The American Health Information Management Association's (AHIMA) newest Information Governance (IG) offering  - IGHealthRate  - will help organizations assess and score their maturity in adopting IG, a strategic imperative for improving patient care and population health, and reducing healthcare costs.

IGHealthRate  is a comprehensive assessment tool that provides measurements, benchmarks and coaching to continually improve an IG program. Aligned with AHIMA's Information Governance Adoption Model  (IGAM), IGHealthRate assesses and scores an organization using 10 IG organizational competencies. Each competency includes multiple key markers that define essential aspects of the competency that must be demonstrated to achieve maturity. The ultimate goal for healthcare organizations is to achieve IGAM Level 5  validation, which means IG has been integrated into their overall infrastructure and business processes.

"A robust and mature IG program not only ensures the quality and integrity of health information, but it directly contributes to safe, quality care. As organizations mature in their information governance, they will see  returns on investment, including improved insights and confidence in data-driven decision making," said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA. "As IG awareness continues to grow, it's important that organizations understand where their IG opportunities exist and develop a roadmap for IG maturity to realize additional benefits. As part of AHIMA's comprehensive efforts to advance IG in healthcare, IGHealthRate  will help organizations move along on this path."

A subscription-based product, IGHealthRate  gives organizations a structured approach to becoming competent in IG, achieving a level of maturity that demonstrates they value and trust their information to make a difference in patient care, in their communities and with their business partners. As part of IGHealthRate , organizations can demonstrate their IG program's excellence by having AHIMA's IGAdvisors™ validate their program's achievement in reaching IGAM Level 5 .

Organizations can then use the IGAM Level 5  emblem on their website and other organizational materials to highlight their IG implementation success.

"Achieving AHIMA IGAM Level 5  gives organizations a competitive advantage and shows the public and healthcare industry that they have successfully implemented enterprise-wide IG, that they trust their information, and that appreciation of the value and impact of information is ingrained throughout its operations," said Deborah Green, RHIA, MBA, AHIMA executive vice president, chief innovation and global services officer. "This is critical to healthcare organizations because reliable data and information are central to addressing ever-present challenges and to transforming healthcare."

When assessing an organization's IG maturity level, an IGAdvisors™ expert consulting team will conduct a comprehensive validation of the program to confirm that the 10 IG healthcare competencies are achieved.

IGHealthRate  is the third offering in a suite of IG products and services from AHIMA.

IGPulseRate™ provides organizations with a web-based tool to self-assess, at a general level, their IG adoption level. IGAdvisors™ offers expert consultation with a variety of IG services including implementation services and gap assessment.

In addition, AHIMA has developed multiple resources including a toolkit sharing best practices and resources for starting and implementing IG within an organization. AHIMA also hosts leadership forums to assist in building IG roadmaps for organizations and offers webinars as well as one-day IG Boot Camp sessions to help position participants for success with IG.

For additional information on IGPulseRate™, IGAdvisors™  and all of AHIMA's IG activities, visit www.IGIQ.org.

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About AHIMA

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) represents more than 103,000 health information professionals in the United States and around the world. AHIMA is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research, best practices and effective standards in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. AHIMA's enduring goal is quality healthcare through quality information. www.ahima.org