By Ebele Egoh
The Head of the Health Information Management Division, State Hospital Management Board (SHMB), Awka, Mrs. Ijeoma Onyeogulu, has highlighted the critical roles played by Health Information Management Professionals (HIMPs) in the hospital system.
Speaking in an interview in her office at SHMB, Awka, Onyeogulu described HIMPs as indispensable to modern healthcare, noting that their responsibilities go far beyond record-keeping to directly impacting patient care, safety, and system efficiency.
Outlining their key functions she said,”Health Information Management Professionals serve as guardians of patient privacy, enforcing data protection laws and protocols to ensure that patients’ sensitive information remains confidential and secure, thereby strengthening trust in the healthcare system.
“They are also champions of data accuracy, ensuring that medical records are complete, precise, and reliable, recognizing that clinical decisions depend heavily on the quality of available data.
“As connectors of care, HIMPs manage health information exchange, ensuring that a patient’s medical history seamlessly follows them across different levels of care—from clinics to hospitals and specialists—without gaps”.
Mrs Onyeogulu further described HIMPs as the backbone of the revenue cycle, as their accurate coding and documentation sustain the financial health of hospitals and clinics, enabling continuous patient care.
She emphasized their roles as a compliance safety net, interpreting complex healthcare regulations and keeping institutions audit-ready, thereby preventing costly penalties or operational disruptions.
In addition, HIMPs are drivers of quality data, transforming clinical notes into structured information that supports patient safety initiatives, quality measurement, and accreditation processes. They also function as technology translators, bridging the gap between healthcare providers and IT systems, ensuring that electronic health records (EHRs) effectively support patient care.
Highlighting their broader impact, Mrs Onyeogulu noted that HIMPs act as public health sentinels, managing de-identified data for disease surveillance, outbreak monitoring, and population health planning.
As research enablers, they provide clean and standardized dataset essential for clinical trials and medical advancements, adding that HMIPs are legal custodians of medical records, ensuring that certified documentation serves as a reliable source of truth in legal cases, insurance claims, and audits.
They also serve as patient advocates, facilitating timely access to medical records and helping patients and families understand their health information.
Onyeogulu further described HIMPs as coding experts, translating diagnoses and procedures into standardized codes used by insurers, researchers, and policymakers.
Through strong documentation systems, they contribute to fraud and abuse prevention, detecting errors and inconsistencies before they escalate into serious issues.
According to her, as interoperability architects, HIMPs enable different health systems and technologies to communicate effectively through data standardization.
They are also disaster recovery planners, ensuring that patient records are securely backed up and accessible during emergencies such as cyberattacks, fires, or floods.
She noted that HIMPs provide the foundation for healthcare analytics, supporting dashboards, artificial intelligence tools, and predictive models with high-quality data.
In their role as workforce educators, they train healthcare staff on proper documentation practices, improving care delivery and reducing legal risks. Additionally, HIMPs track social determinants of health, capturing data that helps address factors such as nutrition, housing, and transportation that affect patient outcomes.
They also work as credentialing partners, maintaining provider documentation to ensure only qualified professionals practice within healthcare facilities.
Looking ahead, Onyeogulu described HIMPs as future-proofers of healthcare, playing a central role in shaping safe, ethical, and effective data governance as the sector evolves toward digital health, artificial intelligence, and value-based care.
Concluding with a powerful statement, she said,”With Health Information Management Professionals, health data becomes care. Without them, it is merely data. HIMPs save lives through data. Memory Forgets, Accurate Records Remind”.
Ebele is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State
