Learning a new vocabulary about data
HIM professionals need to have a variety of skills. Among them are the ability to maintain patient medical records, ensure information privacy/security/HIPAA, and use the nomenclatures and processes of medical coding and billing.
Knowing how to understand and analyze structured types of information is becoming important, now more than ever. Various payers require us to not only report to them individual patient processes and procedures but also to develop summary reports on how well we send out our patient reminders, make available patient summaries at end of a visit, and understand or construct quality-of-care measures.
In order to use the Electronic Healthcare record to complete these analyses, the structures and methods for extraction of data must be understood by the HIM professional. As you are discovering, databases use a unique set of words and language -- a database vocabulary.
For this, address the following:
What are the challenges for you in learning and recognizing this vocabulary? Consider that these ideas are not just about using "computers," or even "IT," but also about understanding how data and information will fit together in an organized structure.