AHIMA RHIA Exam Questions 2025

A. WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) is a network that uses radio waves to connect devices within a limited geographical area, not a tunneling technology over the Internet.

B. LAN (Local Area Network) is a wired or wireless network confined to a small area like a single building; it does not describe transport over the Internet.

D. FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) is an older standard for data transmission in a local area network using fiber optic cables, not a security protocol for a WAN.

1. Sayles, N. B., & Trawick, L. L. (2021). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (7th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 6, "Information and Communication Technology," the text explains that a VPN "uses the internet as a communication channel, but a 'tunnel' is created so that the data transmitted is encrypted and secure."

2. Johns, M. L. (2015). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (5th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 5, "Health Information Systems," defines a VPN as a network that "uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization's network."

3. Kurose, J. F., & Ross, K. W. (2017). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (7th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 8, Section 8.7, "Securing TCP Connections: SSL," describes how VPNs use IPsec to create an encrypted tunnel between two routers over the public Internet, effectively joining two private LANs into a single private WAN. This is a standard university textbook for computer science and IT curricula.

A schema is the logical structure of the entire database, not a customized view for an individual user. It represents the global view of all data.

A data dictionary is a repository of metadata (data about data); it defines data elements but does not create or manage user-specific views.

A GUI (Graphical User Interface) is the visual interface used to interact with the system, but the subschema is the underlying database construct that defines and enables the different data views presented through the GUI.

1. Elmasri, R., & Navathe, S. B. (2017). Fundamentals of Database Systems (7th ed.). Pearson. In Chapter 2, Section 2.2, "Data Models, Schemas, and Instances," the three-schema architecture is described. The external level is defined as having "a number of external schemas or user views... Each external schema describes the part of the database that a particular user group is interested in and hides the rest of the database from that user group." (p. 36). This directly corresponds to the concept of a subschema providing different views for different doctors.

2. Sayles, N. B., & Gordon, L. T. (2016). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (5th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 11, "Data Storage and Retrieval," discusses database management systems. It explains that a key function of a DBMS is to provide different views of the data to different users, stating, "The view of the data is the user’s perspective of the data... This allows the user to see the data in the format that he or she needs." (p. 289). This function is implemented through external schemas or subschemas.

3. Stanford University, CS 145 Introduction to Databases course materials. In the lecture notes on "Data Models," the three-level schema architecture (External, Conceptual, Internal) is a foundational topic. The External Schema is explicitly defined as the "view" for a particular group of users, which can be a subset of the conceptual schema or contain virtual data derived from it, matching the definition of a subschema.

B. executive information system: This is a decision support tool for senior management, providing high-level, aggregated data for strategic analysis, not for operational patient tracking.

C. clinical information system: This system (e.g., an EHR) focuses on patient care and clinical data documentation; it consumes demographic data from the ADT system but does not originate it.

D. financial information system: This system manages billing, accounting, and claims processing, relying on the patient and insurance data provided by the ADT system.

1. AHIMA. Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice. 6th ed. Chicago, IL: AHIMA Press; 2020: 288-289. Chapter 10, "Healthcare Information Systems," describes the Registration-Admission, Discharge, Transfer (R-ADT) system as the source for capturing demographic information, generating the MPI, and tracking patient status, which is used for the census.

2. Sayles, N. B., & Gordon, L. A. Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach. 6th ed. Chicago, IL: AHIMA Press; 2020: 121. Chapter 5, "Healthcare Information Systems," states, "The R-ADT system is used to input patient information... This information is used to create the patient record, the MPI, and the patient bill... The ADT portion of the system tracks the patient's movement from admission through discharge or transfer."

3. Oachs, P. K., & Watters, A. L. Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice. 5th ed. Chicago, IL: AHIMA Press; 2016: 258. Chapter 9, "Healthcare Information Systems," explains that the R-ADT system is a cornerstone application that provides other systems with patient demographics and is the source for the MPI and census list.

