Health information administrators manage data entry, integrity, security, and analysis in medical records. They work with health information technicians and IT teams to ensure accuracy and confidentiality of patient information, and provide reports for decision-making.
A health information administrator has four main areas of responsibility: creating data entry procedures, managing data integrity, system security, and data analysis. A health information administrator or health information manager is trained to maintain patients’ medical records. Health information administrators are employed in hospitals, health care facilities and insurance companies. In a standard health information or records department, the health information administrator has several health information technicians responsible for data entry and routine analysis.
Information maintained by a health information administrator is used to analyze costs and make decisions about health trends, staffing, and equipment purchases. Information must be accurate, reliable and secure due to patient confidentiality. There is a wide variety of health information systems available on the market. It is not uncommon for the health information administrator to work closely with the system’s support team to create new reports and improve functionality to meet unique needs.
Data entry procedures are the rules and steps followed by health information workers when entering information into the health information system. These procedures are used to reduce the risk of data entry error, ensure consistent use of specific codes to match actual information, and provide the basis for all future reports. Creating and maintaining these rules determines the overall quality of the data and has a direct impact on the usability of the information.
Data integrity is an important function that is managed with a combination of business system and process rules. Business process rules define what information is logged and how. Source documentation for data entry must be defined and used consistently by all health information workers. Computer systems can be programmed to ensure that all data entries meet certain rules relating to number of characters, numerical collations, or duplicate data entry checks. Combining these functions will provide a degree of control over the quality of data entered into the system.
Health records contain personal patient information such as age, gender, exact procedures completed, tests ordered, physician’s name and specialty, and medications prescribed. All this information is highly confidential. The level of security surrounding the health information system is critical. While physical security is usually the responsibility of the information technology team, the administrator is responsible for controlling who has access and exactly what roles they can perform. Many health information systems have audit trails to track which staff member accessed each patient’s file and when.
The last responsibility of the health information administrator is the analysis of system reports. They are responsible for providing accurate and comprehensive reporting to senior management on costs, activities, patient demographics, and other information as needed. This is a critical function for effective decision-making in both the hospital and the insurance company.
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