Our History 

Founded in 1946, the House of Delegates is a long-standing, decision-making body of our professional association. Delegates have a critical role in guiding and governing the health information management (HIM) profession. In 2007, the House of Delegates implemented a structure comprised of six standing house teams representing individual facets of health information management. This structure allowed for more tactical work, engagement, and valuable contributions. Team charges were set by the AHIMA Board of Directors and accomplished over time. 

In 2012, the HoD implemented a new, forward-thinking approach to the operations and configuration of the House of Delegates. The diagram below illustrates how we are currently organized. This allows for more agility and diverse input for strategic planning to better address and meet the needs of our members, profession, and industry. 

Governing the Profession 

We gather input from the Envisioning Collaborative consisting of one selected delegate or non-delegate representative per state to help inform the Board in setting strategy. We have a House Leadership Team consisting of one CSA delegate per state, divided into three functional workgroups. Along with subject matter experts from other relevant areas, delegates not on the Leadership Team or Envisioning Collaborative will join Task Forces. As issues come through the House Leadership pipeline and are vetted, delegates will be notified and assembled to address them.

This approach will position the House of Delegates to move more agilely to address the issues facing our profession today, tomorrow, and in the future and will allow the House to make the best use of time and effort for our delegates to govern the profession.

House Leadership will serve as a steering committee consisting of 52 CSA delegates. They ensure effective House of Delegates operations through alignment with strategy and provide oversight to the designated task forces. The leadership team will divide into the following task forces to address specific intiatives:

• Operations and direction
• Task form development
• Project management and follow up

House Leadership members will identify best practices, document performance, and foster innovation and agility in decision making.

Co-chairs of House Leadership: Sandra Huyck and Jennifer McManis 

The envisioning collaborative serves as a "think tank" comprised of delegates, subject matter experts, and industry leaders bringing forward emerging issues and trends that can impact the HIM profession.

Another way to think about this collaborative is a group of professionals conducting an environmental scan. Their charge is seeing the big picture by looking at our environment (internally and externally) and by gathering the data, consolidating the information, and validating the results.

This group provides a robust exchange of perspectives, innovation, and ideas that will enable us to make sound decisions to help generate strategic solutions advancing the profession.

To ensure we have a balance of short term and long term scanning, the Envisioning Collaborative will be split into two groups. The Blue group will focus on long range vision. The Green group will focus on shorter range vision. Below is a breakdown of each group and their deliverables.

Task forces create a member focused objective. They are the doers of the important work by addressing a define set of charges on a mega issue. Task force members will be comprised of delegates, subject matter experts, and industry leaders.

Throughout the year, a call to serve will be sent to delegates, subject matter experts, and industry leaders for their service. This will allow for more flexibility and agility in the completion of projects.