HIM professionals play an increasingly important role in long term and post-acute and care as provider organizations adopt electronic health records/technologies and focus on data quality and reporting. Numerous industry activities and collaborations are occurring in this sector to advance key priorities. AHIMA and its members actively participate and monitor key industry activities to communicate the HIM perspective. As EHRs increase in adoption, the skill set of HIM professionals in LTC facilities and Home Health Agencies will be even more critical in managing electronic records and supporting compliance, coding, reporting, and quality initiatives.

Long Term & Post Acute Care HIT Collaborative

AHIMA is proud to be the convener of leading long term & post acute care (LTPAC) organizations to advance health IT.  The collaborative's goal is to work together to advance HIT policy, plan and host an annual summit, and publish an Health IT road map.

Learn more at www.LTPACHealthIT.org. 

Industry and Standards Activities

• Long Term & Post Acute Care HIT Summit and Roadmap
  AHIMA is proud to be the convener for a collaborative of associations stakeholders from post-acute and LTC organizations to focus on critical HIT initiatives for aging services. The associations recognized common interests and visions in long term care and set a course of collaboration to improve the planning for and use of health information technology. Since 2005 a summit has been hosted annually and "final reports" were produced identifying priorities and action items for a consensus agenda. The collaborative of associations has increasingly worked together to influence industry initiatives outside of the annual summit to advance the priorities identified in the roadmap.
• 2010 LTPAC HIT Summit,  June 7 – 8, 2010, Baltimore, MD
• Coming in 2010! 2010 - 2012 Roadmap for Long Term and Post-Acute Care Health IT
• 2007 - 2009 Road Map for Long Term Care Health IT
• 2005 Road Map for Long Term Care Health IT

• HL7 Nursing Home EHR-System Functional Profile Standard
  In 2007, a joint workgroup developed the LTC EHR-S functional profile standard (based on the HL7 EHR-S standard) to provide the foundation for CCHIT to develop product certification criteria for nursing home EHRs.  It is a joint effort of participants from: two health information standards development organizations -- Health Level Seven (HL7) and the National Council of Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP); American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA); and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).  
  
  The Nursing Home EHR-System Functional Profile is registered with HL7 EHR Technical committee and balloted through the HL7 process. The registered profile can be accessed at www.hl7.org/ehr.

• Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT)
  CCHIT placed Long Term and Post Acute Care on their roadmap for development of EHR system certification criteria. Certification of LTCPAC products begin July 2010. CCHIT is a certification body for electronic health record systems and their networks. It is an independent, voluntary, private sector initiative. The mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating an efficient, credible and sustainable certification program. CCHIT is composed of commissioners from a variety of healthcare stakeholders and consists of work groups for the development and refinement of certification criteria.

• Long Term Care Consortium (LTCC)
  A group of long term care provider organizations and select associations collaborated to jointly develop resources. Originally formed to focus on HIPAA, the consortium has evolved to provide leadership and guidance to the long term care profession utilizing the member organizations' collective knowledge, expertise and information resources to reduce the overall burden of compliance through collaboration on those initiatives that are common to the profession. Resources include ARRA-HITECH, privacy tools, ICD-9-CM, records retention, risk assessment and security tools, and others.

• Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes
  Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes is a new coalition based, two-year campaign that launched in September 2006. The campaign is reinvigorating efforts to improve the quality of care and quality of life for those living or recuperating in America's nursing homes.

Resources & Links

• Toolkit for State Health Information Exchange
  State HIT plans are required to address vulnerable populations.  This toolkit was provided to ONC as a resource for state planning regarding vulnerable populations in behavioral health, post-acute and long-term care.
  

• LTC Health Information Practice & Documentation Guidelines
  A group of experts developed practice guidelines for the LTC industry on health information practices and documentation in 2001. The guidelines are continuously updated and includes management of electronic records and information.

Organizations and Associations

• Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes
• American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA)
• American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators (AANAC)
• American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA)
• American Health Care Association (AHCA)
• American Health Quality Association (AHQA)
• American Health Quality Foundation
  
• American Hospital Association (AHA)
• American Medical Directors Association (AMDA)
• California Healthcare Foundation (CHCF)
• Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST)
• Commonwealth Fund
• Continua Health Alliance
• Health Management Strategies (HMS)
• Institute of Clinical Outcomes Research (ICOR)
• InterRAI
• Long Term Care Pharmacy Alliance (LTCPA)
• National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA)
• National Association for the Support of Long-Term Care (NASL)
• National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL)
• National PACE Association (NPA)
  
• Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC)

Access all AHIMA Resources on Long-Term and Post-Acute Care