Building patient safety: A normative framework for health information management professionals

BACKGROUND: The study focused on how health information management (HIM) professionals in Australia contribute to patient safety. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to develop a normative framework that illustrates how the values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of HIM professionals influence patient safety across various governance domains. METHOD: Utilising findings from mixed-method data collection, the research drew on insights from HIM professionals and patient safety experts, using grounded theory strategies for data analysis. RESULTS: The results are organised within a house-themed normative framework, which positions core professional values as the foundation of HIM practice. These values inform shared beliefs regarding patient safety, supporting clinicians, data accuracy and continuous learning. The attitudes of person-centredness, governance and speaking up mediate the enactment of these beliefs. The corresponding behaviours visibly demonstrate HIM contributions across four governance domains: clinical, corporate, data and information. DISCUSSION: Patient safety literature centres on clinical roles. As healthcare becomes increasingly data-driven, the risk of patient harm arising from information, data quality and governance failures grows. There is a notable gap in the conceptual frameworks that articulate how HIM professionals contribute to patient safety beyond their functional tasks, especially from a normative professional identity perspective. CONCLUSION: This framework highlights HIM professionals as integral contributors to patient safety rather than supportive background figures. It provides clarity for education, workforce development and health policy, thereby enhancing recognition of the governance and system impact of HIM practice on patient safety.Implications for health information management practice:(a) This framework provides a mechanism to visualise the values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of HIM professionals towards patient safety and the domains in which their outputs are seen; and (b) demonstrate how involvement of HIM professionals in patient safety will enable the profession to be better utilised, understood and valued in the health system and inform education, workforce development and health policy.