Knowledge Is Everything: A Call to Evolve

Throughout 2009, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) has been promoting the critical role that health care documentation specialists play in the accurate capture and documentation of patient encounter information. In light of our shifting economy, the evolution of enabling technologies (like the electronic health record [EHR] and speech recognition technology [SRT]), and the workforce challenges our sector is facing, AHDI is urging all stakeholders in our sector to acknowledge the critical role that an interpretive, skilled knowledge worker will continue to play in the electronic future of health care delivery. Even now, as the criteria and requirements for EHR technologies are being defined in our nation's capital, it is important for this sector to deliver a clear message to legislators, health care delivery, patients, providers and the allied health team that the future of health care documentation -- truly "meaningful" use of health information -- is going to depend on health care recognizing that health care documentation workers will be a necessary partner in the accurate capture and repurposing of health information.

AHDI is calling all health care documentation workers to prepare for the future of our industry -- to be ready to step in to the new roles that will emerge in the EHR. It is the interpretive clinical knowledge of this skilled worker that we believe will continue to make the difference between risk and quality in health care documentation.

To that end, AHDI has been promoting the campaign Knowledge is Everything, calling all students, postgraduates and working MTs in the industry to embrace the path of greatest potential relevance in the future:

• Graduate from an ACCP-approved school.
• Earn your registered medical transcriptionist (RMT) credential upon graduating from your MT program.
• Adopt Benchmark KB to stay on the cutting edge of clinical information
• Become an AHDI member and get engaged in professional development and lifelong learning
• Embrace level II credentialing through the certified medical transcriptionist (CMT) credentialing exam.

Industry experts agree that in the technology-driven documentation future, traditional transcription will give way to a hybrid role of narrative transcription, template and SRT draft editing, accuracy analysis and data abstracting, with the long-term goal of creating cost-saving efficiency in health care delivery. This means the industry will demand fewer documentation professionals to manage the same workload, and that only the most skilled, interpretive, credentialed documentation professionals will be selected for those roles. Will you be one of them?

What can you do to impact the future picture of our industry?

First and foremost, if you are missing any of the critical components outlined above in your career portfolio, start by doing something important for yourself. Get that RMT or CMT credential you've been meaning to pursue. Invest the $11.25 per month in AHDI membership so that you can get connected and stay connected to what's happening in this sector. At a time when changes in technology and health care delivery are so unpredictable, it's even more important than ever to make sure you are "in the know" about your professional future and how these changes will impact you. Take a close look at Benchmark KB, a web service designed specifically to empower you as a working MT or editor, make you more productive, and keep those knowledge-building resources at your fingertips.

If you've already done all of those things, reach out to an industry colleague who needs to embrace long-term career planning. Invite that colleague to an AHDI local, state/regional, or national meeting. Get a few colleagues together and join AHDI at our 31st Annual Convention & Expo happening now in Nashville, where you can engage in critical industry networking, benefit from educational sessions to prepare you for the future, and develop the connections that can open many doors of opportunity in our sector. Perhaps you know an MT who is hesitant about credentialing. Consider becoming a mentor and helping that friend get credentialed this year. No matter what, you can contribute to the future of our industry.

It's also critically important right now to stay abreast of the efforts of AHDI and the Medical Transcription Industry Association in Washington, DC. We have engaged a lobbying firm to position our sector at the right tables, as health care reform, "meaningful use" of EHRs and the long-term need for narrative capture is being heavily debated. It is our goal to engage our physician clients and employers in testifying to the importance of a narrative option in any EHR system of the future. We want the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to be well aware that EHR systems must be required to include a dictation/transcription interface so that physicians and practitioners will continue to have the option of entering complex narrative into otherwise templated EMR/EHR systems. Patient stories are complex and variable -- no point-and-click option is going to fit every patient. If we can convince legislators and decision-makers at DHHS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that narrative capture is critical to accurate, meaningful and consumable health information, we will have successfully preserved a role for the MT in that EHR future.

Now is not the time to bury your head in the sand (or the keyboard) and hope these big decisions consuming HIT stakeholders won't impact your future. They absolutely will shape your future, so don't leave them in the hands of others. Embrace the spirit of Knowledge is Everything and make sure you are "in the know." Get connected and stay connected. (By Lea M. Sims, CMT, AHDI-F)