Dear Diary,
If asked to give a stereotype of the typical HIM director, here's what I'd say: Female (more often than not), college-educated and worked her way up through the ranks. Likes challenges and gets a lot accomplished each day, but doesn't generally get rounds of praise for doing it.

I'm not saying every HIM director fits this description to a "T". But by and large, gender and education aside, HIM directors have one thing in common: We're used to working hard, but not really comfortable being recognized for our successes. We certainly don't shout them from the rooftops. But both pieces-working well and then making sure others know about it-are important. They can mean the difference between your department being valued or overlooked . the difference between your administrators understanding the long-term value of your programs or simply wondering where on earth the hospital IT budget is going.

That's why, as we began wrapping up the implementation of our HealthPort EDMS, I began pulling together a report for my CEO-a report that shows where we improved and by how much. I'm in the midst of completing this report right now; in a couple of weeks, it will be in my CEO's hands and in front of key administrative and board meetings.

The Bottom Line of HIM Improvement
From the start, even in the planning stages, I knew I wanted to provide such a report, so I've been setting aside key pieces of information. By now, most of the grumbling has quieted; however, a few physicians are still criticizing the EDMS. This report will easily outweigh those criticisms with a huge benefit statement, but more importantly, it will communicate to our hospital administration and board the value of HealthPort EDMS in hard dollars and hours saved. Here are just a few items I'm going to be able to show our CEO and board members:

o       Standard record retrieval-19 minutes per record saved. Before HealthPort, this process took at least 20 minutes; now, it takes less than one.

o       After-hours record retrieval-Approximately half an hour per record saved. Now, providers look up records at the point of care rather than leaving their unit to go to the HIM office.

o       Physician Deficiencies-80 percent reduction in incomplete charts. Physicians can now complete and sign records online-a task they can do from any location, at any time.

o       File Room Supplies-80 percent reduction in file room supplies purchased. Last year, the hospital spent $7,100 in supplies. This year, we spent $1,400. I've already been asked to reduce my 2008 budget, and what cut did I make? Office and file room supplies.

Small Changes, Big Impact
And then there are the little victories that may not look like much in an executive report but feel like lifesavers. For instance, direct faxing from HealthPort. Our physician offices request records via fax all the time. Before, this process entailed printing a record, going to the fax machine, faxing, pulling confirmation sheets and then starting the process over again with the next request. Now, we can open the file in HealthPort, click a button to fax it, and we're done. No leaving our desk, no printing, no hassle.

Other small changes with a big impact: Multiple people can now access the same file, rather than one person monopolizing it. Audits can be done sitting at one computer desktop in a single sitting, whereas before, we'd have multiple files pulled for an entire day.

The bottom line is that conveying value and benefits to all constituents-especially administrators-is important if you want ongoing support and resources for both current and future programs.

Dear diary, next month is my final entry. It's hard to believe the year is over and we've seen so many improvements in HIM. As my parting gift to ADVANCE for Health Information Professional readers, I'll be summarizing our lessons learned.

Traci Waugh is director of health information and compliance at North Valley Hospital, Whitefish, MT, and a client of SDS.