A. data flow diagram: This is a graphical representation that shows how data moves through a system's processes, not a descriptive list defining data elements.

B. decision tree: This is a flowchart-like model used for decision analysis and classification, not for documenting the metadata of data elements in a database.

1. Sayles, N. B., & Gordon, L. T. (Eds.). (2020). Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 10, "Data and Information Governance," the text defines a data dictionary as a tool that "manages the data definitions and metadata for all data elements" and is essential for establishing data standards (pp. 298-299).

2. Sayles, N. B., & T. M. J. (Eds.). (2020). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 5, "Health Information Systems," describes a data dictionary as a "descriptive list of the data elements to be collected in an information system or database whose purpose is to ensure consistency of terminology" (p. 121).

3. Johns Hopkins University. (n.d.). Data Dictionaries. Data Management Services, Sheridan Libraries. Retrieved from https://dms.data.jhu.edu/data-management-tools/data-dictionaries/. This university resource explains that a data dictionary contains definitions of variables and attributes, including variable names, descriptions, and data types, which directly corresponds to the example provided in the question.

A. WORM is a storage technology; information from paper sources must still be digitized, typically by scanning, before it can be stored.

B. The primary feature of WORM technology is that it prevents modification, which is the opposite of what this option states.

D. This describes access control, a security function of the software or operating system, not an inherent feature of the WORM storage medium.

1. Sayles, N. B., & Trawick, M. A. (2020). Health information management technology: An applied approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 6, "The Electronic Health Record," the section on Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) discusses storage options, noting that WORM technology is used to ensure that documents cannot be altered after they are stored, thus preserving the integrity of the original document (pp. 168-169).

2. Sayles, N. B. (2020). Fundamentals of law for health informatics and information management (4th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 5, "The Legal Health Record," discusses the importance of maintaining the integrity of health records for legal admissibility. WORM technology supports this by creating unalterable records, which is a key principle for establishing the trustworthiness of electronic evidence (p. 134).

3. AHIMA e-HIM Work Group. (2011). Electronic Document Management as a Component of the EHR. Journal of AHIMA, 82(3), 58-63. This practice brief explicitly states, "To ensure non-repudiation and that the document cannot be altered, the document should be stored on unalterable media, such as write-once, read-many (WORM) optical disk or stored in a trusted digital archive." (p. 61).

A. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standardized visual language for modeling software systems; it is not used for database definition or manipulation.

B. Metadata is descriptive data about other data. It is information, not a programming or query language used to interact with a database.

C. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a markup language used to structure content for display on the World Wide Web, not for managing databases.

1. AHIMA. (2020). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach, Sixth Edition. AHIMA Press. In Chapter 13, "Data Management and Analytics," the section on "Database Languages" explains that SQL is the standard language for relational databases and includes both Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML) components.

2. Elmasri, R., & Navathe, S. B. (2016). Fundamentals of Database Systems, 7th Edition. Pearson. Chapter 4, "The Basic SQL Query," and Chapter 8, "SQL: Data Definition, Constraints, and Schema Change," explicitly detail the DML and DDL commands that are part of the overall SQL standard.

3. Stanford University. (n.d.). CS145: Introduction to Databases, Lecture Notes. Retrieved from Stanford's OpenCourseWare. The course materials on SQL clearly define it as the language for relational databases and categorize its commands into DDL (e.g., CREATE), DML (e.g., SELECT), and DCL (Data Control Language).

B. data flow: This term describes the path data takes through a system, but it does not encompass the automation of business processes or task management.

C. routing: Routing is a single action or component within a workflow system; workflow is the comprehensive technology that manages the entire process, including the rules for routing.

D. integration: Integration refers to the process of connecting disparate systems to work together, not the specific function of automating task sequences within a system.

1. Sayles, N. B., & Gordon, L. T. (2020). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 10, "Electronic Health Records," the section on Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) describes workflow technology as a key component that "allows documents to be electronically routed to a variety of users at the same time" for processing.

