Foundations in Healthcare Information Management Task #2:
Needs Assessment & EHR Vendor Selection
Western Governors University
Ashley Ward 011559130
3/13/2025
, 2
A1. Areas Needing Assessment
One area in the organization’s health information management (HIM)
workflow that needs assessment is the inefficient retrieval of records to release
information requests. The organization’s HIM department must rely on a courier
service to transport records back and forth between different organizations. Coding,
billing, and other financial services are centralized in a downtown office. That means
each chart must go back to the downtown office for coding. This makes it hard for the
organization’s HIM department to locate the patients' records, which interferes with
the timely response to ROI.
A2. Staff Concern
The data migration process is one concern the HIM staff may have about this
transition. The HIM staff are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and completeness
of patient data. This transition would change their data entry, storage, and record
retrieval workflow. One of their concerns could be if the organization implements a
poorly designed EHR system, resulting in inaccurate patient records.
A3. Functional Needs of Staff Members
One functional need of the HIM staff members is quick and easy access to the
patient’s chart for efficient coding and billing. This would also help with the quick
and secure processing of the release of information requests. Another functional need
of the HIM staff would be tools to help the accuracy and completeness of patient data
and detect errors.
A4. EHR Comparison
Paper records do not provide much privacy and security for patient information.