2006 FHIMA Convention

2006 FHIMA Annual Convention

Tuesday July 25, 2006

The board for FHIMA held a morning session for those who have never attended a FHIMA convention before. This was very informative on how the organization runs on a state level. The keynote speaker for this conference was Kent Rader who was successful in getting the room warmed up for the day. Mark Michaelman was the next speaker. His topic was on the pilot being conducted by the CMS here in Florida regarding Recovery Audit Contractors. After that Carol A. Przybycin spoke on the methodology called Six Sigma. This was very interesting and will come in handy for those enrolled in Quality Management this year. During lunch, service awards were given out, including one to our very own Thomas Falen for “outstanding professional.” After lunch, Michael Lowe, who spoke at UCF last year, gave a presentation on Health Law updates including a discussion on some a Florida’s very important statutes. Kathy Reep then gave her presentation on current Legislative and Regulatory issues impacting Florida. Then to wrap it up for the day, Maureen Gritz gave a comprehensive speech on quality initiatives.

The Exhibit Hall was a great opportunity to network and meet vendors who will help in the business from coding to data destruction.

- Amanda Zak, President

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Tami Duplamtis, RHIA and Danielle P. Berthelot, RHIA spoke at the convention about how they helped clean up the records departments of the hospitals devastated by Hurricane Katrina. They said that many of the Hospitals sat in four to five inches of water for an extended period of time and had fish in many of the records. Beth Acher, RHIA of the Veterans Administration presented a slideshow on how the VA deals with an Electronic Health Record. They had many facilities in the Louisiana region and they were all operational again five days after Katrina. She also told us that the VA has to keep its medical records for 75 years after the patient’s last medical encounter. Michael Donleavy, who owns and operates a security firm, gave us pointers on how to keep our departments secure from a computer standpoint. Mr. Dunleavy said that records departments should not leave computer screens and passwords able to be viewed by the public. Angela Kennedy, RHIA, is Florida’s liaison to the AHIMA. She conducted an open floor discussion about the recent topic up for national vote. This is for allowing uncredentialed members of the national association to sit on the different boards and groups that decide national association matters. Ms. Kennedy said the Florida delegation has decided to vote against this important issue. Michele Stern, Stern and Associates, was going to conduct a team building exercise.

- Donnie Jordan, Secretary

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All images and graphics are original creations by David Tartaro with the exception of the UCF Pegasus.