Health Information Management

Health Information Management (HIM) is a leader in the collection, storage and use of patient information within British Columbia. As a consolidated Lower Mainland department, HIM staff provide service to more than 40 hospitals and health care facilities across the province, supporting the following health authorities:

• Fraser Health
• Providence Health Care (PHC)
• Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)
• Vancouver Coastal Health

HIM staff are PHC employees, while our service sites under PHSA in the Provincial Digital Health & Information Services portfolio. Over 1,400 HIM staff work across five service areas:

• Registration/Patient Admitting
• Records Management/Health Records
• Transcription & Health Information Exchange
• Coding & Informatics
• Business Optimization and Strategic Planning & Projects

When a patient arrives at a hospital, the primary goal is to be seen by a clinician and receive the best possible care. While this may seem like a linear and straightforward process — a patient-clinician relationship — it actually involves many professionals working behind the scenes to ensure quality care. This team includes health information professionals who play a crucial role in the patient's journey.

HIM's support starts by managing the registration of patients at hospitals and checking the accuracy of patient information to facilitate a smooth health care experience. During care, the transcription team works with clinicians to ensure patient documentation is captured and distributed appropriately.

The Records Management team then takes the helm to ensure health records are complete, assembled, scanned, stored, and retrieved to support care delivery. Release of information staff oversees access to health records, safeguarding patient privacy and confidentiality.

As a final stage in the HIM process, the coding & informatics services team takes patient health information and structures it into anonymized data for health care decision markers. Throughout the patient care journey, the strategic planning, projects and business optimization teams work in the background to support, guide and empower every HIM team along the way.

There are over 40 positions within HIM and each team member plays a unique role in enabling the patient care journey. We invite you to read the two parts of the HIM Job Profiles Guide to know more about HIM and our services.