President’s Message – June 2022

Well, it is summer and you’re just as awesome as ever! I am happy to have this opportunity to talk with you once more before I leave the position as your ArHIMA President. It has been an absolute pleasure. I will be serving in the capacity of your First-Year Director. Melissa Zavadil our current president-elect will be stepping into the position of President as of July 1, 2022.

The greatest part of the ArHIMA’s President’s job is to make decisions. During my year as your president, the ArHIMA Board has done its very best to update our webpage, bylaws, and policy and procedures. We had our first-ever joint meeting with another CA. In-person even! MoHIMA was a great CA organization to work with and we all made new friends and networking contacts. Those are the big things. Those are the things we have done together, and I shall be grateful, always.

In a meeting I attended earlier this summer, one of the participants stated that “Studies have shown that there will be up to 40% of HIM professionals retiring in the next 10 years” WOW! Make sure to have conversations regarding succession planning.

I would like for each of you to advocate for our profession with an emphasis on removing or even minimizing barriers to HIM professionals. This could even mean mentoring our next generation of HIM professionals. Check out ArHIMA’s Mentor Program shown under Members on the ArHIMA webpage.

There will always continue to be new challenges for our profession. Let us move forward with strong and active faith to meet those challenges.

Warm Regards,

Tina Cikanek, MBA, RHIA, CCS
2021-2022 ArHIMA President