In the growth of scientific medicine, Medical Records (now called, Health Information) have played an important role as a tool and basis for planning patient care besides Medical Education, Research and Legal protection. Manual Medical Records have undergone tremendous transformations as the healthcare policy makers and healthcare providers have realized that good healthcare could be possible only when scientific, comprehensive and integrated Medical Records are maintained from birth to death including birth information, immunizations, child growth and periodic health problems and remedies provided.

1. HEALTH
INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT
FOR
NON-ICT PROFESSIONALS
By
Victor Chibueze Ijeoma, rhim.
Health Data Analyst; FCT Hospitals Management Board,
Abuja, Nigeria.
chibuezeijeoma@gmail.com

2. Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, participants should be able to:
1. Appreciate the importance of Health Information in Healthcare Delivery.
2. Demonstrate the ability to Collect and Record Health Data Using Appropriate Tools.
3. Analyze Health Data & Present a Statistical Report to inform Strategic Planning
process.
4. Suggest ways of Improving Health Information Management practice.

3. Our Agenda!!!
1. What Do You Know About Health Information?
2. What About Health Information Management?
3. Health Information: Where Do We Get them?
4. What Are the Tools Required To Acquire Them?

4. Our Agenda Cont’d
5. What Do We Know About Bed Utilization Statistics?
6. Important Variables in Calculating Bed Utilization Statistics.
7. Group Work.
8. How can We Improve Health Information Management practice in our
facilities?
9. Conclusion.

7. Introduction
In the growth of scientific medicine, Medical Records (now
called, Health Information) have played an important role
as a tool and basis for planning patient care besides
Medical Education, Research and Legal protection.
Manual Medical Records have undergone tremendous
transformations as the healthcare policy makers and
healthcare providers have realized that good healthcare
could be possible only when scientific, comprehensive
and integrated Medical Records are maintained from
birth to death including birth information, immunizations,
child growth and periodic health problems and remedies
provided.

8. This has lead many nations in improving the
Medical Record system (now known also as
Health Information System) by developing
international and accreditation standards,
disease classifications to improve the quality
of medical records to provide best possible
healthcare to entire community and
population as a whole.

9. Other Things We Should Know About
Health Information.
 Health Information can also refer to Health Records or
Medical Records, as the case may be; (Mogli,2016).
 Processed data relating to a person’s medical history,
including symptoms, diagnoses, procedures, and
outcomes.

10. A Patient’s Health Information can be
categorized into:
Personal Identification Data; e.g. Name, Unit
No., Date of Birth, Address, etc.
Medical/Clinical Data; e.g. Diagnostic test
results, Medication records, Inpatient
Discharge summary, etc.

11. Health Information Defined!
Health Information can thus be defined as an orderly written report of the
patient which contains the identification data, history, physical data,
progress notes, lab, radiology findings, treatment including medical and
surgical which when complete, contains sufficient data to justify the
investigations, diagnosis, treatment, length of stay, and end result of the
treatment given.
In other words, Health Information can be defined as
What, Where, When, Who, How and Why of patient care.

12. The Purpose & Importance of Health Information in
Healthcare Delivery
1.Communication Purposes: It provides a means of
communication among all authorized healthcare providers.
2. Evaluation of Patient care: It furnishes documentary evidence of
care provided to the patient.
3. Continuity of Care: It serves as an easy reference for providing
continuity in patient care.
4. Management and Strategic Planning of healthcare facilities
and services: It supplies clinical and administrative data for
administrative, financial and other purposes.
5. Medico-Legal purposes: It protects the patient, physician,
hospital and others in the event of possible litigation.
6.Statistical purposes;
7. Research and Education;
8. Historical purposes.

