SHHE 3201 Information and Professional Practice

INTRODUCTION

Definition of terms:

Health information is the data related to a person’s medical history, including

symptoms, diagnoses, procedures, and outcomes. A health record includes information
such as: a patient’s history, lab results, X-rays, clinical information, demographic
information, and notes. A patient’s health information can be viewed individually to see
how the patient’s health has changed; it can also be viewed as a part of a larger data set to
understand how a population’s health has changed, and how medical interventions can
change health outcomes.

Professional: refers to anyone who earns their living from performing an activity that
requires a certain level of education, skill, or training. There is typically a required
standard of competency, knowledge, or education that must be demonstrated (often in the
form of an exam or credential), as well as adhering to codes of conduct and ethical
standards.

Health information (HI) professionals are highly trained in the latest information
management technology applications. They understand the workflow process in
healthcare provider organizations, from large hospital systems to private physician
practices, and are vital to the daily operations management of health information and
electronic health records (EHRs). They ensure a patient’s health information is complete,
accurate, and protected. HI professionals have an extraordinary impact. They are the link
between clinicians, administrators, technology designers, operations, and information
technology professionals. These professionals affect the quality of patient information
and patient care at every touch point in the healthcare delivery cycle. HI professionals
work on the classification of diseases and treatments to ensure they are standardized for
clinical, financial, and legal uses in healthcare. HI professionals care for patients by
caring for their medical data and are responsible for the quality, integrity, security, and
protection of patients’ health information.

Personal health information means recorded information about an identifiable

individual that relates to a) the individual's health, or health care history, including
genetic information about the individual, b) the provision of health care to the individual,
or c) payment for health care provided to the individual, and includes d) the PHIN and
any other identifying number, symbol or particular assigned to an individual, and e) any
identifying information about the individual that is collected in the course of, and is
incidental to, the provision of health care or payment for health care.

Health care means any care, service or procedure a) provided to diagnose, treat or
maintain an individual's physical or mental condition, b) provided to prevent disease or
injury or promote health, or c) that affects the structure or a function of the body, and
includes the sale or dispensing of a drug, device, equipment or other item pursuant
to a prescription.

Professional practice refers to the conduct and work of someone from a particular
profession to meet the set standards of ethics, performance, competence, insurance,
training and so on. Includes the use of one's knowledge in a particular profession and the
way an individual behaves in the workplace.

Professional Standards: are a set of practices, ethics, and behaviors that members of a
particular professional group must adhere to. These sets of standards are frequently
agreed to by a governing body that represents the interests of the group.
Examples of professional standards include:
 Accountability – takes responsibility for their actions
 Confidentiality – keeps all sensitive information private and away from those who
shouldn’t have access to it
 Fiduciary duty – places the needs of clients before their own
 Honesty – always being truthful
 Integrity – having strong moral principles
 Law-abiding – follows all governing laws in the jurisdictions they perform
activities
 Loyalty – remain committed to their profession
 Objectivity – not swayed or influenced by biases
 Transparency – revealing all relevant information and not concealing anything

Importance of Information and Professional Practice

Professional practice is a Bridge to Quality to quality of care.

Privacy and confidentiality: Expectations of privacy and confidentiality in medical care

are rooted in core professional ethical standards across a variety of health professions.
For example, in each of its iterations throughout history, the Hippocratic Oath among
physicians includes a commitment to protect patient confidentiality and privacy: takers
of the oath state, ―I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not
disclosed to me that the world may know‖;. Nurses also have a code of ethics, the
Nightingale Pledge- Accordingly, nurses pledge to ―do all in my power to hold in
confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping, and family affairs coming to
my knowledge in the practice of my calling.‖ ; Health information specialists who work
with medical records, have a code of ethics that includes protecting patient privacy and
confidentiality.

Ethical codes are often defined as one of the core features of professionalism, however,
ethics alone are not a sufficient indicator of professional status, Another core feature of
professions is the ability to control information among other things, so anything that
might alter or challenge that control has important implications for professions: for
professional relationships with clients, for intra- and inter-professional relationships, as
well as for professional identity itself

Core competencies of professional practice:

