An Introduction to Information
Governance
Lydia Washington, MS. RHIA, CPHIMS
Sr. Director, Practice Excellence, AHIMA
Objectives
• Define Information Governance, Data Governance,
Enterprise Information Management & the
relationship between them
• Understand why Information Governance is
important for healthcare organizations today
• Discuss how to get started with developing an
information governance program
• Discuss personal preparation for leading an IG
initiative
What is
Information Governance?
• The specification of decision rights and an
accountability framework to ensure appropriate
behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use,
archiving and deletion of information
• The processes, roles and policies, standards and
metrics that ensure the effective and efficient use
of information in enabling an organization to
achieve its goals.
(Source: Gartner)
How does this differ from Data
Governance?
Data Governance is an important part of
Information Governance, but not all of it.
Information Governance addresses all types
of unstructured & structured information
that is collected or stored in the
organization,
whereas Data governance is focused only on
structured data.
What is Enterprise Information
Management?
All the things we do with and to
information in order to
1) reduce risks ( examples: disaster recovery/business
continuity; e-discovery/litigation response)
2) increase efficiencies (examples: enterprise
content management; workflow management)
3) achieve competitive advantages
(examples: business intelligence; predictive analytics; knowledge
creation)
Information Governance: Providing the
Means for Enterprise IM
The Goal:
The Means:
Information
Governance
Accountability
mechanism
Enterprise
Information
Management
Structure and
processes that
ensure information
is trustworthy and
actionable
Information Management vs.
Enterprise Information Management
Information
Management
(IM)
Enterprise Information
Management
(EIM)
•
•
•
•
Information management is siloed
Not integrated across other business units
Application-focused
Focuses on a single department, process,
business unit, or source of information
•
•
•
•
Collaborative information sharing
Integrated efforts across depts./business units
Not application-focused
Focus on single source of truth at enterprise level
EIM Business Drivers
Organizational memory and records
• For patient care
• For Compliance/Business/Legal needs
Operational Efficiency
• Patient safety and quality of care
• Productivity
• Competitive advantage
Cost and Value
• All information does not have the same value
• Management of retention and storage is expensive
• 30% to 50% of all information is redundant, outdated, or trivial
Information Governance in Health Care
Why Now?
- Post EHR era
- Information Management Crisis
- Current environment requires
data and information to be
leveraged and optimized
Post-EHR era
• 4700 hospitals, 453,000 EP’s* have EHRs
• HIM professionals – EHRs were
“slammed in”
• ~31% will soon adopt a second or third
system
• Poor data integrity, poor workflows,
inadequate training
•
Attestations as of Feb 2014
Current Environment Demands Solid Data
and Information
• Emphasis on quality, safety, patient
experience
• Value based payment
• ACO’s
• Patient Centered Medical Home
• Coordination of care
• Population health management
• Consumer and patient engagement
Clinical and Business Intelligence
in Healthcare
• “Intelligence”= insight—not only what, but
why and how
• Information and analytics --the core --no longer
just a byproduct
• Information and data governance are
foundational for Clinical and Business
Intelligence
• Essential for population health management
• Analytics-transforms data into insight for
improving care and reducing costs
What Is the difference between
Analytics and Analysis?
Analysis
Analytics
• Deconstructing or
• Applying scientific or
breaking a complex
quantitative methods to
issue, part, topic or
discern patterns and
substance into
provide insights
smaller parts to gain a • Statistics, algorithms,
better overall
data mining and machine
understanding
learning
• Examples:
• Examples:
– Who will need early re– Coding
– Auditing
– Workflow
assessments
– quality
measurements
admission?
– Is fraudulent activity
occurring?
– What diseases am I at
high risk for?
Information Asset Management
Lifecycle
Management
Risk
Management
and Mitigation
Level of
Service/Quality
Current State
Assessment
Information
Governance
Long Term
Planning
The Bottom Line for Information
Governance in Health Care
There is an
increasing
need to ensure
that information
is trustworthy
and actionable.
Haven’t we always done IG?
• Yes, we have some of the elements relative to
some policies/processes/structures
• No, IG is different in that it is:
– Strategic
– Enterprise focused, takes holistic approach
– Addresses risk and compliance AND using
information for business advantage
Where Are We With IG in
Healthcare?
• 85% of health care delivery
organizations have weak or no
enterprise IG initiatives*
• According to AHIMA case
studies, initial efforts on EHR
remediation
• In some organizations, efforts
are driven by internal counsel
• Is 2015 the year of IG?
What’s Under the IG Umbrella?
General:
• Data standards,
integrity and quality
• Privacy and security
• Disaster preparedness
and business continuity
• Litigation response/
e-discovery
• Lifecycle management/
preservation/ retention
Health care specific:
• Clinical documentation
improvement??
• Clinical content
management??
• Legal Health
Record/Designated
Records Set policy
• Other?
Initiating Information Governance
• Establishing IG is at minimum a 12- to
18-month effort just to get started
• Get an executive sponsor
• Start with current state assessment
 Level of trust in information
 Existing Governance Infrastructure
Assessment
 Business goals, strategy, drivers
 Cultural assessment
 Available resources (financial and
other)
What To Do First
• Build a compelling business case
– Start with your organization’s pain points, or look for a
strategic business opportunity
– Timing is critical
• Acknowledge and get others to understand that this is not
another another IT project
– Collaborate with your CIO/IT—they may agree!
• Develop a strategy
– Identify goals, define purpose
– Determine whose in charge/responsibility
– Create high level work plan
– Define measures of success
How to get started:
1. Identify pain points
6. Identify and engage
stakeholder group of
2. Make me money or
committed individuals
save me money?
(look for those who are not happy
3. Collect and assess
with or mistrust current state about
data/info quality, availability,
existing policies for gaps
security, etc.)
and deficiencies
7. Develop metrics to
4. Get and engage an
assess progress and
executive sponsor
support evaluation
5. Plan your attack
What to do after the initial push
• Develop longer term IG Strategic Plan
– Align with organization’s goals and strategy
– Determine program scope
• Identify required resources
– Staff roles and responsibilities, budget, technology
• Develop an IG framework
– Core policies, standards, principles
• Address enterprise communication and
training needs
Establishing a program--continued
• Set up audit and enforcement mechanisms
• Identify metrics, benchmarks and reporting
mechanisms
• Establish internal consulting role (contracts, IT
purchases, compliance with plan, etc.)
The 4 “R”s
Information governance insures that accurate
information gets to the
right person, for the
right reason, at the
right time to make the
right decisions.
Preparing to Lead Information Governance
• Natural fit and opportunity for growth for some HIM professionals
• Where HIM is going/growing
• Required skills/competency areas
• soft skills associated with leadership, collaboration, and
engagement, facilitation, critical thinking, problem-solving
• Strategic vs. tactical outlook and perspective
• change management and strategic communications
• project management
• information lifecycle management
• business process improvement
• understanding of healthcare regulatory compliance
• information privacy and security
• litigation and e-discovery
• understanding of business intelligence and data analytics
• information technology planning and governance
• EHR/clinical decision support
AHIMA: Leading Information
Governance for Healthcare
•
•
•
•
•
Establishing an expert advisory panel
Conducting surveys on IG in healthcare
Publishing white papers on IG
Develop principles for IG in healthcare
Developing a maturity model and selfassessment tools
• Developing, refining and providing resources to
operationalize IG
• Providing reference, webinars and forums to
raise awareness of IG
Additional Resources
AHIMA Information Governance Page
http://www.ahima.org/resources/infogov.aspx
Questions/Discussion
Lydia.Washington@ahima.org