13. Values of Health Information/Medical Records to Different
Stakeholders
To The Patient:
 Present and past state of health
 Analysis of present illness in terms of diagnosis and prognosis
 Consultation opinion
 Serve as reference
 Accessibility of old record for physician to review and analyze previous illness
 Quick treatment- reducing the length of stay
 Allergies and drug reactions are noted
 Previous surgical procedures are recorded and patient education is noted
 Protect from over prescription, unnecessary surgical exploration, and repetition of
investigations
 Protect from legal action
 Assist kith and kin in settling property litigation
 Obtaining blood group
 Obtaining medical certificates, such as birth, death, insurance, and so forth

14. To The Physician.
Yields information about previous treatment, reactions,
allergies, drugs, investigations, methods of treatment,
and results of care.
Suggests newer lines of investigations and treatment
Evaluation of drugs for their clinical effect
Comparative studies
Medico legal concerns
Teaching and research

15. To The Healthcare Institution:
For Evaluation of the competency of the medical,
nursing, and ancillary staff (Quality Assurance)
For Justifying the investigations, diagnosis, and results of
treatment
Medico legal purpose and defense in malpractice suits
Basis for preparing operating budgets
Administrative control over functional activities
Basis for distribution of expenses when computing costs
of operation
Statistical data for controlling bed allocation, infection,
mortality rates, and length of stay
Planning for additional facilities, staff, equipment,
improving Medical Education and Patient care.

16. Health Information: Where Do We Get them?

17. What About Health Information
Management?
 Simply Put: It is the application of Information Management practices
to Health and Healthcare.
 Can be defined as the practice of acquiring, recording, analyzing,
storing and protecting digital and traditional medical information
which are vital to providing quality patient care.

18. It is the process of
maintaining, storing and
retrieving patient health
information in accordance
with laid down procedures.
etc., etc.

19. HIM professionals are highly trained to understand the workflow
in any healthcare provider organization from large hospital
systems to the private physician practice. They are vital to the
daily operations and management of health information and
even Electronic Health Records (EHR) system. They ensure a
patient’s health information and records are complete, accurate,
and protected.

20. Major Responsibilities of the HIM
Professionals
HIM professionals are responsible for:
 The Quality of patient’s Health Information:- Accuracy,
Completeness, Neatness, Timeliness, etc (Qualitative Analysis).
 The Integrity of patient’s Health Information:- Confidentiality,
Dignity, etc.
 Protection of patient’s health information:- Safety, Security, etc.

21. Health Information: Where Do HIM
Officers Get them in the Hospital?
 The Patient’s Case Folder
 GOPD Registers
 Consultative Clinics’ Registers
 Inpatient Registers
 Admission & Discharge Registers
 Nurses’ Report Books
 Accident & Emergency Registers
 NHIMS Registers;
 Etc etc.

22. Tools For Collection of
Health Information
A.Cards:-
 Patient’s Hand Cards
 OPD Cards
 Diagnostic Index Cards
 Operation Index Cards
 ANC Cards; etc etc

23. B. Registers:-
GOPD Registers
Inpatient Registers
Admission & Discharge
Registers, etc etc.

24. C. Forms
Used mainly by Nurses and Doctors.
They include:
Continuation Sheet,
Treatment Sheet,
Nursing Process Record,
Admission Notice,
Inpatient Notes,
Discharge Summary, etc.

25. Hospital Statistics (Bed Utilization Statistics)
Health Information Managers collect data about both
Outpatients and Inpatients on a daily basis.
Hospitals make use of statistics:
 To monitor the volume of patients treated daily,
weekly, monthly, etc.
To Monitor and Improve outcomes of treatment.
For Facility Planning,
For Human Resource Planning & Management; etc
Health Records are the primary source of data used in
compiling Health and Hospital statistics.

