There is a need to improve know-how and essential skills in the field as well as to embrace the culture of lifelong learning and practice. Although individual entity or personal efforts always have a positive effect on the populations served, it is the cooperation and collaboration of all segments, stakeholders and players that have broader and long-lasting effects on the health of the people.
There is presently untapped potential to create and share synergies and build on strengths among the stakeholders. Collaboration among different players can serve to enhance understanding, address the limited resources available to support resource-based learning and increase capacity.
CBAHI is mandated and centrally placed to act as an intersection of the roads to optimum healthcare quality and patient safety in Saudi Arabia, be it the private or public sector; local, regional or international collaborations in the field.
For further information on CBAHI’s collaborations, please contact
PR@cbahi.gov.sa
SHIMA
Saudi Health Information Management Associates
Health information management (HIM) is a basic and important function in delivery of effective and efficient healthcare to a populations. It performs the crucial function of acquiring, analyzing, and protecting digital and traditional medical information vital to providing quality patient care. HIM professionals are highly trained in the latest information management technology applications and understand the workflow in any healthcare provider organization from large hospital systems to the private physician practice. They are vital to the daily operations management of health information and electronic health records. Policy makers can utilize HIM to recognize the needs and gaps in the value continuum of delivery of healthcare.
CBAHI National Standards for Hospitals contain a chapter comprising 41 standards for medical records and health information management. CBAHI has made joint efforts in this regard with a group of certified specialists in HIM, representing many healthcare stakeholders in the Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia faces a shortage in HIM resources, manpower, systems and standards. Identifying this gap, CBAHI teamed up with the globally renowned American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and in early 2015 established the Saudi Health Information Management Associates (SHIMA).
Purpose
CBAHI’s collaboration with AHIMA is to establish a mutually synergistic and complementary relationship between AHIMA and CBAHI and the recently formed Saudi Health Information Management Associates to help establish and promote the development of a skilled and well-trained health information workforce in Saudi Arabia.
Goals
The primary goals of this relationship will be to establish standards of excellence in creating and implementing a core academic curricula, establish an Information Governance maturity model, create a competent and skilled health information workforce that will create new and exciting career opportunities in Saudi Arabia that has the potential to impact the quality of care outcomes in the country.
The 7 Objectives of SHIMA
- Nurturing the scientific and professional thought in the field of health information (medical records) management;
- Health categorization (coding) of diseases, surgical operations and health interventions as well as enhancing the scientific and occupational performance of the association members;
- Affording the opportunity for workers in the departments of medical records, health information categorization and health statistics, to contribute to effecting the scientific and occupational advancement in these areas;
- Facilitating the exchange of scientific yield, and scientific and occupational ideas in the area of the association’s interest among the concerned institutions and authorities, locally or abroad;
- Giving advice, conducting necessary studies to improve performance in the association’s fields of interest (health information management and health coding) at the different institutions and authorities;
- Contributing to setting, implementing and maintaining the standards for professional practice in the specialty of health information management and health coding;
- Contributing to raising the public’s awareness of health.
For further information on SHIMA, please contact
albishih@moh.gov.sa