Advocacy Gives a Powerful Voice to Health Information Professionals

Our value as health information (HI) professionals should be obvious.

Day in and day out, we help healthcare organizations deliver high-quality, patient-centered care. We ensure that sensitive health information is correct, accessible, protected, and complete, and, in doing so, we improve patient outcomes, advance operational efficiency, and make health information more secure.

However, I don’t need to tell you that the average person may not appreciate this. Blame the complexity of our work or the behind-the-scenes nature of our jobs, but the general public does not always understand what we do—or why we do it.

That’s precisely why advocacy at AHIMA matters.

When conversations are happening at the federal level around data access, privacy, and equity, we show up with a metaphorical loudspeaker to help shape the legislation that will follow. The same goes for rallying around the need to safeguard the quality and integrity of health information. We send a strong message to elected officials that these issues are important to their constituents. And when health organizations, industry groups, and other stakeholders respond to many other issues that are top of mind for our field, we have seats at those tables, too.

This is thanks, in large part, to you. During our recent Advocacy Summit in Washington, DC, hundreds of you showed up to help us be that amplifier, and thousands more attend key meetings throughout the year.

Together, we are powerful. We underscore the urgency of patient matching and identification challenges. We lend influence and leadership to issues around the collection, sharing, and use of social determinants of health data. We support the advancement of data exchange utilizing common data standards, among other goals. And by doing so, we represent our profession as a voice that matters.

Advocacy is not a one-time event. It's a year-round effort that requires ongoing engagement. This includes sending emails, writing letters, making phone calls, and meeting with elected officials in their districts. By consistently advocating for the profession and staying engaged in public policy issues, our profession remains visible and rooted in important policy decisions.

Our advocacy team at AHIMA uses our collective knowledge and expertise to benefit the industry. Learn more by reading their 2023 Advocacy Agenda.

Our work may never be fully understood by the general public or even some in the healthcare industry. What matters is that we continue to advocate for it, and that we stand up for policies and initiatives that benefit patients, providers, and all those who touch data.

Thank you for continuing to stand up and show up.

Jennifer Mueller, MBA, RHIA, SHIMSS, FACHE, FAHIMA, is the 2023 AHIMA board president/chair.