READING ACTIVITY HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Health information management

READING ACTIVITY HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Health information management (HIM) is information management applied to health and health care. It is the practice of acquiring, analyzing and protecting digital and traditional medical information vital to providing quality patient care. With the widespread computerization of health records, traditional (paper-based) records are being replaced with electronic health records (EHRs). The tools of health informatics and health information technology are continually improving to bring greater efficiency to information management in the health care sector. Both hospital information systems and health human resources information systems (HRHIS) are common implementations of HIM.

Health information management professionals plan information systems, develop health policy, and identify current and future information needs. In addition, they may apply the science of informatics to the collection, storage, analysis, use, and transmission of information to meet legal, professional, ethical and administrative records-keeping requirements of health care delivery. They work with clinical, epidemiological, demographic, financial, reference, and coded healthcare data. Health information administrators have been described to "play a critical role in the delivery of healthcare in the United States through their focus on the collection, maintenance and use of quality data to support the informationintensive and information-reliant healthcare system".

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the proper collection, management and use of information within healthcare systems "will determine the system's effectiveness in detecting health problems, defining priorities, identifying innovative solutions and allocating resources to improve health outcomes".

SKIMMING Skimming is reading a text quickly to get a general idea of meaning. It can be contrasted with scanning, which is reading in order to find specific information, e. g. figures or names. Example A learner taking a reading exam decides to approach text by looking at the title, introductions, and any diagrams and sub-headings, then skim reading to get a clear general idea of what the text is about.

SCANNING when you want to find specific information quickly. In scanning you have a question in your mind and you read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring unrelated information.

HOW TO SCAN * State the specific information you are looking for. * Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you might use to help you locate the answer. For example, if you were looking for a certain date, you would quickly read the paragraph looking only for numbers. * Use headings and any other aids that will help you identify which sections might contain the information you are looking for. * Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage.

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