AHIMA releases information governance principles

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) released a framework to help organizations implement information governance during its 86^th annual Convention and Exhibit in San Diego this week.

The Information Governance Principles for Healthcare™ incorporates a set of eight principles for an accountability network to ensure complete, timely and accurate clinical and non-clinical information, according to AHIMA. These are adapted from ARMA International’s Generally Accepted Record Keeping Principles and tailored for healthcare organizations.

The eight principles are:

• Principle of Accountability: An accountable member of senior leadership shall oversee the information governance (IG) program and delegate responsibility for information management to appropriate individuals.
• Principle of Transparency: An organization’s processes and activities relating to IG shall be documented in an open and verifiable manner.
• Principle of Integrity: An IG program shall be constructed so the information generated by, managed for and provided to the organization has a reasonable and suitable guarantee of authenticity and reliability.
• Principle of Protection: An IG program must ensure that the appropriate levels of protection from breach, corruption and loss are provided for information that is private, confidential, secret, classified, essential to business continuity or otherwise requires protection.
• Principle of Compliance: An IG program shall be constructed to comply with applicable laws, regulations, standards and organizational policies.
• Principle of Availability: An organization shall maintain information in a manner that ensures timely, accurate and efficient retrieval.
• Principle of Retention: An organization shall maintain its information for an appropriate time, taking into account its legal, regulatory, fiscal, operational, risk and historical requirements.
• Principle of Disposition: An organization shall provide secure and appropriate disposition for information no longer required to be maintained by applicable laws and the organization’s policies.

“Healthcare organizations have an obligation to treat information as an asset and to define the policies and practices for governing use of that information,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA. “These principles will help organizations establish policies and determine accountabilities for governing information so that information can reliably support strategy, operations, legal and other responsibilities.”

AHIMA also released a survey on the state of IG in healthcare in conjunction with Cohasset Associates, which resulted in a white paper.