What's In A Name? You Might Be Surprised
Veterans of the healthcare documentation industry know one thing for certain: Change is a constant. When faced with yet another change, we have learned to quote the great Yogi Berra-"It's like déjà vu all over again."
Many external events continue to cause change within this arena, and healthcare documentation specialists continue to evolve. If you look up the word "evolution" in the dictionary, you will find a number of possible definitions, including: "a process of change in a certain direction; unfolding," which I think accurately describes the changes occurring on an almost daily basis in our field. Our tasks and responsibilities seem to continue to unfold.
While these changes in the industry are exciting to many and unsettling to others, it is important to remember that healthcare documentation specialists have always done more than one thing. We have always been more than typists. We have always used our extensive knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, laboratory values, diagnostic tests and other information in our positions. Professionals in our industry have known for a long time that their compensation and value to the industry were seen in relation to their manual dexterity and the ability to produce a certain number of lines of documentation per day. The term medical transcriptionist became synonymous with typist, and the knowledge base of these professionals often was overlooked.
I hope you'll take some time to read this excellent article in its entirety.
Jay Vance, CMT, CHP
AHDI Lounge Administrator/Moderator
Director, District 1
AHDI National Leadership Board
jay.ahdi.district1@gmail.com
She hit the nail on the head. Our value has been seen only as producing lines of documentation. That is not our "value-added," which is our ability to spot mistakes and prevent them from entering the record. To my knowledge, none of the MTSOs ever measured the number of flags/comments/discrepancies we either fixed or noted, which reflect our true value. Not sure a name change will do anything to change the perception, and certainly the "verbatim" trend has hurt our reputation, but we still do draw attention to errors before they enter the medical record. I want AHDI to promote the benefit of a trained workforce that can do that, and promote it to an audience wider than our little HIM sphere.
Well said, Crystal. This is exactly what the AHDI leadership is working to do, get the word out to a broader audience.
I think Cynthia did a great job on this article, kudos to her. I agree with Crystal, our message has to go to a broader audience than just the HIM world. The reality is that these decisions just aren't being made in the HIM department any longer. I also appreciate what the article says about everyone being able to claim their title themselves and not just change it to what the NLB has selected as I've already found a title that opens many more doors for me personally. Great job, Cynthia.