Specialty Groups Transition to Communities of Practice

With the help of the Internet, specialty groups will transition to Communities of Practice (CoPs). The six specialty groups: Ambulatory Care, Assembly on Education, Behavioral Health, Long Term Care, Quality Management, and the Society for Clinical Coding are now CoPs. Through Communities of Practice, AHIMA members can connect up with other members who specialize in these areas of practice at no additional cost. Non members of AHIMA may subscribe to the Coding (SCC) community. For more information, click here.

The technology tools, such as e-mail, electronic calendars, and discussion forums, will make participation as easy as a click of a mouse. AHIMA members will have access to a wealth of Internet-based information, including electronic practice resources, the Library, and the membership directory.

One group, the Assembly on Education, is a private Community of Practice. Because members share test question and answer keys they wouldn't want made public, there's a need to maintain confidentiality by limiting membership in that group. The Assembly on Education will be the exception to the rule: other communities will be open to all AHIMA members at no additional dues. To join Assembly on Education, please send your request to Pam Garcia at pamela.garcia@ahima.org. Include your name, member number, job title, and educational institution in your request to join.

The benefits of belonging to specialty groups are transferred to the Communities of Practice. Members have a chance to meet other HIM professionals with similar interests, and they'll have a forum to share ideas, job tools, job descriptions, and other resources. The CoPs will also empower members by offering other benefits traditional specialty groups can't match. For one, the Web is location-independent. Members can "meet" on the Internet wherever and whenever they want-whether they live in Honolulu or Hartford. Plus, members will save money. Extra dues for specialty group membership have been eliminated. AHIMA members can participate in any or all Communities for the same price: free. Best of all, there's more flexibility. Small groups of interested and motivated volunteer leaders will moderate the Communities, rather than elected boards. So come check out the new CoPs—Ambulatory Care, Assembly on Education, Behavioral Health, Long Term Care, Quality Management, and Coding (SCC).

• Society for Clinical Coding Web site—represents more than 2,000 coding and data quality professionals with legislative, educational, and practice initiatives that advance the application of quality clinical data.

[ About AHIMA | Schools/Jobs | Professional Development | HIM Resources | Foundation | Help | Site Map ]

Copyright © 2008 by the American Health Information Management Association. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, reprinted, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the association. All contents, including images and graphics, on this Web site are copyrighted by AHIMA unless otherwise noted. You must obtain permission to reproduce any information, graphics, or images from this site. Permission must also be obtained to link to any of AHIMA's Web sites. To request permission, fill out the AHIMA Permissions Request or contact permissions@ahima.org.