Professional Practice Experience- Management Level

Professional Practice Experience- Management Level

Task 1

Part A
Mission
Purpose
The healthcare organization aims at offering training and education to the physicians as
well as other healthcare professionals; striving for the community’s improved health status;
expanding medical knowledge horizons through biomedical research; and demonstrating
excellence and leadership while offering quality services.
Scope of services and operations; the organization also offers distinguished services and
programs of excellence aimed at enhancing a tradition of biomedical research, community
service, medical education, and clinical innovation. The organization is at the forefront as far as
advances in science and medicine are concerned through assuming an ongoing and solid
commitment to medical education and biomedical research. There is provision of superior
technologies, facilities, and capabilities for a whole healthcare services continuum. There is a
keen interest in offering compassionate and responsive care.
Priorities and values; the organization is led by the values and priorities of diversity,
stewardship, innovation, compassion, respect, collaboration and teamwork, excellence, and
integrity. These guide the actions of the staff and all physicians in the vision’s pursuit.
Major services
Market
The healthcare organization provides a wide array of services including inpatient care,
behavioral health, long-term care, outpatient, and ambulatory care services. Inpatient services are

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offered in many departments including the geriatric, adult, adolescent, maternity, psychiatry,
physiotherapy, oncology, pediatric, and HIV/AIDS departments. Herein, the health specialties
encompass of the early phase treatment, personality, bipolar, schizophrenia, and depression
disorders in addition to the discrete women ward.
In addition to this, the outpatient services serve all population ages and comprises of full
care continuum. Some of the services include continuing day and partial hospital treatment
programs, health centers, as well as a wide range of psychiatric rehabilitation services. There are
also services for chemical and alcohol dependency.
Behavioral health services are also provided at the healthcare organization and this
involves guiding and creating awareness in people regarding how they can take of themselves
better through engaging in more appropriate lifestyles. Some of the diseases that the organization
aims at preventing include diabetes, gout, hypertension, and obesity. In this regard, the people
are guided on the proper diets they should take as well as the kinds of exercise that fit them best.
Youths and adults who are suffering from substance, drug, and alcohol abuse are also counseled
and rehabilitated (Pratt et al., 2006).
In addition to the services above, the healthcare organization also offers long-term care
services. Usually, there are services and facilities aimed at caring for people with chronic
diseases that require long-term care as well as the elderly. This ensures that the diverse needs of
the community members are all catered for. The elderly have very comprehensive end-of-life
services, which prolongs their lives as well as the quality for life. There are also ambulatory
services that are normally offered at the casualty department in addition to the wards. The
patients that benefit from ambulatory services have planned revisits arranged as the method of
follow-up. As these as these services are concerned, there is individual healthcare treatment,

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consultation, and interventions through the use of advanced medical procedures and technologies
that are offered on an outpatient basis. The majority of preventive healthcare and acute illnesses
are addressed through the use of ambulatory services. The organization recognizes that
ambulatory services are accountable for a majority of the increased hospital expenditures as well
as the system’s performance.
Services that set it apart; the organization’s keen interest in meeting the health needs of the
community has been the guiding principle and in the organization has helped in defining the
quality of services. This has seen the bed capacity increase to more than one thousand from 12
beds. There is also a Community Benefit contribution and this raises huge sums of money for
supporting a wide array of initiatives aimed at offering those in greatest need with access to
health care, screenings, and information.
How service provision reflects the mission
Healthcare service provision is guided by quality. Offering excellent service and clinical
quality, providing compassionate care, and supporting medical education and research are very
vital, and the organization practices them in pursuit of fulfilling the mission and vision.
Reimbursement services breakdown
The services offered at the healthcare organization can be paid for directly by the patient
of family members or via several private and public sources. Some of the public 3 rd -party payors
in the organization include Medicaid and Medicare. Health care services that do not meet the 3 rd –
party payors criteria are normally paid from ‘out of pocket’ by another party or the patient. Self-
pay fees can be negotiated. There are also a few services that are reimbursed through the Blue
Shield including hearing and sight challenges.
Organizational chart

