Director of the Quarter Spotlight: Diana Spaulding
Director of the Quarter Spotlight
Meet Diana Spaulding
HIM & Patient Access Director at Sebastian River Medical Center
How long have you been at SRMC in this role?
I’ve been the Health Information Management and Patient Access Director at Sebastian River for 17 months.
Where did you attend school?
Indian River State College
What inspired you to get into this field?
I worked in physician practice management for a while and loved the health data management aspect of the business, so that inspired me to pursue a degree in health information management.
What are some of your responsibilities in this position?
My work involves all the processes surrounding revenue cycle management from beginning to end. In Patient Access, we are most often the first persons our patients will encounter when entering the hospital. We collect more than patient demographics and insurance; we also start collection of information that is used for the patient’s care plan. In Health Information Management, we are the custodian of the medical record and provide the services to ensure the record is complete, secure, and coded accurately. All the information we collect from beginning to end plays a vital role in both providing quality care to our patients and financial success for the hospital. Coding data is used for reporting quality outcomes and is not just for billing insurance.
What are some highlights from your career?
In my career, I have worked almost every role in HIM from analysis, coding, clinical documentation improvement, and management. I’ve done that in both physician practice and hospital settings. I love to see the big picture how all the different departments and healthcare providers interconnect to care for patients and how collectively our information funnels into various types of quality reporting.
What do you like to do for fun?
I love fishing! My husband and I have a boat and enjoy offshore fishing whenever possible.
What’s something people don’t know about you?
During high school and nearly 20 years after, I worked in a florist shop as needed to help with holiday rushes, weddings, or funerals on weekends. I love flowers and flower arrangement.
What do you like most about working as an HIM & Patient Access Director at SRMC?
I’m passionate about the importance of what we provide to our patients and our collaboration with all the other hospital departments. I get very excited when we find ways to advance or improve our data analytic capabilities that have a meaningful impact on how we can improve patient care and outcomes.