PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Laurie Vilord and Marsha Estabrook-Adams, two Berkshire Community College (BCC) adjunct faculty members in the Business & Computer Information Systems department, have been awarded a the Health Information Management (HIM) Team Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Health Information Management Association (MaHIMA).  

 

Vilord and Estabrook-Adams, along with Advisory Board President Ann Marie Perry, will be officially recognized at the MaHIMA Annual Conference on Monday, June 17, 2024 at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. 

 

HIM Team Excellence Awards recognize outstanding efforts by a department or team in meeting the challenges of the ever-changing HIM environment through a new process or technique.?Awards are given in three categories:?Best Practice, Financial Impact and Collaboration.  

 

Vilord and Estabrook-Adams are receiving the award in the Collaboration category for instilling their "time, effort and passion" into building the Medical Coding/HIM certificate program at BCC and for securing professional certification for the program through the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Professional Certificate Approval Program (PCAP). 

 

"I graduated from both the Medical Coding and Health Information Management certificate programs at BCC nine years ago and have enjoyed a successful career as an inpatient medical coder at a VA hospital," Vilord said. "Working with Marsha to bring the PCAP certification to these programs represents a culmination beyond our AHIMA credentials. These programs offer great job opportunities in STEM careers for Berkshire county residents." 

 

"The MaHIMA Team Excellence award provides recognition that this BCC program has achieved the highest national standards. This information is being celebrated in a forum that includes the Massachusetts HIMA membership of our professional peers. The award acknowledges and communicates BCC's place at the state and national level as providing a leading Medical Coding and HIM certificate education," said Estabrook-Adams. 

 

Other winners of MaHIMA Team Excellence Awards include Signature Healthcare's Health Information Management Team (Best Practice); Tufts Medicine's Coding DRG Validators and CDI Second-Level Review Team (Financial Impact); and Mass General Brigham's Quality and Safety Team (Collaboration).