Health Information

As health information management technology grows and the role of the Internet and digital resources becomes even more important for the healthcare industry, there will be more jobs and room for employment in this sector of the workforce.

Health information management is the industry that deals with health care data and the management of it. Much of learning about careers in this healthcare sector will involve privacy of information and data of patients and doctors. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is crucial in this field as those who are certified and work in health information management jobs will be responsible for ensuring the privacy and integrity of records and data.

Choosing a College

When you’re focusing on getting started in health information management careers the first thing that will more than likely come to your mind is where you’ll find the best education. The only place that should be considered for health information management programs are those colleges and universities that are accredited by the CAHIIM.

The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education is the sole accrediting organization for schools that offer health information programs. The CAHIIM accredits all Associates, Bachelors, and Master’s program and is the accreditation that you should look for when choosing a college.

The AHIMA

After completing an educational program that is accredited by the CAHIIM, you’ll be faced with an exam in order to start your professional career. The exams administered by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) lead to certifications in health information management, coding, healthcare privacy and security, or health data analysis.

All of certification options from the AHIMA allow for unique opportunities in a person’s healthcare career. Obtaining a certificate allows for more earning potential, career mobility, as well as more opportunities overall. In essence, it provides a strong foundation for your entire career.

Registered Health Information Technician Career Option

A Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) is one of the major credentials that a health information management student can decide to qualify for. Upon passing the exam successfully, individuals can obtain jobs where they’ll be responsible for entering electronic health information records and ensuring their completeness, using computers and applications to analyze patient records and data, as well as using coding skills for patient records.

Aside from an RHIT, individual can also be eligible for the Certified Coding Associate, Certified Coding Specialist, and Certified Health Data Analyst credentials among others after education is completed.

Important Tips for HIM Programs

When it comes down to choosing an actual Health Information Management program, you’ll have to decide not only which school you want to choose, but also which area of healthcare management you want for your career. There are traditional universities as well as distance learning and online programs that are accredited by the CAHIIM organization. In addition, looking at tuition costs as well as admission requirements is important.

As you can see, there are multiple career paths for someone who would like to specialize in the health information management sector of the healthcare industry. Ensuring the privacy and data of patient and medical records will be crucial as technology becomes even more complex in the 21st century so chances are that these jobs will not be going away soon.

The issue of women’s health is one that is of great importance but one that often gets neglected. Whether you are a woman yourself or not, it is important that you are up to date on women and health issues and that you know where you can go to get women and health information.

Women’s Health Mag

This is one of the best resources for everything to do with women and health. This is a magazine that is also available online, one that really reaches a new generation of women who may not like the way that most other women’s magazines make them feel.

Rather than focusing on pin-thin models to use for their front covers, Women’s Health Mag believes in employing healthy, average sized women who are confident and who love themselves inside and out. They are the perfect resource for those women who are interested in learning about women and health but from a realistic point of view.

Whether you want to learn about fashions or sex and relationships, they have valuable insight into everything to do with women’s health, so take a bit of time to check them out and see what they have to offer.

Healthy Women

Another fantastic resource for information on women and health is Healthy Women. They offer just about everything that you can think about, from the new Sex and the City movie news to information on sexually transmitted diseases and more.

They even feature regular publications that you can subscribe to so that you can always be kept up to date on the latest and most important information on the issue of women’s health.

The issue of women and mental health is another of great importance here, as mental health is of great importance to overall health in general. Women have children and more varying hormones in general and as a result are much more prone to mental problems. It is therefore important that all women keep their mental health in check and if they ever begin experiencing any problems or feeling out of sorts that they get in to see a medical professional as soon as they can.

You already know how important it is to stay in touch with your doctor and keep him abreast of your medical situation, but you should also do some researching on your own time and ensure that you are always keeping your health in check.

According to CBC news: In December the Durham health authority, which is responsible for a large area east of Toronto, had lost the USB stick that contains medical records of thousands people. And this USB stick has no password protection. This unsecured USB stick contained data collected from more than 83,000 patients during H1N1 flu vaccination clinics in the region between Oct. 23 and Dec. 15.

