What is the Health Care IT Program all about?

The HITECH portion of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA) provided funds for community colleges to train health care and information technology workers. The eHealth Workforce Development Workgroup report projects that approximately 9,000 additional highly skilled health care information technology (HCIT) workers with a broad range of skill sets will be required to support California over the next five years.

The Los Rios Community College District was recently notified by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) that it has been named the lead institution in a $5.4 million grant involving a consortium of 14 colleges in California, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada.

The grant is designed to get people trained quickly in the kind of computerized health information systems that are being installed by hospitals and medical offices across the western states. The electronic systems will replace inefficient paper records and allow health providers to quickly review and update a patient's medical history. Patients who have had to move, change doctors or required emergency medical attention know the importance of getting medical records transferred quickly and how difficult that is to accomplish in a paper-based system.

These certificates are six-month training programs, and are for college credit. They are offered as online and on-campus hybrid courses with day or evening labs.

What are some of the Health Care IT workforce roles covered in CRC’s program?

Health Care IT Implementation Support Specialist

Workers in this role provide on-site user support for the period of time before and during implementation of health care IT systems in clinical and public health settings. The previous background of workers in this role includes information technology or information management. Workers in this role will:

• Execute implementation project plans, by installing hardware (as needed) and configuring software to meet practice needs
• Incorporate usability principles into design and implementation
• Test the software against performance specifications
• Interact with the vendors as needed to rectify problems that occur during the deployment process

Health Care IT Technical Support Specialist

Workers in this role maintain systems in clinical and public health settings, including patching and upgrading of software. The previous background of workers in this role includes information technology or information management. Workers in this role will:

• Interact with end users to diagnose IT problems and implement solutions

Document IT problems and evaluate the effectiveness of problem resolution

• Support systems security and standard

Health Care IT Trainer (coming fall 2011)

Workers in this role design and deliver training programs, using adult learning principles, to employees in clinical and public health settings. The previous background of workers in this role includes experience as a health professional or health information management specialist. Workers in this role will:

Be able to use a range of health IT applications, preferably at an expert level

• Communicate both health and IT concepts as appropriate
• Assess training needs and competencies of learners
• Design lesson plans, structuring active learning experiences for users
• Track training records of the users and develop learning plans for further instruction

Here are some sample courses:

• HCIT 104 Medical Terminology for Health Care IT Professionals
• HCIT 100 Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the U.S.
• HCIT 102 The Culture of Health Care
• HCIT 110 Introduction to Information and Computer Science for Health Care Professionals
• HCIT 112 Networking and Health Information Exchange for Health Care IT Professionals
• HCIT 132 Configuring Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
• HCIT 140 Introduction to Health Care Management Information Systems
• HCIT 142 Installation and Maintenance of Health Care IT Systems
• HCIT 144 Working with Health Care IT Systems
• HCIT 160 Professionalism and Customer Service in the Health Care Environment
• HCIT 162 Training and Instruction Design in Health Care IT
• HCIT 164 Usability and Human Factors in Health Care IT
• HCIT 180 Special Topics Course on Vendor-Specific Systems in Health Care IT

Cosumnes River College is the only college in the Sacramento region participating in this grant and space is limited. Interested students should view the online orientation or attend an on-ground orientation if they have any questions.