space that draws us back time and again.

Even though it is summer and many are enjoying time away, the board continues to attend to affairs of the Association. Read more.

President's Address—Ramping Up, Transitioning, Winding Down

AHDI ACE in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, is the topic of the day for the entire National Leadership Board, staff, and many excited attendees. Our hotel reservations look fantastic, and July 16 is the deadline for saving $50 off on-site registration fees. AHDI continues to strive toward fascinating educational experiences at affordable prices. We have 39 breakout sessions, 2 keynotes, a leadership conference, annual business meeting, Great Debate, educational and managers/supervisors workshops, a comprehensive student track, and time with our valuable vendors all rolled into 4 days at the Buena Vista Palace. Read more.

AHDI and AHIMA Announce New Skills For a New Era

Survey Finds Electronic Health Records Key to Transcriptionists’ New Career Paths

New speech and language processing technologies have dramatically changed the traditional work of medical transcriptionists, the health information professionals who prepare the records of patients’ health stories from clinicians’ dictations.

“The skills of a transcriptionist—to listen and be detailed- and research-oriented, with a familiarity of medical terminology and disease process—are still in critical need in HIM departments during this time of healthcare transformation,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA. “The transcriptionists that can demonstrate agility by moving into a new position can carve out a valuable niche for themselves.” Read the full press release.