Does this picture Reflex the hospital in your mind
What may have come to many people's heart at the word HIM might have being the "him" used to categorize a male. Because it's not a widely known course yet the most effective course and a pillar of every Hospital. I want to make known it existence especially to those going into the health line. It's not completely am unaware course but it values, effectiveness and important has not been fully recognized in the hospital settings by people outside and within the hospital organization.
HIM- meaning "health information management" has to do with the management I.e storing, retrieving and utilizing of patients record and other health issues for present and future reference
Patient and other health workers mostly refer to them as "card issuers" , this name card issuers as given a wrong perspective of their duties, thereby degrading and blinding people from recognising it values and importance, and in a way hindering people from enrolling with such a tag as a card issuer
I will start by telling you health information management or health record's duties is not restricted to filing and retrieving of patients folder . It is the only health course that allows you work in more than 50 career with it certificate outside and within the health line.
Few of the duties of a health information manager in the hospital are as follow
1.coding and indexing
- act of assigning code to a disease. No any other profession in the hospital understand the codes except the health record managers
2.taking statistics
- mathematicians in the hospital
3.issuing medical fitness/birth certificate
4.storing and retrieving of patient folders and data(diagnosis)
5.taken claims (NHIS)
6.As an attestificadum in cases of sapoena in medico-legal situation
Health information management is as old as medicine itself, and am so proud to know medicine started in Africa, Egypt to be precise. Hippocrate know as the father of medicine was also the father of health record as in his early life started the act of medicine Through record and postulated a law of confidentiality known as Hippocratic oath which is the bases of health record.with the constant evolution of health record, information are being stored both electronically and manually.
Why all this talk?
I have noticed people rarely enrol for the course when in reality medical doctors are beginning to apply for this course now that they know it importance and have perceive it future bliss. WHO/ most NGO use Health Information managers services in monitoring and evaluation and in research. I learnt in U.S a doctor cannot graduate as a doctor without going to study health information management for a year. But we have always downlook it in Nigeria.
During my medical school, I also enrolled for the course and it was a blessing to me as it was the bases to my broad knowledge on health and sometimes I work as it. As The picture above clearly tells.