 within the information governance council.
The information governance council membership oversees the program and adheres to principles, core tenets, and membership responsibilities, while providing a solid foundation for ensuring the organization is able to sustain the vision and mission of the information governance program.
The vision for IG at Children’s Health is that information is a valued asset that enables operational excellence, evidence-based care for patients, and preventive services to the hospital’s communities. The mission is to establish the structure, policies, processes, and technologies to ensure that the enterprise information sustains and extends the organization’s mission and goals, delivers value, complies with laws and regulations, and reflects good stewardship practices that minimize risk to stakeholders and advance the public good.
While working with the AHIMA IGAdvisors® using the IGAM, it was identified that ongoing auditing, both internal and external, was required to achieve the highest level of IG maturity, Level 5 (actualized). The information governance council at Children’s Health set out to standardize the IG audit process across the entire organization.
Standardization of internal and external audits, including risk-based controls and remediation protocols, can be achieved with a set of questions to be utilized during IG audits regardless of the discipline.
A standardized IG audit process provides the foundation for leveraging findings for IG opportunity identification.
The results of the standard questions should be compiled and provided to the organization’s compliance department.
The information governance council developed a set of questions and worked with IGAdvisors to refine and finalize the list.
What is the leadership oversight? Is the oversight at a vice president or higher level?
If policies and procedures are in place how often are they reviewed?
Does the review of policies and procedures include verification of regulatory requirements?
Is training on policies and procedures provided?
Is human resources education and auditing in place to ensure employees follow the policies and procedures?
Do the policies and procedures outline internal controls?
What internal controls are in place? Are the internal controls being utilized?
Is there a staff competency component?
Is a process for reporting audit findings to the executive leadership in place?
Are action plans put in place when negative findings are identified?
These questions are asked by internal auditors, as well as any external auditor that is used. An example includes periodic coding audits that take place to ensure that ICD-10 and HCPCS and CPT codes are assigned accurately based on documentation in the medical record. Further, abstracting of any codes or data otherwise collected would be subject to this audit.
By having a standardized set of audit questions, each business unit of the organization knows the expectations and accountabilities around information governance. Each question provides the necessary guidance to ensure the organization’s IG program is aligned. Where there are gaps in the IG program within various business units, the standardized audit easily identifies them and the business unit can then put processes in place to address those gaps.
Information is an asset and awareness of the value of information, organization-wide, is important. Likewise, each business unit of the organization must understand its role in information governance and be held accountable to ensure that information is trustworthy and that the right information is available in a timely manner to support regulatory audit requirements. Standardizing the audit function process across all business units allows for greater consistency and results in the audit process.
Standardization of audit processes is enabled with the use of technology. Children’s Health has implemented several tools to support standardization, such as with the use of a Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) audit tool for management of this process. The tool manages the process from RAC request to final appeal, providing a means for communication across multiple departments including HIM, case management, revenue cycle, and compliance. Implementing the technology provided an opportunity to streamline and standardize the process. As a collaborative process there is faith in the accuracy of the data.
Other examples include security audit tools utilized in the monitoring of incoming e-mails for external phishing attacks and auto-encryption of e-mails being sent outside of the organization with personal health information. While these tools are very different, the standardization of the process and the rigor for supporting the IG processes have allowed for greater maturity in the organization’s information governance program.
Through use of AHIMA’s IGAM and IGHealthRate™, Children’s Health standardized the audit process for its information governance program, resulting in organizational buy-in and a move toward a more mature IG program.
Anita Doupnik (anita.doupnik@ahima.org) is the senior director, sales and business development, information governance, at AHIMA. Katherine Lusk (katherine.lusk@childrens.com) is the chief health information management and exchange officer at Children’s Health System of Texas.
Doupnik, Anita; Lusk, Katherine. "Case Study #8: Standardizing Information Governance Audits at Children’s Health System of Texas" Journal of AHIMA 88, no.9 (September 2017): 46-48.Juventus have reportedly taken the lead in the race to sign Brescia midfielder Sandro Tonali.
The Premier League sides Chelsea and Liverpool have both previously been credited with an interest in the Italy Under-19 international.
However, according to Tuttosport, the potential interest is coming from Serie A clubs, with Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Napoli and AS Roma all said to be in the hunt for the 18-year-old midfielder.
The report adds, however, has claimed that Juve are ‘especially keen’ on the teenager, with the Old Lady’s sporting director Fabio Paratici closely monitoring his proceedings.
Tonali has scored two goals and provided six assists in 25 appearances for Brescia so far this season.
I want to go so bad now, but I'm not sure how well my AdventureWagen 2WD would do....How did the other 2WD guys handle it?
Do what I did...Leave your van resting on the nice, flat gravel at camp a...
Okay, I have to say: After seeing all these great photos and fantastic videos, I'm now a bit depressed and, most import...
Awesome does not begin to describe the gathering, people and vans that were there. Thanks to Johnny and crew for putting this on. Cant wait for the next one!Last was small, which is fine by me. It gave me the opportunity to see how well my style of 20 minute free-writes would be received without making too much of an ass of myself. Luckily my initial apprehensions proved unfounded and if I made a fool of myself everyone was kind enough to not point it out. All in all I would say the night was a great success, everyone walked away feeling not only a sense of accomplishment but also a desire for more. More words, more pen to paper, more sharing of the communal creative energy which springs to life when a group of people get together with one purpose in mind.
And now a sample. The first prompt was; The envelope slid under the door. After getting the prompt you had 20 minutes to do whatever you wanted with it. Here’s what I came up with
After the free writing was done. Some people just can’t stop.
I was pacing the hallway, occasionally ambling into the kitchen and half-heartedly moving dishes around. I wanted to clean, to slow my racing mind but my hands were shaking too much and every time I stopped pacing my stomach clenched and heaved. So I rubbed my hands together and paced. It was exciting; it was terrifying. How was he going to get in touch with me? When? What if he’d forgotten and I was getting all worked up for nothing, pacing around like a fool when there was work I could be doing. Worse still what if he didn’t get in touch until after Sam got home. How would I explain? As these thoughts tumbled around my buzzing brain I did my hundredth lap up the hall, my hundredth back down. I told myself I was done, to put it out of my mind and get on with the evening. My feet betrayed me, turning me about ready to send me on another trip. Before I took the first step I froze. An envelope slid under the door. My heart hammered, the sound deafening in my ears. I didn’t know what to do, I just stared at the clean white envelope laying on the dark wood floor. Then I was running. My slippered feet slid me into the front door. I heaved myself off it and threw it open. There was no one in the apartment hallway. I thought about running down the hall and checking around the corners but the envelope now crumpled under my hurried feet demanded my attention.
And? … You can’t leave it like that, I want to know what happens next 🙂
The great thing about the group is that you may be left with a story that has only just begun. It encourages us to take time out on our own to finish them so we can find out what happens next. This is just what came to me in those 20 minutes, I guess I’ll have to free up another 20 so I can finish itAnswer the following question: Here is a review left by a customer on a product. Would you say he was satisfied or dissatisfied? Title: Coco is, well... Caca Review: The repetitive dronings of a mildly talented cabaret singer has never quite done it for me and this is no exception. Song after song is just plain... plain. There's something to be said for going against the trend of Lady Gaga-esque pseudo-cool donkey-pop, but unfortunately this isn't going to give you anything to inspire, nor to dwell on