AHIMA searches for new CEO

The Chicago-based American Health Information Management Association is conducting a national search for a new CEO following the departure of Alan Dowling.

AHIMA spokesman Craig May confirmed over the weekend that Dowling and longtime Chief Operating Officer Sandra Fuller are no longer employed at AHIMA. May did not say when the pair left the organization.

Rose Dunn, an AHIMA director, is in as interim CEO, but May said Dunn will not be a candidate for the full-time CEO position. Dunn is the chief operating officer of First Class Solutions, St. Louis.

Dowling's tenure with the 61,000-member association of medical records professionals lasted not quite 18 months. Dowling, a former U.S. Air Force colonel who holds a doctorate in care management and management information systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was named in December 2009 to the position following a nationwide leadership search by the organization as it sought to adapt itself and its members to the advance of electronic health-record systems. In January, he replaced Linda Kloss, who had led the organization since 1995.

The AHIMA board hopes to have a CEO in place for its annual convention, scheduled for Oct. 1-6 in Salt Lake City, May said. Neither Dowling, Fuller nor AHIMA President Bonnie Cassidy was available for comment Monday.