Looking to the Future, Staying Busy in the Present

Travis Bankhead — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:21:00 GMT

So I know this is a little early and all, but I just want to express how excited I am for the AHIMA Convention in October. The four of us who are staying together booked our flight and hotel in February, and yes I know how crazy early that is, but we could not wait! I also just got done booking our transportation from the airport to downtown hotels and it was only $18 per person/round trip. I think that was a steal! On the other hand, I just registered for the convention as well and I did think that the $75 student fee was a little high. I thought I would not be more than around $50 at the most. I mean we are students on a budget here and we're flying across the country as well. On any note, I know it will all be worth it and I cannot wait to go. We're also trying to do a lot of fundraisers so that we can reduce the cost of everyone going. I think there are about 18 of us from my class who are going. If anyone has any good ideas for fundraising, please do share.

So now back to the present at school. We are in the middle of writing our epidemiology research proposals and just the amount that you have to read is astonishing. I have been reading so many different articles and journals that my eyes are going to fall out, but I am excited to be in the process of completing mine. I'm doing my proposal on children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and the testing of their parents in order to see if they have a very mild course of the disease, and if so how it would be properly diagnosed. It's a very interesting topic that pulled at my heartstrings when I stumbled upon it in probably the most unconventional way, by reading my favorite celebrity site, PerezHilton. Well no matter how I found it, it just hit me that this is what my project should be on.

In other areas, my clinical last week was at a local drug and rehab facility. I went there with one other classmate for 2 days where we went over quality, utilization, and risk management. It was a lot different than I thought. It wasn't as fast paced as I thought it was and there wasn't a lot of chaos. We were with the Director of Medical Records, Quality Improvement, Health & Safety, and Utilization Management. She was wonderful in explaining all of the issues that come up in the facility and we were particularly interested in the legal cases she has to deal with. Of course being that the facility deals with drug and alcohol rehabilitation, the records are under very strict regulations because of HIPAA. It was amazing all of the cases that people would try to get the patients record and it would have nothing to do with their case. These requests were of course denied and I'm sure there were a lot of angry attorneys out there.

Well I don't want to ramble on forever, and I really should get ample rest before my clinical again tomorrow. I'm off to watch TV until I doze off and pray that I have extra time in the morning in order to grab some Starbucks

Confessions of an HIM Student : patient privacy

Looking to the Future, Staying Busy in the Present