AHIMA Presents Children's Medical Center Of Dallas With Grace Award For Innovation In Health Information Management

Efforts around EHRs show tangible results

Children’s Medical Center of Dallas is being honored for its innovative approach to health information management by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Recently, the healthcare system was presented with AHIMA’s Grace Award at the association’s 86th Convention and Exhibit in San Diego.

Named for AHIMA’s founder Grace Whiting Myers, the AHIMA Grace Award: In Recognition of Excellence in Health Information Management honors healthcare delivery organizations that demonstrate effective and innovative approaches in using health information to deliver high quality healthcare. This is the third year AHIMA has given the award.

“We are pleased to receive this prestigious Grace Award, which recognizes our excellent, innovative health information management team,” said Christopher J. Durovich, Children’s Medical Center president and CEO. “This award celebrates our dedicated employees who work to bring best practices in health information management to Children’s so that we can continue to deliver the right care, at the right time, in the right place as efficiently as possible.”

Pamela Arora, senior vice president and chief information officer, and Katherine Lusk, MHSM, RHIA, chief health information management and exchange officer, accepted the award today.

Children’s Medical Center of Dallas was recognized for successfully integrating health information management (HIM) expertise enterprise-wide to improve patient care and population health, and lower costs. With HIM credentialed professionals working in compliance, finance and information services, as well as other areas, Children’s continues to build on a solid infrastructure and use of technology.

One example of the excellent use of HIM and technology has been the integration of electronic health records (EHRs). Results include:

• Reducing length of stay in the emergency room by 30 percent
• Cutting the time it takes to receive ambulatory care records from eight days to three
• Decreasing the delinquency rate from 21 percent to 0.4 percent
• Shrinking medication delivery time from 12 hours to four hours
• Reducing by 50 percent sentinel events from March 2010-June 2012
• Engaging more than 15,000 patients through a portal, with 15 percent of patients actively involved

Children’s Medical Center joined forces with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to pilot a personal health record (PHR) program for patients in Tyler, Texas, who have sickle cell anemia. Allowing patients greater information access to manage the condition paid dividends in both medication adherence and patient satisfaction.

“Bringing these significant improvements to some of healthcare’s most vulnerable patients – children – demonstrates the value that health information management professionals bring to their organizations,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA. “That is at the heart of what we advocate for at AHIMA. We’re extremely honored to recognize Children’s Medical Center of Dallas with this award.”

Evaluation criteria included how organizations contribute to a patient-centered model of care, advance electronic health records and integrate HIM throughout their organization.
This year’s Grace Award committee includes: Chair Mark Dietz, RHIA, president, Dietz Healthcare Management Consultants; Jane D. Duckert, MA, RHIA, director of HIM, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics; Marcia Johnson, MPA, RHIA, associate administrator Strategy, Planning and Performance Analytics, Truman Medical Centers; Kelly McLendon, RHIA, CHPS, managing director, CompliancePro Solutions; Barbara Odom-Wesley, PhD, RHIA, FAHIMA, HIT program chair, DeVry University; Diane Premeau, MBA, RHIA, CHP, CHC, director, Health Information Management Services and Privacy Officer, Daughters of Charity Health System O’Connor Hospital; Helga Rippen, MD, PhD, MPH, FACPM, chief health information officer and vice president, Advisors in HIT; and Stacy Sochacki, MS, executive director, Association Management Center.

Whiting Myers established AHIMA in 1928 in partnership with the American College of Surgeons who wanted to “elevate the standards of clinical records in hospitals and other medical institutions.” This farsighted recognition of the importance of medical record quality to patient care and research underlies the organization today.

About AHIMA
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) represents more than 71,000 health information management and health informatics professionals in the United States and around the world. AHIMA is committed to promoting and advocating for research, best practices and effective standards in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. AHIMA’s enduring goal is quality healthcare through quality information. For more information, visit www.ahima.org.