On Thursday, Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian ordered Durham and other health authority in the province “to immediately implement procedures to ensure that any personal health information stored on any mobile devices [laptops, USB sticks, etc] is strongly encrypted.”

She said that she could accept the ineluctability of loss or theft of mobile devices, but she could not accept the behavior of not using password protect USB stick. She said that since we has very advanced encryption technology to prevent the information stored on the USB stick from lost, not to secure USB stick is “both distressing and completely unacceptable”.

This incident has brought the problem of USB security to light, for the first time, so directly. We, as common mobile storage device users, should also understand the importance to use password protect USB stick. USB stick is a small device and it is easy to be lost. It’s OK if there’re only music and videos in it. However, we often put something like business presentation, coursework, orworse, contract draft in it. So in order to avoid data loss from USB stick, we need to use password protect USB stick. And USB encryption software such as Wondershare USB Drive Encryption can provide our USB stick with password protection.

Wondershare USB Drive Encryption is one of the best encryption software which is professionally designed to secure USB stick. It allows you to create a password protected secure area on USB stick for your confidential data. In addition, it also provides you a read-only option to protect the encrypted data on the secured USB stick. And you can access to the secured data on USB drive in a third computer even you don’t install the security program in the computer. And you just drag and drop data into the secured area, the data will be automatically protected with password. You see, if Durham has a tool like Wondershare USB Drive Encryption, they won’t be worried about and blamed for this incident of USB stick loss.

Medical records and health information technicians handle and organize patient records, and evaluate these records for completeness and accuracy.

They may specialize in coding patients’ medical information for insurance purposes. They will tabulate and analyze data to improve patient care, control costs, provide documentation for use in legal actions and respond to surveys for use in research studies. They conduct annual follow-ups on all patients to track their treatment, survival, and recovery. They may supervise health information clerks and transcriptionists.

In 2004 there were about 159,000 technicians in the U.S. About 40% worked in hospitals. The rest were mostly in physician’s offices, nursing care facilities, outpatient care centers, and home health care services. Some worked in insurance firms that deal in health matters. In public health departments technicians supervise data collection.

Medical records and health information technicians usually have an associate degree from a community or junior college. Besides a general education, coursework should include medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, legal aspects of health information, coding and abstraction of data, statistics, database management, quality improvement methods and computer science.

Many job openings require Registered Health Information Technicians (RHIT). They pass a written exam from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). To take the exam, one must graduate from a 2-year associate degree program. This should be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). In 2005, there were 184 CAHIIM-accredited programs.

Medical records and health information technicians must be able to:

* organize and evaluate patient records for completeness and accuracy, using modern record keeping procedures and computer programs,* make sure that patients’ initial medical charts are complete,* communicate clearly with physicians and other health care professionals,* manage a department, if they have the training and experience,* work a 40-hour week with some overtime,* be prepared to work day, evening, and night shifts if working in hospitals,* pay close attention to detail.

Job Growth for Medical Records and Health Information Technicians:

Job opportunities for medical records and health information technicians will grow much faster than average for all occupations. Most new jobs are expected to be in physician’s offices because of increasing demand for detailed records. Rapid growth also is expected in home health care services, outpatient care centers, and nursing and residential care facilities.

How much do medical records and health information technicians earn?In 2004 median annual earnings were $25,590. Fifty percent earned between $20,650 and $32,990. The lowest salaries were less than $17,720, and the highest more than $41,760.

A Day in a Medical Records Technician’s Life:

On a typical day a medical records technician will:

*organize and evaluate patient records for completeness and accuracy,*make sure that patients’ initial medical charts are complete and entered in the computer,*communicate with physicians to clarify diagnoses or to obtain additional information,*assign a code to each diagnosis and procedure,*consult classification manuals concerning disease processes,*use computer software to assign the patient to one of several hundred “diagnosis-related groups,” or DRGs,*tabulate and analyze data,*review patient records and pathology reports,*conduct annual follow-ups on all patients in the registry.

I hope this article gives you a good idea of what is involved in the career of a Medical Records Technician. Health care is the largest industry in the world. In the U.S. about 14 million people work in the health care field. More new wage and salary jobs are in health care than in any other industry. (Some figures from Bureau of Labor Statistics.)