Why you need HIM Interim Management
Optimal Ongoing Performance
Experience matters, especially when it comes to HIM Department leadership. Inexperienced managers can lead to a host of problems in a healthcare setting, from patient care and safety to employee satisfaction and certainly for optimized revenue. Even so, when healthcare organizations find themselves operating in a gap while recruiting a replacement Health Information Management (HIM) director, leadership often asks the question, “Do we really need an interim director?”
The answer is “yes.”
When IKS Health interim directors have entered hospitals to find an employee with no experience left in charge, there are often hidden problems that come to light. In one recent assignment situation, the interim director uncovered roughly a year of nonreporting for the tumor registry. The employee in charge had not realized it was a requirement, and the hospital faced hefty fines that could have been avoided.
Other interim directors go onsite to find severely short-staffed departments. As an advocate, interim directors can acquire additional resources, hire more employees, or even outsource services to reduce employee stress and boost morale.
An Uninterrupted Revenue Stream
When a director leaves your organization, keeping the department running smoothly is crucial. That’s often easier said than done, but with IKS HIM Interim Management, our expert HIM directors know exactly how to continue momentum, so your revenue stream remains uninterrupted.
We recognize that finding the perfect replacement can take time and is not something to rush through. We’ll be there for as long as you need. Having a qualified interim director buys you time to thoroughly review applications while the department continues to operate smoothly, and you don’t have to rush to find the right candidate.
Where Management and Leadership Unite
Whether it’s a small, critical access or a large university hospital, IKS’ directors can handle the spectrum of work and have proven success. Our HIM directors are not just task oriented but are also comfortable interacting with everyone from CFOs and physicians to coders and other employees in ancillary departments.
An article from AHIMA on “Redefining HIM Leadership” states, “HIM as a profession has historically been oriented toward producing managers and transactional leaders with HIM subject matter expertise. … The challenge of navigating a rapidly changing healthcare delivery system that includes data collected, processed, and used outside of traditional HIM boundaries has created a significant need for HIM to add leadership acumen to a well-developed set of management skills.”
HIM Directors Responsibilities Include:
- Managing the workflow
- Monitoring productivity
- Managing billing and tracking audits and denials
- Acting as privacy officer
- Providing leadership
- Maintaining relationships with ancillary departments
- Ensuring clinicians can access accurate and complete health information
- Answering coding questions and confirming accurate coding for reimbursement and clinical care
- Reducing backlogs
- Department stability
IKS Doesn’t Just Understand Compliance – We Take Action
Filling the interim position with just any management consulting group does not cut it when it comes to your HIM department. Our experienced HIM directors are there to answer coding questions and make sure your organization maintains all compliance, follows HIPAA regulations, and complies with state reporting. Our team understands the specific regulations that must be followed to adhere to The Joint Commission’s accreditation and certification requirements, as their standards cover everything from patient rights and education to how the hospital verifies staff competencies and everything in between.
While consulting groups might be able to identify potential issues that need to be addressed, they leave the actual work to the organization to handle. With IKS HIM directors, we don’t just make recommendations – we follow through and act on them. That often means the director rolling up their sleeves and digging in, especially in smaller hospitals.
On the Job Training for Your New Director
Feeling overwhelmed by the search for your new director? IKS can help with that, too. We can review resumes, interview, and even help train the right person for the position. Our goal is to ensure stability and be the bridge to you finding and starting the best person for the job.
When possible, we help identify and mentor someone who is ready to take the next step in their career from within the department, supporting hire-from-within goals and creating longevity. If there’s no one within the department, IKS can help you work with local colleges to identify new graduates, gaining support from the community while helping your facility maintain smooth operations.
As with many positions, it’s difficult to get experience as an HIM director without doing the job, and it’s harder to get the job without the experience. IKS solves that problem by acclimating and mentoring new grads or department leads to mold them into the perfect fit for your facility.
Planning for Future Success
When you hire IKS, you set a clear path for a new HIM director and their future success. We don’t just identify problems, we solve them, leaving a clean, healthy slate for your new director to start fresh.
How IKS HIM Interim Management Sets Your Department Up for Future Success:
- Operational Assessments to identify issues
- Recommendations, action plans, and follows through on implementing changes
- Resume reviews and interviews for potential candidates
- Training and mentoring of new HIM director
When you’re faced with the task of finding a new HIM director, don’t hire in a hurry. Our HIM Interim Managers provides the right leadership in-between directors to set you up for a successful new lead.
Contact IKS HIM Interim Management to ensure optimal performance, accurate justified revenue generation, and best practices team training so your new hire can hit the ground running.
