RHIT Organizational Management and Leadership 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A HIM manager must counsel an employee who has been late to work four times in the past month. Which progressive discipline step typically follows a verbal warning if the behavior continues?
- Termination
- Suspension without pay
- Written warning (Correct answer)
- Demotion
Correct answer: Written warning
Progressive discipline typically escalates from verbal warning to written warning before moving to suspension or termination.
Question 2: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified employee with a disability unless it would cause what?
- Minor inconvenience
- Undue hardship (Correct answer)
- Competitive disadvantage
- Policy conflict
Correct answer: Undue hardship
The ADA requires reasonable accommodations for qualified employees with disabilities unless doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer.
Question 3: A HIM director creates a dashboard tracking coding accuracy rate, coder productivity, and claim denial rate. These metrics collectively represent which management tool?
- Balanced scorecard
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) (Correct answer)
- Statistical process control chart
- Benchmarking report
Correct answer: Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are specific, measurable metrics used to evaluate performance toward departmental or organizational goals.
Question 4: Which type of interview question asks candidates to describe how they handled a specific past situation, based on the premise that past behavior predicts future performance?
- Situational interview question
- Behavioral interview question (Correct answer)
- Hypothetical interview question
- Open-ended interview question
Correct answer: Behavioral interview question
Behavioral interview questions ask candidates about past experiences and actions, operating on the principle that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
Question 5: A HIM manager is facilitating a team meeting to resolve a dispute between the coding and clinical documentation improvement (CDI) teams. Which conflict resolution strategy seeks a solution that satisfies the concerns of all parties?
- Avoidance
- Accommodation
- Collaboration (Correct answer)
- Compromise
Correct answer: Collaboration
Collaboration (also called integrating) seeks a solution that fully satisfies all parties' concerns and is the most constructive conflict resolution approach.
Question 6: A hospital's HIM department must reduce operational costs by 10% without reducing staff. Which approach directly targets process inefficiency as a cost-reduction strategy?
- Freezing merit increases
- Workflow redesign and automation (Correct answer)
- Reducing supply purchases
- Eliminating continuing education
Correct answer: Workflow redesign and automation
Workflow redesign and automation reduce costs by eliminating inefficiencies and redundant steps, improving productivity without cutting staff.
Question 7: According to the principle of span of control, which HIM department configuration would typically require an additional supervisory level?
- One supervisor managing 5 coders
- One manager overseeing 3 team leads
- One director managing 30 direct reports (Correct answer)
- One lead coder supervising 6 staff
Correct answer: One director managing 30 direct reports
Span of control refers to the number of employees a manager can effectively supervise; managing 30 direct reports typically exceeds an effective span and warrants an additional supervisory tier.
RHIT Organizational Management and Leadership 5
A HIM manager must counsel an employee who has been late to work four times in the past month.
Which progressive discipline step typically follows a verbal warning if the behavior continues?