26. Important Variables Used in Calculating Bed
Utilization Statistics
Bed Counts (Available Beds)
Available Bed Days
Total Patient Days
Percentage of Bed Occupancy
Average Length of Stay (ALS)
Turnover Interval
Bed Turnover (Throughput)

27. Average Length of Stay (ALS)
The average number of days that patients (exclusive of
newborn) remained in the hospital as inpatients.
A statistical calculation often used for health planning
purposes.
There are two methods of calculating Average Length of
Stay. The formula for each method follows:
 METHOD 1:
ALS (In Days) = (Total Discharge Days / Total Discharges)
 METHOD 2:
ALS (In Days) = (Total Inpatient Days / Total Admissions)

28. Key Definitions:
TOTAL DISCHARGES - The number of inpatients released
from the hospital during the time period examined. This figure
includes deaths.
TOTAL INPATIENT DAYS - Sum of each daily inpatient census
for the time period examined. For instance, if the time period
examined was a week, and the daily inpatient census was as
follows: Day 1=30, Day 2=28, Day 3=26, Day 4=35, Day 5=35,
Day 6=25, Day 7=25, then the total inpatient days of care for
that week would be 30 + 28 + 26 + 35 + 35 + 25 + 25 or 204
total inpatient days.
Inpatient Days are days of service for those patients admitted
during a specified time period.

29. Key Definitions Cont’d:
TOTAL DISCHARGE DAYS - The sum of the
number of days spent in the hospital for each
inpatient who was discharged during the time period
examined regardless of when the patient was
admitted.
For instance, if 5 persons were discharged after 10
days in the hospital and 3 were discharged after 7
days in the hospital, the number of discharge days
for these patients would be 71 days (5 x 10 = 50, 3
x 7 = 21, 50 + 21 = 71).

30. Key Definitions Cont’d
 TOTAL ADMISSIONS - The total number of individuals formally
accepted into inpatient units of the hospital during the time
period examined. Births are excluded from this figure unless the
infant was admitted to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
Because of the different data items used to calculate average
length of stay in the two methods, it is important to note that
there may be significantly different results depending on the type
of facility for which average length of stay is being calculated. In a
general acute care hospital 1 where the number of admissions
and discharges during any given time period are fairly similar, the
results from these two different calculation methods will also be
similar.

31. Percentage of Bed Occupancy
Inpatient Bed Occupancy Ratio
 The proportion of inpatient beds occupied; defined as the ratio
of service days to inpatient bed count days in the period under
consideration.
 Usually Expressed as a Percentage.
 Formula 1:
 Percentage of Bed Occupancy for a Period=
Total inpatient service days for a period
—————————————–––––––––X100
Total IP bed count X number of days in period

32. Percentage of Bed Occupancy(cont’d)
 Formula 2:
Occupied Bed Days (OBD)
——————————— X100
Available Bed Days (ABD)
OBD = OB X Dip

33. Group Work
A given 205-Bed Capacity General Hospital in
FCT recorded the following Inpatient records
for the Month of September,2017:
Inpatient Records Male Ward Female
Ward
Admissions
(Inpatients Served)
1539 2461
Discharges 1426 2211
Deaths 3 5

34. Calculate the following:
1. Percentage of Bed Occupancy and Explain How you arrive
at it.
2. Total No. of Discharges and Explain How you arrive at it.
3. If Percentage of Bed Occupancy was more than 100%,
what are the possible causes of it?
4. What are the implications of this to the patient?
5. Make Recommendations to Management based on a
Percentage of Bed Occupancy that is greater than 100%
recorded for 12 Consecutive Months.
6. Calculate Average Length of Stay (ALS) for the month and
how can you interpret it? What Is the significance of
prolonged Length of Stay?

35. Calculate: Percentage of Bed Occupancy
 Percentage of Bed Occupancy for a Period=
Total inpatient service days for a period
—————————————–––––––––X100
Total IP bed count X number of days in period
Total inpatient service days= Total No. of
Inpatients served for the period = 4000
Total IP bed count = 205
No. Of Days In Period = 30

36. % Of Bed Occupancy:
4000
——— X100
205X30
= 4000
—— X100
6150
= 0.65 X100 = 65%

37. How can We Improve Health Information
Management practice in our facilities?
The Switch!!!

39. The New Trend……..

40. Conclusion.
With the current application of Information
Technology in Health Information Management, HIM
professional who want to remain relevant in the
profession, must have to acquire the right HIT
skills.
Current Areas of Specialty include:
Health Data Analytics,
Electronic Coding,
Electronic Health Records
Health Informatics
Quality Control, etc.