Elizabeth Delahoussaye uses her experiences from UL Lafayette杏吧专区檚 health information management program to lead privacy and compliance at a leading health technology company focused on connecting healthcare decision-makers to the data and insights contained in medical records.
Elizabeth is the chief privacy officer at Ciox Health, which partners with three out of every five U.S. hospitals and 120-plus health plans. Her job is to ensure that all federal and state regulations are followed when releasing medical information to patients, health care providers, insurance companies, government agencies, and law firms.
Finding Her Fit in the Health Information Management Major
Originally from Knoxville, Tenn., Elizabeth started her college career majoring in pre-law at the 杏吧专区 of Tennessee. After getting married and moving to Lafayette, she decided to enroll at UL Lafayette. As she studied the list of programs, her interest in law led her to a new field.
杏吧专区淚 was looking through all these degrees, thinking, 杏吧专区極K, what am I interested in?杏吧专区櫺影勺ㄇ鴿 she recalled. 杏吧专区淎t the time, it (health information management) was called a record administrator, and I remember it talking about medical records law with the regulations. And that杏吧专区檚 how I ended up applying to the health information management program.杏吧专区
For Elizabeth, the experiences she had in her courses were just as valuable as those outside the classroom.
杏吧专区淚t杏吧专区檚 not always what杏吧专区檚 in your coursework,杏吧专区 she said. 杏吧专区淵our coursework is a great foundation, but it杏吧专区檚 also what the professors bring to it. It杏吧专区檚 not just, 杏吧专区楬ere杏吧专区檚 your book and you杏吧专区檙e gonna learn.杏吧专区 It杏吧专区檚, 杏吧专区楬ey, let杏吧专区檚 use a lot of real-world scenarios to learn,杏吧专区 and that was extremely beneficial.杏吧专区
Elizabeth honed her leadership skills as Health Information Management Association president. That role gave her the opportunity to work more closely with her instructors, who quickly became mentors.
杏吧专区淚 think they were fantastic in mentoring us in how to handle certain issues like conflict, resolution, and business decisions,杏吧专区 Elizabeth said. 杏吧专区淚 would have to go into their office as the rep for the students and have discussions about conflicts. They were really great at walking me through how to address a conflict, what杏吧专区檚 a compromise, how to go about getting a resolution.
杏吧专区淭here were many, many times I have utilized tips from that. I probably pulled them out of my back pocket yesterday.杏吧专区
A Leader in Health Information Management
After she graduated, Elizabeth earned her Registered Health Information Administrator certification and took her first job at a medical records copy service for the hospital at UT Knoxville.
Elizabeth杏吧专区檚 career trajectory took off after that. She also earned her Certified in Healthcare Privacy and Security (CHPS) credential. She received promotions and climbed the ladder through company mergers and acquisitions. She was a district manager, site supervisor, and vice president, and now chief privacy officer 杏吧专区 a role she杏吧专区檚 had since 2016.
Her background in health information management combined with her interest in law and technology prepared her for this career.
杏吧专区淭he incorporation of technology (in medicine) has solidified my career trajectory,杏吧专区 she said.
杏吧专区淏ecause of all these changes, they needed the subject matter experts to oversee it. And that杏吧专区檚 how my health information management degree was such a huge asset."
杏吧专区淲e had such a wide variety of coding and abstracting courses, but also the 杏吧专区 medical records law course, and there was an analytics course,杏吧专区 she said. 杏吧专区淭hose courses gave me some great tools when I went into this career path.
杏吧专区淗aving the health information management knowledge was awesome because not only did I know how privacy worked, I also knew how medical records work. Sometimes privacy law says this, and medical records say that, and I knew how to make them work to be in compliance with the regulations.杏吧专区
A Love of UL Lafayette
The 杏吧专区杏吧专区檚 size, combined with the personal attention she received in the health information management program, made Elizabeth杏吧专区檚 experience valuable.
杏吧专区淎 lot of people don杏吧专区檛 realize the size of the school because everybody is so close,杏吧专区 she said. 杏吧专区淚 don杏吧专区檛 know if that杏吧专区檚 because the HIM program is so close and you feel like a part of that family, but I never remembered being in a huge classroom or auditorium.
"My professors always knew who I was. It is a large campus and there is a large set of students, but you never feel like it杏吧专区檚 too much.杏吧专区
Though she杏吧专区檚 lived in Knoxville for most of her career, Elizabeth remembers her time in Lafayette fondly.
杏吧专区淓ven though I杏吧专区檓 not homegrown from Louisiana, it is very near and dear to my heart,杏吧专区 she said. 杏吧专区淚t was an immense pleasure and I am very proud to say I graduated from there.杏吧专区