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The department manager position (health information department)
The role of the department manager is very crucial in a health care organization. The
position encompasses of managing the administrative as well as well as the organizational
operations in the department. The significance of the manager’s role is the very pronounced
considering that he has to plan, define the values, vision, and mission of the department. This is
usually achieved via the creation of administrative and operational procedures and policies,
which have to agree with the overall objectives and goals of the entire organization. He has to
communicate the plan, vision, and mission to all the staff. He also engages in multidisciplinary
organization-wide policy decisions that affect the financial services as well as health information
of the patients (Sheaff & Peel, 1995).
The activities the manager has to involve in includes directing, planning, implementing,
and coordinating programs as well as plans that respond to organization and patient needs. The
scope of the roles also encompasses recommending for space as well as other resources as well
as choosing outside sources for the required services in the department. Regardless of the fact
that the role of the manager is under direct supervision from the Chief Executive Officer, he is
required to carry out all his roles independently as well as exercise considerable judgment. In a
nut shell, the health information management department has a role of analyzing, organizing, and
managing health information as a strategy of promoting security, accessibility, accuracy, and
quality, in addition to proper information disclosure in both electronic and paper systems (Wu et
al., 2006).
Activities and number of personnel
Coding- 2 coders who read chart notes as well as submitting numeric codes for the procedures
and diagnosis done in a day.

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Transcription- 2 employees who type up physicians’ dictated notes.
Billing- 2 employees and this involves following up on claims with the insurance companies.

Task 2

So as to carefully understand the responsibilities and roles of the managers and
supervisors in the health information management department, there is a need to interact with
them. This can be done through interviews. Interviewing two leaders from the department at the
same time gives an opportunity to assess how well they are linked with each other as well as how
ready they are to meet the organizational goals. After such an interview, one would be in a better
position to comprehend the general organization of the leaders. Such an interview would assist
the interviewer to develop his professional skill as well as the skills in communicating with the
managers and supervisors. As an aspiring leader in the future, the capability of communicating
appropriately with the leaders from other departments and within is vital to all organizational
processes (Jamal, McKenzie & Clark, 2009).
Name: Mr. Peterson Peke
Title: health information management department director
Credentials: Peke has a Health Information Management bachelor’s degree and has undergone
accreditation with the AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association).
Moreover, he has a Master’s degree in project management. He is also a RHIA (registered
health information administrator.
Ability to lead: as a director, there is a need to be fully equipped with knowledge and skills
considering that one is in-charge of offering overall leadership and direction in the department.
The director is accountable for all the decisions made and, therefore, regardless of the fact that

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incorporating other members’ decisions is important, he is still in charge and his authority should
be felt and obeyed. However, there should be no dictatorship.
Respect and confidentiality; the director’s respect should be demonstrated through his
willingness to share all he knows regarding health information management without
undermining anyone. He should all collaborate with others accordingly. The director should
ensure that every member adheres to the confidentiality rule regarding all patients’ information.
Ethics; the director should ensure practice and policy standardization in all the health
information management areas in the entire institution. This ensures that all the stipulated rules
and regulations are being followed by every member (Williamson et al., 2009).
Professional standards’ knowledge; the director should strive at achieving a balance between
cost effectiveness, health information demands, and new technology. He should also be
proficient in monitoring market and facility performance, promoting education programs’
consistency, proper documentation standards, timely regulatory updates, as well as adhering to
compliance initiatives. There should also be proficiency in directing, planning, and organizing all
functions within the department, transcription, medical records, coding operations, and clinical
documentation improvement education.
Decision making skills; it is very important to offer counsel and expertise to the advisors and
decision makers in the organization on all emerging best practices and standards so as to promote
electronic patient records. This mere fact implies that the director should possess excellent
decision making skills. Regardless of the fact that the director is the overall decision maker in the
department, it is very important to be considerate of the opinions of other members in the
department and involve them in all decision making processes and meetings. This ensures that all

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decisions that are made are implemented and that the director is not implementing his sole
intentions.
Attributes or qualities that can be applied to my managerial development and professional
growth: the collaboration with other regional HIM directors so as to be in a position to share and
exchange emerging knowledge and the possession of knowledge on emerging and existing
requirements related to confidentiality and privacy of health information.

