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What a meeting! My apologies for no post last night, it was simply too late to put my thoughts into any kind of coherent order for you guys. So here we go!

Leadership Breakfast

This year, something different was tried. In past years, the delegates were always included in a “delegate’s luncheon” on the day of the HOD. What that meant is if you were an alternate or in the gallery, when lunchtime rolled around, you were told, okay, go have lunch and we’ll be back in an hour, and the delegates headed off to lunch. It admittedly made folks feel left out. This year’s Speaker decided to have a leadership breakfast, inviting all of the component leaders, and to have lunch during the HOD be “on your own.” It was a good way to be more inclusive and bring the leaders together.

This session really was a “chat” session, with some good interaction and updates. CEO Preziosi spoke about some of the things AHDI is exploring, including a project with Leapfrog around computerized physician order entry. He also announced that MTIA has recently adopted a name change, which will now make them CDIA. I must apologize as I somehow didn’t get the words written down as I look at my notes, other than “Clinical Documentation (something) Association.” I will be sure to get that before I leave! It is a part of what we see in our industry to move away from the words “medical transcription” to something that’s more encompassing as we try to define future roles.

New incoming President, Barb Marquez, talked about some of her plans for the next year and reported on attendance for this meeting. Attendance numbers were reported here. There are 371 registrants, 44 (or maybe 47) states, and 4 countries represented. The numbers include 141 first time attendees, and 83 of the attendees are new members who joined this year. The total number in the past has included vendors so you can see that the numbers are down. There’s no question that our economy is hitting everyone and impacting meeting attendance. Still, when you wander the halls, you still see the excitement of people who are here for great networking and to learn something new. The smaller numbers haven’t lessened the enthusiasm of those who come to participate in the meeting. Another interesting number was that 33% of AHDI membership is student members. That speaks to the need to really put some focus into those who will be the future of the profession. She also spoke about the plan to have board members focused in the upcoming year on specific initiatives that are of interest to them instead of assignments by state. This is actually a great plan, allowing people to really focus on something they are passionate about. She restated what she’s said before about the purpose of AHDI: To keep the MT in health care. It was also announced that the Ethical Best Practices for MTs is now available for a cost of $70. I haven’t had time yet to stop by the AHDI booth and take a look at that, but do plan that for tomorrow.

House of Delegates

The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent with the reconvening of the House of Delegates. This was a discussion about Resolution #3 and the BGG. There was lots of discussion and questions on how things would change and what the true impact would be. I did ask for one clarification related to the House of Delegates and if this passed, when would the current body we now know as the House of Delegates cease to exist. That would be at the annual meeting next year. A question was also posed about international members and why Canada is the only country who is being included from the start when we have members in other countries. It was explained that international membership is complicated and still being worked on. The delegate from the online chapter stated she believed Canada was just “in close geographical proximity, it made sense, and they all spoke English.” Canada does appear to have more members than other countries and this delegate is also from Canada. I imagine it may be that the challenges are simply more well known because of that. I still hope we figure out in this process how to be all inclusive.

If you were following my tweets yesterday, you know this resolution has passed the HOD, with a vote of 32 for, 1 against, and I believe 1 who abstained. For those who were listening to the silence and long time it took in counting, it was simply because we had 35 seated delegates and only 34 votes. What was realized in the end, is that the Speaker is included in that 35 count, but only casts votes in case of a tie. The resolution established two steering committees, one around what a new structure would look like and the other around initiatives. Each steering committee will have 7-9 people on it, and all of those on the committee must be current delegates.

The last action taken by the House was to vote to extend the term of office for all current delegates as well as the Speaker of the House through ACE 2011. This was also passed by a vote of 32 for, 1 against and 1 abstained. This will mean there will not need to be any delegate elections this year and if someone’s term is expiring in December , they will stay in office through next year’s meeting. It also allows for the HOD to have the same group of people for consistency in a time of great change.

The steering committee meetings will be open to anyone who wants to attend, and AHDI will be posting meeting dates for them. It also appears that all documents will be put on a Wiki site so that anyone can view and comment on them. This was done in response to a request to not have all of the discussion taking place on a closed listserv that only some people have access to. I think that’s a good move.

Resolution #2 was not addressed as it was no longer relevant since #3 had passed.

I would anticipate you will see lots of webinars and meetings coming as delegates bring back the message of the HOD to the membership. I have offered an opportunity for an interview here on this site to the leadership, however, since we’re not a “chapter,” I don’t think that will probably happen. Still, the offer is open.

Welcome Reception and Thursday Morning

The evening ended with the welcome reception, which was held in the exhibit hall. It was a low-key, pleasant event. One thing that never changes at an AHDI meeting is the excitement you see when people run into old friends. I do love that about the meetings.

Today so far, the exhibit hall has been full of folks as well. I had the opportunity to meet Martha, who participates here on our list! She is a new RMT and it was great to see her here. The keynote presentation this morning was awesome, and I believe I will save that for a separate post at some time. For now, it’s good enough to say the message of valuing our time and learning to let go of things that really aren’t critical was a good one. Stay tuned!

And so there IS life after

You will remember my post earlier in the week. Lots of things are changing in our world. And yes, I did speak briefly with my previous employer. It was, as I had hoped, a gracious interchange. You know, it’s indeed true. No matter what changes in our world, there IS life after change. These things will be no different!

Related posts:

  1. AHDI Meeting Wrap Up
  2. AHDI Meeting: House of Delegates, Day One
  3. Countdown to AHDI Meeting
  4. AHDI Meeting is This Week
  5. AHDI Meeting Tweets

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