AHIMA has released a framework for healthcare information governance at its annual convention in San Diego, calling for commitment to managing information as a strategic asset.
It's part of AHIMA's ongoing effort to stress the importance of information governance, which it called an "undeniable imperative" in a recent white paper.
"We need to step up in healthcare as they've done in banking and retail," AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon recently told Hospitals & Health Networks. Future success, she said, will "boil down to who has the best data" and what's being done with it.
Proper governance is essential to meeting patient care goals as well as ensuring regulatory compliance, the association says in outlining its Information Governance Principles for Healthcare (IGPHC).
It adapted the framework from nonprofit organization ARMA International's Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles to address areas such as quality improvement, risk management, compliance, privacy and security.
The framework focuses on eight principles:
- Accountability : An accountable member of leadership will oversee the program.
- Transparency: IG processes and activities will be documented in an open and verifiable manner.
- Integrity: Information will be managed in a way to provide a reasonable guarantee of reliability.
- Protection: Appropriate levels of protection will be provided from breach, corruption and loss.
- Compliance: The program will be designed to comply with applicable laws, standards and organizational policies.
- Availability: Information will be managed to ensure timely, accurate, and efficient retrieval.
- Retention: Data will be kept for the appropriate period based on legal, regulatory and other requirements.
- Disposition: Data that is no longer required will be disposed of in an appropriate and secure manner.
To learn more:
- find the framework