AHDI Rides into Nashville
by Brenda Wynn, CMT
   As a first time member attending the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s 31st Annual Convention and Exposé, I had an experience I’ll never forget. Each day was packed full with educational sessions and meetings with the different components of AHDI. It was a good thing I’d made up a schedule. Without it, I would’ve missed something. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel was the venue for this year’s ACE. What a magnificent facility. I was amazed at how huge it was. It took a couple days to learn my way around. The staff was friendly and polite. I arrived earlier than expected on Tuesday, July 28th and, after checking in, I slipped in during the last couple hours of the Board of Directors meeting. It was great seeing my co-workers and others I’d met during the Advocacy Summit in June. The BOD discussed what’s been going on since then and plans for the rest of the year. I met with my ACE mentor, who just happened to be Betty Honkonen, CMT, AHDI-F, AHDI’s immediate past president. Although we didn’t get to spend much time together with all of her busy schedule during ACE, she made me feel most welcome and helped me out when she could. I was thrilled seeing this year’s president, Susan Lucci, RHIT, CMT, AHDI-F, giving Betty a pin commemorating her year as president. I know it was a proud moment for her. Later that same day, there was the Town Hall Meeting, which was packed with familiar faces and several first-timers just like me. A skit was put on where a panel of 4 members answered the question “What does AHDI do for the working MT?” I came away from that with several things I could tell those MTs I know who aren’t members. It amazed me that there are MTs in this country who don’t even know our organization exists. I got up early the following morning and attended the House of Delegates annual business meeting as an observer in the “gallery.” There was a lot of talk about the different initiatives. One initiative called The Power of 10 created quite a bit of excitement when it was introduced during the meeting. AHDI wants to ask for a donation of just $10 from 10,000 MTs by 2010, the money going toward the organization’s legislative agenda. During the HOD, the 2010 BOD and Speaker of the House candidates were introduced and were asked some tough questions on several different issues. They all did a great job under the pressure of having just a minute and a half to answer each question. That evening, I got dressed up in my cowgirl outfit and attended the Roundhouse Roundup and first-time attendees Reception. The line dancing was fun to watch and the country music was great. We all had a great time relaxing and mingling with each other. During the reception, WebMedx gave out cowboy hats and bandanas. Inside each hat, the company had a note written that a certain amount of money would be given to three people caught wearing the hats for the next three days. The educational sessions started the next morning with an inspirational presentation called Fire Up Your Life. The presenter, actress and former Miss Hawaii, Donna Hartley, spoke about how surviving a plane crash in California in 1978 changed her life. It was uplifting and I’d recommend hearing her presentation or reading her book with the same title as the presentation. Later that morning, the exhibit hall opened. Lunch was delicious and relaxing. Vendors displaying speech recognition software and offering MT courses and even MT employment. I attended a meeting of the Editorial Content Team with Lea Sims and Kristin Wall as well as the other members. Susan Lucci also attended. We discussed ideas for next year’s publications, Plexus and Health Data Matrix. It was fun bouncing ideas off of each other. The rest of the afternoon was spent in two educational sessions: How the EHR can Deliver Measureable Cost & Quality and How Well Do You Measure Up? Mary Reeves, RHIA, showed us how the electronic healthcare record (EHR) had cut down both on errors and hospital costs, and that, although the EHR had cut down on the hospital’s MT staff, it hadn’t completely eliminated them. During the second educational session, Dale Kivi, MBA, talked about adopting set standards and quality assurance for the different types of documents being transcribed. The evening was topped off with the “Knowledge is Everything” Scrabble Challenge & Pizza Party. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that not many showed up to play, but I had a great time and met some new friends while there. Morning coffee in the exhibit hall started off the next day’s activities. I got the surprise of my life while there by meeting country music star and actress Reba McIntyre. She’s a very nice lady and as friendly as she has always appeared. It was thrilling to meet her. I also took time out to meet with the other members of the Online Association of AHDI. It was great meeting Pati Howard, CMT, AHD-F, and Judy Mauldin, CMT, AHDI-F, for the first time in person. The next two hours were spent listening to a presentation on how healthcare has changed over the years and how it’s expected to change rapidly once the EHR is in place. There was a lively discussion with Bruce Mast, Peter Preziosi, PhD, CAE, Susan Lucci, RHIT, CMT, AHDI-F, and Linda Yaniszewski as panel members answering questions from the audience as well as from online members who were present in the first ever webcast meeting. During lunch back in the exhibit hall, I got another surprise. Remember those cowboy hats? I was caught wearing mine during lunch and received $50! I was thrilled. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent in meetings with the Legislative Issues Group (LIG) and in the Component Leadership Workshop. The LIG talked about what’s been going on since the Dewey Square Group lobbying firm had been hired to take AHDI’s message to our legislators. I have to tell you that a lot has happened since then and there’s a lot that needs to be done before next year’s Advocacy Summit. It’s an exciting time. During the Component Leadership Workshop, we spoke about the difficulty of recruiting and keeping members and how hard it is to get them involved. There were some great ideas tossed around by other component leaders. The last day of ACE started out with a presentation on what should be expected in the next decade with healthcare reform. It was amazing to learn about all that’s going to happen and all that needs to be done to make it happen. It was exciting to know that we as an organization will be involved in all of this. I spent the next couple hours in a public speaking seminar. Since I am considering a run for next year’s president elect of Transcend-AHDI, I need to improve my communication skills in a more effective manner. I then had a meeting with the other board members of Transcend-AHDI and we discussed what we need to do to get more of our members involved in the chapter. The last educational presentation I attended was “ASTM Standards: A Work in Progress” presented by Brenda Hurley, CMT, AHDI-F. She gave a basic overview of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the different codes and regulations that this organization has published that are in force. There are even standards being worked on for data capture with medical transcription work. Several individuals volunteered to go over different MT standards that are up for review. The final event of ACE was the Integrity Awards Red Carpet Event & After Party. Everybody was dressed up in their Sunday best. There were photographers and AHDI staff members interviewing those walking (or in my case, riding) down the red carpet. The ceremony was a great success, each deserving of their nomination. After the ceremony, we all went down to The Fuse, a nightclub inside the hotel, and had food and drinks. The music was great and I had a wonderful time relaxing and congratulating those who won. The event was packed with lots of information and a lot of fun. I recommend anybody who gets a chance to go to ACE as a first-timer to do so. You will not regret it. I enjoyed myself more than I imagined. AHDI’s staff did a great job organizing an interesting, informative and educational event.
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