Name: Miss. Patience Nellia
Title: medical coding specialist
Credentials: Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management from an accredited
institution.
Ability to lead: the specialist’s ability to lead is demonstrated in the ability to analyze and
review all the documentations in the medical records for outpatients, inpatients, and professional
services so as to assign procedures and diagnoses as the physician of record prescribes.
Respect and confidentiality; considering that these professionals deal with delicate patient
information, there is a need to keep it confidential as required by AHIMA. So as to be able to
collaborate and coordinate effectively in the department, the specialists should respect the
opinions of other members and consider them during any decision making process they engage
in.
Ethics; the specialist should abide by the ethical coding standards that the American Health
Information Management Association sets forth. In addition, they should obey the official coding
guidelines.

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Professional standards’ knowledge; the professional should be an expert in classifying medical
data that is retrieved from patient records. Specialists should also be accountable for translating
procedural and diagnostic phases that healthcare providers use into alpha-numeric codes.
Considering that codes and coding requirements change from time to time, it is very important
for the specialist to remain updated always.
Decision making skills; as far as decision making in the department is involved, the specialist
should be in a position to be detail-oriented, exact, and precise in all situations. Regardless of the
situation that the specialist is dealing with, there is a need to be logical and rational during
decision-making process.
Attributes or qualities that can be applied to my managerial development and professional
growth; after interviewing the specialist, I learnt that confidential information should be
respected. Second, specialists should have the ability of accepting challenging and seeking the
solutions on how they can be solved.

Task 3

Leaders that are effective always find lessons from every situation they experience. This
is regardless of whether the interactions are negative or positive. In addition to this, the qualities
observed from other people go a long way in building the interactive skills as well as
professional characteristics in the professional environment. Competence in the professional
skills can be built through the assimilation of positive attributes over time.
Within 1 year of the graduation; during this year, I will aspire being a health informatics
consultant. This role requires many tasks including updating networks, installing software,
trouble shooting and installing systems, and training teams. This will give me an amble
opportunity to handle all these and more so as to put into practice all the knowledge and skills I

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acquired from school. I will engage in a lot of consultations from the seniors in regard to all the
information I am not well aware of (Giakoumaki, Pavlopoulos & Koutsouris, 2006).
Within 5 years of the graduation
Within five years of graduation, I aspire to be a health informatics director. The health
informatics consultant job will have given be adequate skills to act as a director. In this regard, I
will be required to combine wide ranges of people skills and penchants of technologies that will
aim at organizing and integrating data flow across various divisions. I will also be having
immense knowledge on technology which I will transfer to others; analyze, record, and mitigate
technology challenges and issues; making meetings for rolling out technology changes.
Professional development for a 5-year professional goal
First I will seek a master’s degree in health informatics and seek a diploma in information
technology. This will give me all the knowledge and skills necessary to handle, manage, and
address all the technological issues that arise. I will also seek registration as a RHIA (registered
health information administrator) with the American Health Information Management
Association (Milne & Boza, 1999).
Leadership skills that can be emulated
These include a complete comprehension of the industry so as to be able to address any
issues that arise; communication skills, management skills and strategic planning; information
technology skills; information organization and analysis, proficient professional training skills,
programming skills, and knowledge on system infrastructure networking and design.
Professional standards for health informatics professional’s growth
Effective communication and listening skills, providing ethical guidance, abiding by the
laid procedures and guidelines when carrying out a task, and continued learning.

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Confidentiality and professionalism
Confidentiality is one of the principles in the standard of practice and code of ethics that
is essential for completeness and accuracy, integrity, impartiality, and business and professional
behavior. Health informatics professionals handle huge masses of information and documents, a
majority of which is confidential information and sensitive content, and in many ways. In this
regard, only what is allowed by the law or patient should be leaked. Professionalism and
confidentiality go together. Professionalism is one of the determinants of success and one of its
key components is confidentiality. A professional who keeps other people personal, sensitive,
and private information confidential is respected by all, others prefer dealing with him, and no
one every raises confidential issues in relation to any information that was entrusted to him
(Wilson, 1997).
Ethical challenge and development of ethical behaviors
One of the coders had the tendency to inputting the wrong codes intentionally or a code
twice, which gave him financial benefits. For example, many clients complained that they were
being billed twice or more than it should be, or for services that were not supposed to be billed.
After this was realized, the coder was reprimanded by being fined heavily and demoted. This
taught me that behaving ethically was essential in all areas of the healthcare department. In
addition, if not adhered to, there were heavy punishments.
Respect towards others and positive staff relationships
Respecting other people involves taking all their comments and opinions fairly as well as
treating everyone equally regardless of their title or physical state. It can also be achieved
through developing the skills of other people, identifying and responding to relationship needs,
scheduling time to build relationships, appreciating others, managing boundaries, avoiding

