November 2009 Update:
Following are several recent developments in the Washington Community and Technical College Health IT initiative. Please share with interested faculty and staff on your campus.
- The Washington Health Care Authority (HCA) designated Bellevue College as the Lead Organization for state ARRA initiatives in the area of “Information Technology Professionals In Health Care”. This responsibility can include health informatics curricula development; student recruitment and retention & establishing a bridge program to a university.
- The federal Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement on November 25th. It will underwrite 5 community college consortia “to educate health information technology professionals”. Washington’s region includes 9 other possible state partners. Bellevue College and the HCA are working on consortium building, and the application, on behalf of Washington’s CTC’s. The timeline is short: applications are due January 22. The draft will be posted on our Health IT collaborative site (see below) for your review and comment as soon as possible.
- 11 Washington CTC’s participated in Healthcare Informatics curriculum training November 17 -18 at Bellevue College. Three colleges begin implementing all or part of the 18-credit Healthcare Informatics curriculum in Winter quarter.
- A national health IT workforce need in excess of 50,000 has been identified (see attached):
We will continue to post updates on the Washington CTC Health IT collaborative site (open to all colleges): http://sites.google.com/a/bcc.ctc.edu/wa-ctc-health-it
Please contact Patricia Dombrowski patricia.dombrowski@bellevuecollege.edu or me if you have questions.
About: An 18-credit Healthcare Informatics Certificate is in development by the Center of Excellence for IT, in collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Allied Health. The certificate, a response to prevailing economic conditions, targets dislocated IT workers, seeking employment in healthcare.
The curriculum will be available to all state community and technical colleges. The Center will provide faculty and implementation support
About
The Healthcare Informatics initiative will provide health IT training and curriculum aligned with economic stimulus initiatives to colleges augmenting current programs, and those with a new commitment to this industry sector.
Curriculum
HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS CERTIFICATE
18-Credits
The certificate provides a comprehensive foundation for understanding technical healthcare infrastructure, as well as its relevance to the implementation of the electronic medical record. The course work focuses on current issues in healthcare, delivery systems, patient privacy, security, data mining, clinical vocabularies, project management, technical standards, and decision support.
Goal:
The goal of this certificate is to prepare individuals with information technology skills for employment in healthcare informatics.
Outcomes:
- Gain an historical perspective of healthcare in the United States, with emphasis on cost, quality and access.
- Form a referential framework of healthcare reform currently underway in the United States.
- Access the workforce demand and characteristics required for the current and near future healthcare infrastructure.
- Understand the ramifications of the electronic medical record (EMR) to patients, policy, and data delivery.
- Recognition of coding and classification systems.
- Familiarization with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), and other patient privacy and security issues.
- Knowledge of hospital technical infrastructure, technical standards, systems interoperability and medical device integration.
- Working knowledge of project management principals in a healthcare setting.
- Understanding of the convergence of bioinformatics, clinical engineering and healthcare informatics.
Rationale:
Meet Workforce Need
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) ushered in a new era of patient record keeping in the United States. It underwrites the implementation of the patient electronic medical record with 19 billion dollars of funding. Hospitals must adopt the necessary technology and staffing to install, implement, and maintain this new data requirement. Major medical centers in the Puget Sound region have, to some degree, undertaken EMR implementation in the past. Now, all hospitals must prove “meaningful use” of this technology, or be financially penalized by the federal government until compliance is demonstrated. These efforts require increased staffing in all IT areas, including help desk support; programming; networking; project management; and user interface development. This scenario is unfolding just as significant layoffs in the information technology sector are occurring. The Health Informatics certificate of accomplishments will assist dislocated IT professionals and others towards employment in healthcare. It is constructed as an opportunity to absorb a critical mass of industry specific training, to enhance the IT skill set learners bring to the program at entry.
Course Content
Because learners enrolled in this certificate series will have significant prior IT experience, instruction will emphasize creditable web resources, and require students to interact with many professional and accrediting associations in the healthcare field in this way. The Bellevue College Library and Media Center has purchased a number of electronic subscriptions to resources and journals in the health informatics field, enabling learner access to durable and timely information. These, and other sources, form the basis of a series of student experiences accessing system; product and policy information; and, completing analysis and reflection on these topics.
Content provides students with the opportunity to begin with the wide, historical view of healthcare and medical recordkeeping in the United States, and move towards the specificity of sector-appropriate technologies, regulation, and culture. While engaged in research and analysis of the foundations of healthcare informatics, students will also complete meaningful, web based, and hands-on assignments with an actual electronic medical records system.
In order to assist learners in acclimating to the healthcare industry, a series of interviews with hospital IT professionals on a series of topics such as data interoperability, change management and patient privacy is an integral part of the certificate program. The added benefit is it will orient students to specific healthcare delivery providers.
The primary topics addressed in the certificate all move the learner towards repurposing previously acquired IT competencies for use in a clinical setting, and adding critical knowledge of healthcare administration. The history and current state of health IT, vocabulary and culture, the advent of the electronic medical record and its management, the regulatory environment, and career options are the foundational elements of this eighteen credit learning sequence.
Required Courses:
MEDIT 115: Fundamentals of Healthcare and Health Information Technologies (new)
MEDIT 225: Healthcare Informatics and Data Standards (new)
MEDIT 235: Healthcare Informatics Information and Processes (new)
HPRO 120: Medical Terminology