As a manager, Christina Christy, MBA-HM, RHIA, CPCS, has learned to adapt to work effectively with members on her team.
For example, she had one employee who liked to make to-do lists and put their day together piece by piece. The employee started her list with the words, “Make a list,” so she could have something to check off right away.
“But if I asked her to do something that wasn’t on her list, it would throw her,” says Christy, now director of HIM at Phelps Health. “So I would tell her, ‘Put this at the end of your list, and if you can get to it, that would be great.’ And that made it OK because she could just add it to her list of things she was doing that day and she was fine with that.”
Helping the employee adjust her approach to handling new assignments is one example of how Christy tailors the way she manages to the way her employees work. Christy will talk about how to be an effective leader during her presentation, “Effective Management for New Leaders: Understanding Communication, Micromanaging vs Delegation, and Controlling Imposter Syndrome,” at AHIMA25 in Minneapolis.
AHIMA25 will be from Oct. 12-14 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, a must-attend event where health information (HI) professionals can hear from top HI experts, build their skills with hands-on sessions, and connect with peers, leaders, and employers. The conference will feature more than 40 curated educational sessions, topic-driven workshops, and the opportunity to earn 20+ CEUs and even more via on-demand sessions after the event. Registration is available now for AHIMA25!
New Coding Track Added for AHIMA25
There are seven educational tracks at the conference, including a new one this year on coding. The tracks are:
- Coding. Get up to speed on the latest coding updates, best practices, and real-world applications.
- Career Advancement. Build your leadership skills and explore new opportunities in HI.
- Policy and Government. Stay in the know on regulations, advocacy, and the big issues shaping HI.
- Privacy and Security. Tackle today’s biggest challenges when it comes to keeping patient data safe.
- Operational Outcomes. Learn how AI, revenue cycle updates, and risk adjustment strategies are changing daily workflows.
- Documentation and Data Integrity. Make sure patient records stay complete, correct, and compliant.
- Emerging Trends. Learn how AI, automation, and new technologies are changing the future of HI.
Sessions in each track cover practical topics such as transforming processes for successful autonomous coding, creating a standout personal portfolio that showcases your skills, rebooting your clinical documentation integrity program for success, and improving health outcomes through the collection, sharing and use of social determinants of health data.
Christy’s presentation on effective management for new leaders is part of the Career Advancement track. The session will explore three key areas to help new leaders succeed:
- Understanding the major responsibilities of a manager and avoid micromanagement
- Developing effective communication skills
- Overcoming imposter syndrome
During the session, “I'm going to talk about different communication styles of your team members and how it's important to learn how they speak and how you speak,” Christy says. “Almost every problem that you have with a staff member is a misunderstanding. If you know their style of communication, as a leader, it’s your job to tailor how you communicate to them.”
Privacy, Security, and Ethical Risks in AI
As part of the Privacy and Security track, the session “Beyond the Code: Navigating Privacy, Security, and Ethical Risks in Healthcare AI” will be presented by Jillian Harrington, EdD, MHA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-P, CEMC, MHP, Program Director at the School of Global Health Management and Informatics at the University of Central Florida. With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming integrated into coding, clinical documentation, and revenue cycle operations, new privacy, security, and ethical risks are emerging that extend beyond traditional compliance concerns. This session will explore how to assess and manage those risks with a focus on protected health information (PHI), data security, and ethical decision-making.
“We were talking about computer-assisted coding 15 years ago, and it was becoming big then. But the systems weren't great, and now they're getting better and better,” Harrington says. “But there are so many risks associated with people’s Information into these systems if they're not being adequately protected.”
Attendees at Harrington’s session will gain practical strategies for safeguarding sensitive information, implementing security controls, and developing ethical frameworks to support responsible AI adoption. They also will get practical strategies for identifying and mitigating risks while maintaining operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.
“There's always going to be some risk involved in the use of data and working with an outside vendor. But how can we mitigate that risk and keep it as low as possible?” Harrington says. “We've gotten pretty good at protecting data, but the people trying to steal our data have gotten better as well.”
HI professionals need to determine the risks of using AI systems and how best to protect patient data, she says. Ethics also should be considered when using AI, but not everyone looks at the ethical questions involved.
“Systems learn from the data that’s inputted,” she says, “but could that data be biased in some way?”
How AI Interventions Impact Patient Outcomes
In the Operations Outcome track, Dr. Joe Lintz, DHA, MS, RHIA, CHDA, Health Information Management Program Director and Professor at Parker University, will give the presentation “Exploring the Impacts of Artificial Intelligence Interventions on Providers’ Practices: Perspectives from a Rural Medical Center.” This session will explore the impact of AI interventions on healthcare providers' practices and patient outcomes in rural medical centers. Based on a recent study, the session will examine healthcare providers' perceptions, concerns, and willingness to adopt AI technology, highlighting key factors such as trust in data privacy, diagnostic accuracy, and user-friendly design.
The study was published online in March in the Journal of Medical Artificial Intelligence. Healthcare providers at a rural medical center in north Texas were surveyed on their perceptions of the impact of AI interventions on their practice and patient outcomes. More than half of the 31 respondents expressed a willingness to use AI in their practice.
“Those providers who perceive AI as efficient were more likely to associate it with improved patient outcomes,” says Lintz, lead study author.
Bu the study found that a lack of trust in AI—particularly regarding data privacy, diagnostic accuracy, and patient safety—could prevent providers and patients from using such applications.
“More than 68 percent [of respondents] said that they feel like AI did not improve the patient care outcomes,” Lintz says.
In Lintz’s presentation at the conference, attendees will gain insights into the challenges and opportunities AI presents in rural settings and learn how these findings can inform future AI adoption and practice in healthcare. He says HI professionals need to protect patient privacy in AI systems and safeguard patient data while also developing policy for responsible AI use.
Lintz’s study said that while AI holds significant potential in healthcare, widespread concerns persist among healthcare providers. Despite the challenges, many view AI’s ability to enhance care and efficiency as promising, the study showed.
“We will need to design user-friendly AI to encourage the use of AI and reduce resistance,” Lintz says.
Damon Adams is content production editor for AHIMA.