Sensitization On Current Best Practices in Medical Record & Health Information Management System (HIMS) Health Information Management (Him)
Sensitization On Current Best Practices in Medical Record & Health Information Management System (HIMS) Health Information Management (Him)
System (HIMS)
Health Information Management (Him)
Health information management (HIM) is information management applied to health and health
care. It is the practice of acquiring, analysing and protecting digital and traditional medical
information vital to providing quality patient care. With the widespread computerization of health
records, traditional (paper-based) records are being replaced with electronic health records (EHRs).
The tools of health informatics and health information technology are continually improving to bring
greater efficiency to information management in the health care sector. Both hospital information
systems and Human Resource for Health Information System (HRHIS) are common implementations
of HIM.
Health information management professionals plan information systems, develop health policy, and
identify current and future information needs. In addition, they may apply the science of informatics
to the collection, storage, analysis, use, and transmission of information to meet legal, professional,
ethical and administrative records-keeping requirements of health care delivery. They work with
clinical, epidemiological, demographic, financial, reference, and coded healthcare data. Health
information administrators have been described to "play a critical role in the delivery of healthcare in
the United States through their focus on the collection, maintenance and use of quality data to
support the information-intensive and information-reliant healthcare system".
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the proper collection, management and use of
information within healthcare systems "will determine the system's effectiveness in detecting health
problems, defining priorities, identifying innovative solutions and allocating resources to improve
health outcomes".
Components of HIMS
There are six key components of a strong Health Information Management System. They include;
health information system resources, indicators, data sources, data management, information
products and lastly, dissemination and use of the information. These six components can be broadly
divided into three broad categories namely; inputs, outputs and processes. Inputs;These comprises
of all the physical and structural pre-requisites and resourcesneeded to put up a strong health
information system. This mainly involves a legislative, regulatory and planning framework (rules and
policies) as well as personnel (skills and capabilities), financing, logistic support (e.g. office supplies),
IT and communication systems (e.g. computers). Each country’s HIMS needs to be designed to utilize
the available resources in the best way possible to meet the country’s health needs.