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WVHIMA Outgoing Speech

What a year this has been! What an amazing board that I was so fortunate to have during my term as President of WVHIMA. So many wonderful things were accomplished and with such dedication and hard work.

Board meetings were held every 6-weeks at various locations throughout the state even with such obstacles as the weather we had this past winter. These meetings were well attended and well received with lots of discussion and planning. Our board meeting held on April 30th was attended via conference call by Alan Dowling, AHIMA CEO. Many concerns were discussed and we were very impressed by his genuine interest and immediate feedback.

Beverly Ellis, Vice President and myself attended Summer Team Talks in Chicago on July 17, 2009. By attending this meeting, we were able to bring upcoming issues from AHIMA back to the WVHIMA board for discussion.

The Fall Retreat itself was amazing. Beth Shanholtzer did an outstanding job! We had excellent speakers on several hot topics such as clinical documentation improvement, ICD-10, and IPPS Update and New Code - ICD-9 Codes for FY2010. The Fall Retreat, held at Fairmont State University, was well attended with 90 attendees. We received very positive comments from the attendee surveys.

Then on to the House of Delegates in Grapevine Texas where I was joined by the other delegates – Beverly Ellis, Vice President; Brett Randolph, President Elect; Savithri Kamath, Past President; and Melissa Maston attending as alternate (just in case). Wow- what an awesome experience! There were several issues addressed but I have never been part of such a heated discussion at the House as the proposed amendment to change the delegate apportionment. This amendment would mean that the smaller states (approximately 31) would lose delegates while the larger states would gain one delegate. The proposal would mean that we, as a smaller state, would lose 2 delegates as compared to some of the larger states who would gain. This is based on a percentages of membership. Should this pass, this would mean that we would lose some of our voice. There was a motion to postpone voting on the delegate apportionment bylaws amendment until August 9-20, 2010. This motion was defeated and the voting was held June 21-30, 2010. The number of CSAs with delegates participating in the vote were 52 out of 52. The results of the vote should be announced later this month (late July).

That brings us to the WVHIMA Annual Convention held in Martinsburg again this year. Tammy Baker and her annual convention committee could not have done a more excellent job, right down to the smallest detail. Beth Shanholtzer did an outstanding job coordinating all the speakers. Beverly Ellis did an exceptional job finding space for the vendors which was quite a task this year especially. I am going to quit naming names before I forget someone as the entire committee should be commended for a job well done.

And yes, the vendors – what can I say about the vendors?

We have struggled financially over the last couple of years, as an association. As a result, Savithri worked very hard last year as President to keep the cost down and did an amazing job. I have followed suit in trying to keep the cost low for our members and enable them to get the CE’s they need and also provide them with some great educational opportunities. The sponsorships that we received from our vendors enabled us to keep the cost low yet still offer quality education. On behalf of the board – we thank the vendors for all they do for WVHIMA.

What an experience this has been, but I have to say that all the hard work has been done behind the scenes by the board. Their job is to serve our membership and that they do. I am very proud of everything that has been accomplished especially given that each of the board members have full time jobs, families, and many other commitments but yet they volunteer their time to make this association run very efficiently. Without them, there would be no WVHIMA.

With that, I am in the process of finalizing my term as WVHIMA President. I want to thank everyone again for their confidence in me and for all the help I received during my term.

I am very excited to hand over the gavel to our incoming President, Brett Randolph. Brett is very passionate about WVHIMA’s success. I am very confident that he will do an excellent job! Congratulations, Brett!

Blessings,

Debbie Parenti, RHIT
WVHIMA Outgoing President 2009-2010