 Provide patient-centered care—identify, respect, and care about patients’

differences, values, preferences, and expressed needs; relieve pain and suffering;
coordinate continuous care; listen to, clearly inform, communicate with, and
educate patients; share decision making and management; and continuously
advocate disease prevention, wellness, and promotion of healthy lifestyles,
including a focus on population health. Patients are increasingly interested in
customized treatment recommendations that are responsive to their preferences
and beliefs and reflect an understanding of their environment, including home
life, job, family relationships, cultural background, and other factors.
 Work in interdisciplinary teams—cooperate, collaborate, communicate, and
integrate care in teams to ensure that care is continuous and reliable. An
interdisciplinary team is composed of members from different professions and
occupations with varied and specialized knowledge, skills, and methods. The
team members integrate their observations, bodies of expertise, and spheres of
decision making to coordinate, collaborate, and communicate with one another in
order to optimize care for a patient or group of patients
 Employ evidence-based practice—integrate best research with clinical expertise
and patient values for optimum care, and participate in learning and research
activities to the extent feasible. it is critical for interdisciplinary health teams and
each of the disciplines to be able to tap this evidence base effectively at the point
of patient care, determining whether an intervention, such as a preventive service,
diagnostic test, or therapy, can be expected to produce better outcomes than
alternatives—including the alternative of doing nothing.
 Apply quality improvement—identify errors and hazards in care; understand and
implement basic safety design principles, such as standardization and
simplification; continually understand and measure quality of care in terms of
structure, process, and outcomes in relation to patient and community needs;
design and test interventions to change processes and systems of care, with the
objective of improving quality. quality is the ―degree to which health services for
individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes
and are consistent with current professional knowledge‖ to minimize waste,
decrease errors, increase efficiency, and ultimately improve quality of care; that
health professionals be clear about what they are trying to accomplish, what
changes they can make that will result in an improvement by being educated on
measure of quality, best practices design and test interventions, basic safety and
effective member of an interdisciplinary team and improve the quality of one’s
own performance through self-assessment and personal change.
  Utilize informatics—communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and
support decision making using information technology; the development and
application of information technology systems to problems in health care,
research, and education

Professional Designations: is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to

perform a job or task. It is often referred to as certification, trade certification, or simply
certification or qualification. Professional Designations take the form of Post-nominal
letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply
post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual
holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, office, military decoration, or honour, or
is a member of a religious institute or fraternity. An individual may use several different
sets of post-nominal letters, but in some contexts it may be customary to limit the number
of sets to one or just a few. The order in which post-nominals are listed after a name is
based on rules of precedence and what is appropriate for a given situation. Post-nominal
letters are one of the main types of name suffix. In contrast, pre-nominal letters precede
the name rather than following it. There are many examples of the types of designations
that professionals must earn or choose to earn in carrying out their activities.
Common designations include:
 Notary Public (NP)
 Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
 Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
 Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)™
 Registered Interior Designer (RID)
 Professional Engineer (PE)
 Certified Scrum Master (SCM)
 Juris Doctor (JD)
 Medical Doctor (MD)

Examples:

Medicine and health care

Post-
Name Agency
nominal

American Board of
Qualification beyond state licensure currently in 13 specialties,
Professional ABPP
including clinical, school, and forensic psychology
Psychology

Any credentialing organization that conforms to the recent

Basic Life Support
BLS-I International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation guidelines for
Instructor
Basic Life Support.
 Post-
Name Agency
nominal

The American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) is the

credentialing organization for the genetic counseling profession in
Certified Genetic the United States and Canada. The ABGC certifies and recertifies
CGC
Counselor qualified genetic counseling professionals. In this way, the work
of the ABGC protects the public and promotes the ongoing growth
and development of the genetic counseling profession.[31]

Certified Nursing
CNA Varies by state
Assistant

Certified Health
Education CHES National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.
Specialist

Credentialed
Professional CPG National Association for Professional Gerontologists
Gerontologist

Master Certified
Health Education MCHES National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.
Specialist

Accredited through the Council on Education for Public Health.

Master of Public
MPH Focuses on public health practice (rather than research) and
Health
includes health education and epidemiology.

Accredited through AMIA, a member of the Commission on

Master of Health
MHI Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information
Informatics
Management.

Senior Living Certification Commission (SLCC) is a nonprofit

Certified Director corporation, autonomous from Argentum, with its own governing
CDAL
of Assisted Living Board of Commissioners. SLCC offers a voluntary certification
program for assisted living executive directors.

Certified
Healthcare
CHSE Society for Simulation in Healthcare
Simulation
Educator

Certified CHSE-A Society for Simulation in Healthcare

Healthcare
 Post-
Name Agency
nominal

Simulation
Educator
(Advanced)

Certified
Healthcare
Simulation CHSOS Society for Simulation in Healthcare
Operations
Specialist

Certified HIPAA Basic level certification for covered entities and business
CHPA
Privacy Associate associates employees, interns, volunteers and others.

A professional doctoral degree that combines academic and

clinical education to train in a systematic and critical manner to be
Doctor of clinically oriented professionals in the field. Hence, the DHCE
DHCE
Healthcare Ethics project is a practical endeavor that focuses upon the appropriate
clinical and writing competencies to be successful professionals in
the field

Medical Laboratory
MLS American Society for Clinical Pathology
Scientist
Medical Technologist MT State Licensure, American Medical Technologists
Medical Laboratory State Licensure, American Society for Clinical Pathology,
MLT
Technician American Medical Technologists