Explain how you think this will impact HIT$/$HIM professionals in the future, and the healthcare environment $(80$ points$).$ The weekly journal entry should be no less than $150$ words $(20$ points$).$ This is not a summarization of content. It should be your reflective thoughts.Opportunities for Health Information Management Professionals in

Healthcare Data Analytics

HIM professionals are uniquely positioned to take on a variety of roles related to healthcare

data analytics. Combining the following skills transforms the traditional HIM role into one of

a business analyst:

Understand data structures and coding systems

Understand available data and methods for integration

Can communicate with both finance and IT staff

Act as a business analyst$-$far more valuable than a pure data analyst

For instance, in revenue cycle management, the identification of missed charges is challenging.

The traditional approach to identifying missed charges is to perform a charge description master

$($CDM$)$ review and interview unit staff to ensure charge codes are utilized as designed. The

staff may also review departmental order sheets to ensure they include complete and accurate

listings of the services available in the department. An HIM professional with strong analytic

skills may take a data$-$driven approach to identify cases with potential missed charges.

The charge codes that occur together may often be identified through profiling of the

historical claims data. Claims with only one of those codes may be selected for focused review.

A record review on that subset of records identified as likely to include missed charges may

then be completed to understand the root cause of the missing charges. The use of analytics on

the historical claims may save a significant amount of time in the identification of particular

codes that are problematic. Corrective action may be designed and implemented in a much

more efficient manner.

Opportunities to apply analytics to common operational issues are present throughout

the healthcare business setting. AHIMA's Health Data Analysis Toolkit lists a number of

responsibilities that may be required of HIM professionals to perform analysis$-$based jobs in

healthcare $($Bronnert et al$.2011).$

An entry$-$level health data analyst position may include the following analytic responsibilities:

Identify, analyze, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets

In collaboration with others, interpret data and develop recommendations on the basis

of findings

Develop graphs, reports, and presentations of project results, trends, data mining

Perform basic statistical analyses for projects and reports

Create and present quality dashboards

Generate routine and ad hoc reports