Deckerville Community Hospital

During the month of April, we want to take time to celebrate the "behind-the-scenes" professionals who help keep our hospital running smoothly!

April 12-18 is "Health Information Privacy and Security Week". The Health Information Management (HIM) Department maintains medical records. The employees in this department keep health information secure and help ensure that vital medical information is available to those who need it – and to no one else!

The employees of HIM work to prevent threats such as medical identity theft by taking careful precautions. These safeguard include such measures as thorough patient verification processes, secure storage of health information, and minimization (or elimination, when possible) of the display of any private identification means. Please visit the American Health Information Management Association to view an informative PowerPoint about the threat of medical identity theft: www.ahima.org/hipsweek/.

Our hospital is currently working toward full implementation of an electronic health record, which means that our patients’ medical records will be kept in a digital format. As this technology is implemented, the HIM professionals have learned new ways of keeping the health record private and secure.

April 19-25 is "Administrative Professionals Week". This national observance was previously called "Professional Secretaries Week", but the title was changed as the job responsibilties of secretaries continued to expand. At our hospital, many of our "secretaries" have responsibilities previously held only by administrative personnel.

Our hospital’s "support staff" is made up of professionals who have a wide range of knowledge – they not only assist with all internal administrative functions, but they need to intereact with and understand the workings of the entire hospital and each separate medical department.

The staff in our Admitting Departments need all this knowledge, too…on top of the ability to juggle a dozen jobs at one time, while answering the phone with a smile! Like the HIM Department, our Admission Staff personnel work to make confidentiality and patient privacy an important focus of our hospital.

Next time you visit our hospital, please take time to recognize the wonderful employees who help make you feel welcome and comfortable….and keep your health information private and protected!