Fusion Productions - Integrating Meetings, Learning & Technology

Organization

The American Health Information Management Association represents 50,000 members who work with health information in a variety of health care settings such as hospitals, physician offices, ambulatory care facilities, managed care facilities, long-term care facilities, consulting firms, information system vendors, colleges and universities, insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies and rehabilitation centers. Structured as a federation, AHIMA has 52 component state associations plus a growing international constituency.

Challenge

Similar to many associations, in 1999 AHIMA recognized they were at a crossroads. The rapidly changing and diversity of the health care work environment demanded faster and more adaptable solutions than traditional means would allow. As a result members:

• Wanted to be involved, but not in the traditional committee, board, governance model which required too much time.
• Did not understand or value the "political structure."
• Needed immediate solutions such as timely best practices and problem solving conversations that addressed their increasing work place pressures.
• Worked in such diverse work settings that one "seminar" could not fit all and was never timely enough. Thus, often the solution was not what products and services were provided but “how.”

The challenge was to find a solution that would leverage their growing community asset to strengthen the health care information industry and profession, provide timely and customized answers to members questions, and to allow those clusters of members in the various work settings or with a common issue to network at a higher level of value.

Solution

AHIMA's Communities of Practice provided a web based alternative to the traditional networking with peers and resources such as career development while providing the added value of more timely responses, fluid interaction, and expanded resources “how” and “when” the members needed it. While they have evolved over three phases beginning in 2001, functionality included:

• Full integration with AMS system
• Complete personalization such as:
• • My home page
  • My communities
  • COP mail
  • Search and advanced search of my communities(or all)
  • My body of knowledge
  • Personal calendar and personal links Across Communities
• Across Communities
• • Update profile
  • Explore/join a community
  • Suggest a community
  • Link to body of knowledge
  • Internal email
  • Member search
  • File sharing
• Within Communities
• • Online chat
  • Discussion forums
  • Document sharing
  • Community news
  • FAQ
  • Community links
  • Search

Results

By February 2004 AHIMA’s Communities of Practice included 200 communities and over 300 facilitators. Communities developed focusing on key issues and practices affecting the day-to-day needs of its members. Five types of communities have evolved:

• Issue based (e.g., implementing new regulations)
• Role based (e.g., health care privacy officers, positions)
• Setting based (e.g., physician clinics, hospital, private practice)
• Geography based (e.g., state or local groups, or chapters)
• Governance related (e.g., facilitating the work of volunteer groups including voting and balloting)

At the same time, 25,000 of its 48,000 members had visited the communities.

Another by product of Communities of Practice was the attraction of new AHIMA members, as evidenced by increased membership of 8% for the past 2 years. Surveys of Communities users by AHIMA have yielded the following positive comments:

• “It gives me an automatic network of peers for sharing similar practice issues."
• "It is beneficial to see what questions are out there and how others are coping with their problems."
• “It provides instant information when most needed."
• "Questions and situations that I hadn't considered are brought to my attention and add to my knowledge when I use the communities of practice.”

Lessons Learned

Successful Communities of Practice are those which meet the direct needs and are driven by the members. Specifically:

• Functionality and thus technology will evolve as members learn the real value and usage increases.
• Understand that while it is technology driven, not all members are technology savvy. User interface is critical.
• It is all about personalization and ease of use.
• Volunteers and member-driven strategies make communities work.
• A major benefit is capturing new information on emerging areas.
• Great facilitators monitor, encourage, organize and start discussions.
• Communities prompt face-to-face networking.