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gossiping, and listening to others keenly. Organizations that have respect for others make
everyone committed and engaged to the organization. In addition, it opens doors to bug raises,
career advancement, and projects. Everyone feels appreciated and they are free to share any
information they have that can lead to personal and organizational growth (Braa, Monteiro &
Sahay, 2004).
Decision making lessons and their gains in managing situations
The information I learnt on decision making will be very useful to me while managing
situations now and in future. After observing the leaders for so, I learnt that the process has many
steps. All the members in the department should be aware that there is a decision about to be
made. They should be informed before through memos so that they have sufficient time to seek
solutions and brainstorm. Having all members being involved gives the idea that they are valued
as members of the organization and that their opinions are valid and valuable. There is also a
need to seek and explore all possible alternatives. After certain decisions have been made and
implemented, it is necessary to assess their effectiveness after some time before sticking to them.
While managing situations in future, I will cease making decisions in haste and will always apply
logic and rationality.

Task 4

Organizational accountability
Using strategic management
in accomplishing

The organization involves the stakeholders in envisioning the
desirable future as well as working together in making this a
reality. Making strategies of enhancing a favorable future is
very important for prosperity.
The organization cannot replace the traditional management

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activities. Rather, it can be better if they were integrated into a
wider context while considering the external environment,
direction and purpose, and internal organizational capabilities.
Driving force The driving force is production capability where there is an
intention of building success by delivering cheaper services
that are, however, high quality. This relates to investment in
equipment as well as relevant services, skills, and operation
processed (Berg, 2003).

Organization strategies’
elements and external
agencies

Internal assessment is influenced by external agencies directly
in that while reflecting on the weaknesses and strengths, an
organization does this in comparison to the competitors.
Improvements are normally based on these comparisons. The
sales and distribution strategies should be more thorough
compared to the competitors’.
The second element is external assessment that involves
creating competitive profiles, studying micro and macro-
economic information, identifying threats and opportunities,
and comprehending success elements.

2- supporting strengths 1. Rewarding the best performing employees so that they

are motivated to work harder.

  1. Involving the stakeholders and clients to make
    contributions on how the organization can be improved.
    2- areas of improvement or 1. From the feedbacks that clients give regarding the

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expansion services received. The organization can find more
information about the same so as to establish facts and
seek ways to improve the same.

  1. The services that the clients might be demanding but
    are not being offered in the institution. The
    organization can start offering the services.

Organization professional accountability
2-Held professional
accountable- HIPAA privacy
rule

During all processes, the organization should eliminate all risks
to accidental exposure and particular information can only be
shared with certain people.

2-HIPAA security rule The organization should abide by the national standards aimed
at protecting electronic personal health information of clients
that is maintained, used, received, and created by the covered
entity.
The organization should also have proper technical, physical,
and administrative safeguards for promoting security, integrity,
and confidentiality of electronically protected health
information.

2-Productivity standards The customer challenges resolved every hour and the amount

of positive work done hour.

2- remaining current with
changes

  1. Having the employees trained on the professional
    practice changes and how they can be applied in their
    areas of operation.

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  1. Bringing in technological devices that can facilitate the
    changes (Afifi & Weiner, 2004).

Annual performance
evaluation- professional
development

The annual performance evaluation shows areas where the
employee performed very well, average, and poorly depending
on his areas of operation. Most likely, poor performance is
some areas indicate that the employee was not very well
conversant with these areas. A manager can arrange for
training or refresher courses in such areas and this promotes
professional development.

2- skills and ideas 1. Regardless of how low an employee’s title is, it is very
important to include them in important in any
discussion and decision making as this makes them feel
valuable and contribute positively.

  1. Proper time management is a very crucial factor as it
    increases productivity hugely.

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References

Afifi, W. A., & Weiner, J. L. (2004). Toward a theory of motivated information management.
Communication Theory, 14(2), 167-190.
Berg, M. (2003). Health information management: Integrating information and communication
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Giakoumaki, A., Pavlopoulos, S., & Koutsouris, D. (2006). Multiple image watermarking
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