Sanitarium

The American Health Information Management Association is a professional non-profit organization for medical record management. Traditionally working out of hospitals and to referring paper files, the field presently refers to all healthcare systems and types of media. AHIMA’s mission is as stated: “to be the pre-eminent foundation recognized for excellence in health information leadership, policy and research for the healthcare industry and the public.” The foundation formulates and issues opinions, supports education, conducts research, and compiles its contributions into a single Body of Knowledge (BoK).
AHIMA can be traced back to its origin in 1928 when the American College of Surgeons established the Association of Record Librarians of North America (ARLNA). ARLNA’s purpose was to “elevate the standards of clinical records in hospitals and other medical institutions.” In its 82 year history, AHIMA has undergone three name changes; from its original name of ARLNA, it became the American Association of Medical Record Librarians (AAMRL) in 1938; then in 1970 the name was changed to the American Medical Record Associations (AMRA); then finally in 1991, it was given its current name of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). The name changes were justified with an explanation that reflected the progression of contemporary medical record use, practices, and perceptions.
As of 2010, the association has more than 59,000 members in four membership classifications. Each member subsequently belongs to relevant state chapter. The association offers seven credentials pertaining to four areas of practice; HIM, Coding, Data Analysis and Privacy. Two credentials require formal education; the others are acquired by a combination of testing and work experience. AHIMA requires members obtain regular continuing education to maintain their credentials. The Journal of AHIMA has a circulation of 59,000 and publishes both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles. The Association’s membership is overwhelmingly female.

The Vision, Mission, and Values of the American Health Information Management Association

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at %1:%Aug %p and is filed under Healthcare IT, Interesting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.