Cathy's Corner - February 2007

Greetings and Welcome back!

I hope the last four months have been productive for you. From the Headquarters perspective it’s been extremely busy with many exciting developments. I'll mention only a couple of those in this article.

In the inaugural newsletter I mentioned changes to the CHR Patient Care Component (PCC) data software application and our Patient Encounter forms (which I'll just reference as the BCHR for brevity!). The changes were made to: Increase use of Specific (not “other”) Health Problem Codes; Decrease use of Health Promotion/Disease Prevention (coded as “OH”) as a catch all category (sometimes up to 38% of CHR patient services/activities); and Decrease use of Dashes as a Default (sometimes up to 35% of CHR services/activities!).

All of these Forms have been approved by IHS Headquarters for distribution and use: the modified Patient Encounter Form, IHS 535, also called the Comprehensive Form; the new abbreviated version, IHS 535-1, also called the Abbreviated Form; and the new Group Encounter Form, IHS 962, also called the Group Form.

These electronically fillable forms will be available to download by mid-February in both PDF and Microsoft Word formats. Click on the forms link on the IHS CHR Program website at www.ihs.gov/NonMedicalPrograms/chr/. They'll also be available on the IHS and HHS official forms websites. IHS CHR Area Office Coordinators will also fax forms if needed.

Final beta testing for the newest iteration of the BCHR should be complete by mid-February, and results from the beta test sites are showing great success! We plan to release the software "patch" from IHS OIT by the end of February or early March. Once that patch is released, it will go to Area IT Managers and to the various IHS and Tribal facilities which utilize the Resource Patient Management System (RPMS) for installation at each location. At that point forms and upgraded CHR PCC are available for use. We plan to describe how BCHR benefits patients, CHRs and Tribal Health Managers in the next newsletter.

As with any new tool, people have to be trained on how to use it. Several months ago we began training CHRs from each of the areas on the new coding changes, data entry and report generation so that they in turn can train their Tribal/Area CHR colleagues. The CHR volunteers who will serve as Instructors comprise the group we’ve called the Train the Trainers Training Committee – too long a name, hence 4TC! In the next newsletter we'll identify 4TC members and we hope to list Area trainings being planned and scheduled even now.

I've stated this before but it always bears repeating – use of the CHR PCC software application will tremendously benefit your patients as information is passed immediately into their charts, CHRs will receive the credit for work they've performed with the rest of the health care team, and your performance – the outstanding work you do as evidenced by data generated in the application – will help justify the importance and vitality of CHRs to Congress!

Safe travels in your journey. Wado! Thank you, CHRs!

Cathy Stueckemann, JD, MPA
Public Health Advisor / National Director,
Community Health Representative Program