2008 AHIMA Core Service
Achievement Awards
PHIMA
was honored in FOUR categories for core
service achievement at last week's AHIMA Summer Team
Talks in Chicago.
We received the First Place
Award in Continuing Education programs related HIM.
PHIMA members had the opportunity to earn 66.5 CEs
from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 without attending
our Annual Meeting (an additional 15 CEs).
We received the First Place
Award in Diversity Program. One of the strategic
initiatives this year for the Pennsylvania Health
Information Management (PHIMA) Board of Directors
was to establish active and viable relationships
with related organizations within the state of
Pennsylvania. As an association, the Board of
Directors felt the involvement would give the
association the opportunity to grow and provide
input on issues. Establishing relationships with
other organizations in Pennsylvania displays the
diversity of our HIM association. As an association
we developed relationship with 5 other organizations
within Pennsylvania.
We received the First Place
Award in Recruitment and Retention Activities for
Students. For over 10 years, PHIMA has awarded
several education scholarships to students who
demonstrate academic achievement and commitment to
the field. PHIMA promotes education and recruitment
of new students as critical success factors for the
HIM profession. We strongly feel taking the
RHIT/RHIA exam demonstrates a commitment to the
field of Health Information Management. Therefore,
PHIMA offered for the first time, a Full
Reimbursement to any Premiere PHIMA Member and an
AHIMA member who has successfully graduated in good
standing AND successfully passed the RHIA/RHIT
credentials exam within this past fiscal year.
Reimbursement funds are available to all Premier
PHIMA members who have passed the RHIT or RHIA exam
within the last PHIMA fiscal year (July 1, 2006 -
June 30, 2007).
We received Second Place
Award in Member Communication. In December
2006,the PHIMA Executive Board formally commissioned
an aggressive project to re-design and launch a new
association website in time for their May 2007
Annual Meeting and in order to have an improved
web-presence in place in time for the 2008 AHIMA
national convention hosted by our CSA. During Phase
I of the project, the association successfully
completed and launched a website reflective of its
increasingly important role in advancing the use of
technology among HIM professionals and more
representative of the vast geographic representation
of its membership. In addition, improvements made in
Phase II of the project (June 2007-January 2008)
included an enhanced ecommerce capability to support
member programming. In concert with this project,
the association set a goal to improve outreach to
its membership, engaging them to access available
resources within PHIMA and bridging the geographic
divide by supporting an active initiative to get
members to join the Geographic Pennsylvania CoP on
the AHIMA extranet. Each initiative proved
extraordinarily successful in meeting association
goals for improved member engagement and
participation in PHIMA activities.
Lastly, PHIMA was honored for
Advocacy efforts. AHIMA Legislative Office
asked 3 states- Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania
to share with the attendees our efforts this year.
Ours was the new and significant involvement with
the Pennsylvania eHealth Initiative (HIE).
Congratulations and thanks to
the PHIMA membership and board for making us look
good in Chicago!
