Provided are excerpts from the Sep/Oct CHIA Journal. Grab your mailed copy or read the online version here . 

Disaster Preparedness During the Wildfire Season: Emergency Operations Plan

by: Erleen Palmer

HIM professionals understand the value that their expertise brings to patient care and business operations in both normal and emergency modes. Emergency operations planning committees, however, either overlook or are unaware of how HIM professionals’ skill sets are essential when hospitals are faced with patient surges or evacuations. In the absence of invitations to the EOP table, HIM departments need to make a case for their inclusion by highlighting the invaluable role they play in executing the receipt and transfer of patient records in a disaster.

Cancer Registry Process: An Integral Part of Cancer Research

by: Kelli K. Olsen, MS, CTR

If you work in health care and you know what a cancer registry is, you are already ahead of the game. Many people, even within health care, do not know what a cancer registry is or what it does, but it is an integral part of cancer research and is extremely valuable. As mandated by state law, every hospital and medical office in California must report their cancer cases. There are also some benign tumors that are mandated to report, such as any tumor within the brain. The California Cancer Registry (CCR) monitors the reporting of these cases and provides a list of what types of cancers and tumors are reportable. Established in 1985 to improve the spectrum of cancer control, the CCR is a program of the California Department of Public Health’s Chronic Disease Surveillance and Research Branch, whose mission is to serve the public by “collecting statewide data, conducting surveillance and research into the causes, controls, and cures of cancer among Californians, both incidence (new diagnosis) and mortality (deaths)”.

Nominations for CHIA Board of Directors and AHIMA Delegates for the 2018 CHIA Ballot are now being accepted through Friday, September 22, 2017 . CHIA is seeking nominations for next year’s leaders and we are interested in you! We all have many gifts and talents, why not consider sharing these talents as a CHIA Officer or Delegate?

Upon the recommendation of last year’s CHIA Nominating Committee, the CHIA Board of Directors approved a revised nomination process. The criteria for each position was standardized and the online CHIA Leadership Application Form was developed to capture the same information for each candidate. 

Learn more about the CHIA nomination process and the CHIA Board and AHIMA Delegate positions.

As part of CHIA’s three-year strategic initiatives, CHIA is forming a Consumer Engagement Task Force. “Empower consumers to use health information resources to optimize their health” is the goal of CHIA’s consumer engagement strategy. Recommended by the June 2017 CHIA House of Delegates, the CHIA Board of Directors approved formation of a Consumer Engagement Task Force. The purpose of this task force is to develop CHIA’s consumer engagement program which includes recommending a “core curriculum” for topics that consumers need to know about such as POLST, access to medical records, advance directives, authorizations, personal health records, and more.

CHIA is looking for volunteers to join this task force. Learn more about the CHIA Consumer Engagement Task Force purpose and goals. 

If you are interested in serving on the CHIA Consumer Engagement Task Force, please complete the online Volunteer Questionnaire. Submissions must be received by September 22, 2017.