Scenario

You are a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) and have been hired as the new Health Information Management (HIM) Manager at a small hospital. Your department consists of 9 Coders, 1 Coding Supervisor, 3 Release of Information staff members, 2 Document Imaging staff members (scan and index any external paper records received into the EHR), 2 Identity Management staff members (merge/correct patient records in the EHR), 2 Deficiency Analysis staff members, and 1 HIM Supervisor. The Coding Staff report to the Coding Supervisor, the rest of the staff report to the HIM Supervisor, and both Supervisors report to the Manager.

The Supervisors handle timesheets and PTO requests for their employees, maintain training documentation, run daily huddles, and backfill for their staff. The Manager runs the weekly department meetings, is responsible for the budget, represents the department in organizational committees, and handles patient complaints. The hospital is paperless with an Electronic Health Record.

The department is not working on any quality improvement initiatives. The two teams who report to the two different supervisors seldom interact with each other. You have decided to make planning notes in preparation for coaching and mentoring your Supervisors. You have also decided to implement a team-building program in your department. You would like to share your plan with leadership to get their approval and to see if they would like to participate on an interdisciplinary level.

Instructions

Part 1: As the new HIM Manager, consider and answer the following questions in a Word document. You will use this information for your own planning purposes and to coach and mentor your Supervisors.

What are some of the Health Information functions you will want to focus on managing in your new department in the first six months, and why?

How will you focus on the Health Information functions that you chose?

What are some of the managerial skills you will need to draw upon to successfully manage these areas?

Part 2: Develop a plan and for how you will accomplish the team-building program. Your plan should include:

Number of team-building activities that will be held in the year

• What the activities will be (this can be general types of activities)
• Who the participants will be
• Any resources that will be needed

The benefits of such a program

Any other information you think is important to the success of your program

Based on your planning above, create two PowerPoint Presentations to present your plan to two audiences:

• One presentation is for your boss, the HIM Director, and the other Revenue Cycle Directors, that you will present at their next Directors’ meeting.
• One presentation is for your department that you will present at your next department meeting.
• How will you present the same plan but in a different way to the Directors and to your staff? Use your “Emotional Intelligence” to “sell” your great ideas to the two different audiences!