2. Abdelhak, M., Grostick, S., & Hanken, M. A. (Eds.). (2016). Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource (5th ed.). Elsevier. Chapter 11, "Document and Content Management," defines workflow management systems as those that "automate business processes by managing the flow of work" and "route work to the appropriate people in the proper sequence."

3. University of Illinois Chicago. (n.d.). HIM 451: Health Information Systems Analysis and Design Courseware. The course curriculum discusses workflow as the sequence of tasks and the movement of information that constitutes a work process, and how information systems are designed to automate and manage this flow in healthcare settings.

A: The logical data model is technology-agnostic; it does not define the technology plan.

C: Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs) model processes, not data structures. Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) are used for logical modeling.

D: This option incorrectly reverses the roles and misapplies DFDs, which are used for process modeling, not data modeling.

1. Sayles, N. B., & Trawick, M. F. (2021). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 13, "Data Storage and Warehousing," the text distinguishes the models: "The logical data model... defines the data elements and the relationships among them... The physical data model... goes a step further to identify how the data are stored in the computer."

2. Johns, M. L. (Ed.). (2015). Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice (5th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 23, "Information Systems," describes the systems development life cycle, where the logical design phase focuses on business needs ("what the system should do"), and the physical design phase specifies the technical implementation ("how the system will do it").

3. University of Illinois Chicago. (n.d.). BHIS 505 - Health Information Systems Analysis and Design, Course Materials. The curriculum outlines that the logical model represents business data requirements, while the physical model details the database-specific implementation, including storage structures and access methods. This aligns with the logical "what" versus the physical "how."

A. RFI (Request for Information) is a procurement process to gather general information from vendors and is not a method for internal system development.

B. RFP (Request for Proposal) is a formal procurement document used to solicit proposals from external vendors, which is irrelevant for an internal project.

D. Functional requirements are detailed specifications of what a system must do; their creation is a necessary but often lengthy phase, not a method to accelerate the overall process.

1. LaTour, K. M., & Eichenwald-Maki, S. (2020). Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 23, "Information Systems and Technology," the text discusses the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and describes prototyping as an iterative approach that accelerates development by providing a tangible model for users to evaluate early in the process.

2. Sayles, N. B., & Trawick, M. A. (2020). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 15, "Systems Development Life Cycle," explains that prototyping is a model-building technique used to speed up the design phase and ensure the final product meets user needs through early and continuous feedback.

3. Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Management (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass. Chapter 4, "System Selection and Implementation," contrasts traditional SDLC with alternative methods, noting that prototyping is a form of Rapid Application Development (RAD) designed to shorten the development timeframe.

A. improper scanning: Improper scanning affects the quality and legibility of the document image itself but does not prevent the system from searching based on correctly entered index data.

C. the data is stored on optical disk so it not readily available: Storing data on optical disks might increase retrieval time compared to magnetic storage, but it would not make it impossible to generate the list from the system's index.

D. the COLD technology has not downloaded the lab reports: COLD-fed reports (Computer Output to Laser Disk) are a specific data type. The absence of lab reports would not affect a query based on the admitting physician, which is typically indexed from admission forms.

1. Sayles, N. B., & Gordon, L. A. (2021). Health information management technology: An applied approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 6, "Electronic Health Records," the section on "Document Management Systems" states, "The indexing system is the key to retrieval. The document is scanned and then indexed, which is the entering of the metadata... If the indexing is not performed or is performed incorrectly, the document may be difficult or impossible to find." (p. 145).

2. Oachs, P. K., & Watters, A. (2020). Health information management: Concepts, principles, and practice (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 14, "Health Information Systems," explains that in a document management system, "Indexing is an organized method for identifying and retrieving a document... Without indexing, it would be impossible to retrieve the specific document needed." (p. 431).

3. Johns, M. L. (2015). Health information management technology: An applied approach (4th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 5, "Health Information Systems," emphasizes, "The indexing system is the most important part of the EDMS... Without proper indexing, the user may not be able to retrieve the document image." (p. 119).