A 30-year-old male is admitted to the hospital after an evaluation in the emergency room. After undergoing a series of blood tests and a kidney scan he is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. After three days of receiving intravenous fluids and antibiotics, he is discharged home in fair condition.

The hospital uses electronic processes to retrieve and store patient records. If you were performing an analysis of this medical record, you would expect to find several documents and clinical evaluations. But before you do, you think about the application of The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and its impact on documentation standards and how these types of cases may impact your career going forward. Explore the history of health information management (HIM) and the AHIMA organization and then answer the questions below.

Make note of the definition for HIM, and review AHIMA’s history, mission, and future predictions. Then, discuss documentation guidelines developed by AHIMA, and how they would apply to the scenario described above.

Describe how the recent and future technological changes in health records management has/will impact your chosen career path as a health care professional. You may use the AHIMA website as a resource (www.ahima.org)

Health information management