AHDI Preview

AHDI Offers Medical Record Motivation in Milwaukee

By Heather Hogstrom

Health care documentation specialists, HIM and HIT professionals, medical scribes and transcriptionists, and more can benefit from the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s (AHDI) Annual Conference, taking place in Milwaukee August 4-6. Along with information and inspiration that will enhance attendees’ knowledge and job performance, the conference provides the opportunity to earn continuing education credits, learn more about current tools and technology such as EHRs and speech recognition, and network with vendors and fellow professionals.

Attendees can hop a bus on Friday night to the Wisconsin State Fair, sponsored by AHDI’s Mighty Rivers and Great Lakes Regional associations. Fair-goers can cool off with iced gelato coffee or enjoy delectable deep-fried fare such as pretzel-crusted brownies served on a stick with sea salt caramel dipping sauce, bacon-wrapped tater tots, and, of course, plenty of Wisconsin cheese. While out on the town, attendees can spread awareness that accurate health records save lives by wearing AHDI’s advocacy t-shirt and posting selfies on social media with the hashtag #PrecisionMatters.

Jeff Tobe, MEd, CSP, will present the opening keynote, “Coloring Outside the Lines: Creating a New Healthcare Documentation Experience,” which will be a fun, interactive session that encourages creativity and innovative thinking. Other sessions include the following:

• “Confidently Articulate Why Transcription Is Essential” by Nick Mahurin will help health care documentation experts advocate for themselves.
• “Will the Real James Smith Please Stand Up!” by Susan M. Lucci, RHIA, CHPA, CHDS, AHDI-F, will discuss the issue of duplicate patient records, their consequences, and potential solutions.
• “Speech Editing: Have We Summitted the Mountain, or Are We Headed Down a Slippery Slope?” by Marlene Schoenberg, EdM, CCC-SLP, and Sheryl Williams, CHDS, AHDI-F, will describe challenges and provide strategies regarding speech recognition technology and the editing process.

New this year is the T3 Summit: Talent, Technology, & Trends, during which moderators will lead group discussions. The Talent session, “Challenges of the Hidden Workforce,” will discuss the challenges of those who work remotely. “Technology: Friend or Foe” will discuss challenges faced when implementing new technology and what education may be required to keep up. Building on the previous two sessions, the Trends session, “The Future of Healthcare Documentation and the Crystal Ball,” will look for suggestions on ways to make the health care documentation profession more visible and valuable.

For more information or to register, visit www.ahdionline.org.

— Heather Hogstrom is an editorial assistant at For The Record.