Health Information Management

Program Outcomes
Admissions Requirements
Job Opportunities
Degree Program
Degree Cost Estimate
Degree Checklist

General Information

Health Information Management

Health Information Management (HIM) professionals play a vital role in the fast emerging field of health informatics. Their role in the collection, management, and analysis of health information data will allow physicians, nurses, and other health care providers to deliver quality health care in a variety of health care settings, from hospitals to outpatient clinics to rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, and health insurance organizations. The move from a paper-based medical record to the electronic medical record will require HIM skills to guarantee the quality of patient information and patient care at every point in the health care delivery cycle. Some HIM professionals specialize in coding patients’ medical information for insurance purposes while others specialize in cancer registry, reviewing patient records and pathology reports, and assigning codes for diagnosis and treatment of different cancers and selected tumors. Others may choose from such occupations as information security officers, quality improvement analysts, research coordinators, clinical health/data analysts, database administrators, software implementation specialists, and applications trainers, to name a few potential employment areas.

Program Outcomes

Graduates with an A.S. degree will be able to:

Collect, maintain, and analyze health care data in monitoring and complying with HIM requirements and standards.
Apply coding systems and medical reimbursement guidelines.
Collect and analyze data for registries, quality management, statistics, research and performance improvement and other patient care needs.
Interpret, apply, and communicate laws, regulations, licensure and accreditation standards to health care facilities.
Interpret and comply with HIPAA privacy guidelines.
Use specialized software for HIM processes and design, query, and generate reports.
Apply principles of supervision and management and provide leadership by organizing and contributing to work teams and committees.

Admission Requirements

In addition to college-wide admissions requirements, applicants must interview with a member of the full-time faculty.

Health, Character and Technical Standards

A grade point average of 2.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale of the most recent academic transcript (high school or post-secondary)
All developmental coursework must be completed prior to registering for any AH, BIOL, MEDA, or HIM courses.
Submit to a criminal background check.
Have the ability to walk, sit, and stand for long periods of time (two hours) in succession. Typical jobs allow a meal break and two short rest breaks.
Have the ability to calculate mathematical information such as hospital statistics, productivity information, quality improvement studies,etc. The individual must also be able to apply algebraic formulas when preparing computerized spreadsheets.
Ability to keyboard a minimum of 40-45 words per minute.
20/20 vision (with or without accommodation) to read names and numbers on medical records, distinguish colors, read voluminous medical records, read code books and computer software documentation.
Possess professional liability insurance for internships (available at the college)
Possess and maintain personal health insurance for internships.
Submit a report of a current physical exam, including vaccination status, up-to-date tetanus booster, TB test, Hepatitis B series, and chicken pox titer or varicella vaccine.
Students are required to confer with HIM program faculty for curriculum planning due to prerequisites and because not all courses are offered each semester.

Job Opportunities

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment is expected to grow faster than average. Employment of medical records and health information technicians is expected to increase by 18 percent through 2016—faster than the average for all occupations—because of rapid growth in the number of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that will be increasingly scrutinized by health insurance companies, regulators, courts and consumers.