The best way to deal with change is to go
out and meet it head on, says Anna Lattu, RHIA. If we sit
back and wait, change happens to us and we miss the
opportunity to influence it. “It’s much more important to be
up there and be part of change and be proactive,” she says.
That’s what Lattu does as director of
information management services at Minnesota State Operated
Services, a behavioral health agency in St. Paul, MN. And
that’s what she does as part of a new AHIMA program that
connects e-HIM® experts with volunteer
opportunities within CSAs and with individual AHIMA members.
Lattu is a member of ACE, the Action
Community for e-HIM® Excellence. The program
mobilizes AHIMA’s network of HIM experts and change agents.
It identifies, prepares, engages, mentors, and recognizes
those working to transform HIM practice and connects them
with volunteer and career-building opportunities.
How to Get Involved
ACE members make change happen. They apply
expertise, experience, and leadership skills within their
organizations, communities, and states. Current ACE members
are participating in regional health information exchange
initiatives, leading organizational data quality improvement
efforts, and speaking at state and national HIM conferences.
Other ACE members have testified on HIM issues before
government agencies and mentored students and new
professionals.
Lattu fights hard for projects she believes
in, often convincing, educating and negotiating with her
clinical, technical, and administrative colleagues to garner
their support. One project she is working to bring to her
facility is a telehealth system, which would enable
providers to communicate with patients through interactive
television.
Individuals join the ACE Challenge through
recommendation or self-nomination. An online self-assessment
helps them gauge their expertise and experience. If they
join ACE, they make a commitment to volunteering.
Call on ACE!
ACE members like Lattu act as a “preferred
pool of experts,” available for mentoring, speaking,
writing, testifying, and more. A CSA can seek an ACE member
to give a presentation at a state meeting, for example.
Individuals can request mentoring on an e-HIM initiative
they face at work.
You can learn more about ACE by visiting
www.ahima.org/ace.
There you’ll find an online nomination form and the
self-assessment. A directory of ACE members available for
mentoring also appears there. CSA leaders may access a
directory of ACE members available for presentations. To set
up access to the directory, they can call Pam Garcia in
AHIMA’s Volunteer Services department at 312-233-1162 or by
e-mail at pamela.garcia@ahima.org
