Health IT Training 
Click here for information on CCBC's Health IT - RHIT/RHIA
EXAM PREPARATION course

Background:  In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded Health IT Training grants to Community Colleges across the United States as part of the HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health).  The HITECH Act is part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and is focused on improving American healthcare delivery and patient care through Health Information Technology (HIT).  The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) is part of the Region V Consortium providing Health IT training in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions under the HIT Consortia Grant No. 90CC0080/01.  For more information, visit www.healthit.hhs.gov

Costs: Grant funds provide the training free of charge to accepted students.  There are approximately 150 spots available in 2012.

Application Criteria: Students must have a background (educational and/or work) in either clinical Healthcare or IT/Computer Science (see specifics below).

Training Schedule: The training is approximately 200 hours, to be completed within 6 months. It is a combination of classroom, online and computer lab experience. The classroom sessions take place on weekends, 2-3 times each month. There are 4 cohorts scheduled to start in 2012:

· January at Randallstown
· March at Essex
· May at Randallstown
· July at Essex

Next Steps:  Review the Career Roles available and acceptance criteria; fill out and submit the Pre-Registration pdf form, and email to healthandhumanservices@ccbcmd.edu.  Fill the pdf form online, then chose 'print' and print it as an Adobe PDF by choosing the Adobe as your printer. This will really save it as pdf. Attach this file to the email and send it to the above email address. CCBC will hold mandatory orientation sessions before each cohort begins to familiarize students with details and expectations.  If selected, participants will be required to provide documentation of qualifying education, training and/or work experience.

CCBC HIT Contact: Lynette Higgins, Program Coordinator (443) 840-1716 or lhiggins@ccbcmd.edu

CCBC Will Offer Training in the Following Career Roles

EHR SPECIALIST: These workers will assist in reorganizing the work of a provider to take full advantage of HIT/EHR features to improve the health care process.  Work may involve sending orders and receiving results, reporting, order entry, electronic documentation, scheduling, and other EHR functions.  Work may also include advising clinicians in the use of HIT/EHR, advocating user needs and ensuring that consumer perspectives are incorporated into HIT/EHR deployments.

Required Background: Participants enrolling will need one of the following to qualify:

• 2- or 4-year degree in healthcare field
• Certification in healthcare field with at least 3 years clinical work experience
• 5 years work experience in a clinical healthcare setting with supervisor’s recommendation
• Current training in healthcare field with instructor’s recommendation

EHR SPECIALIST/IT:  These workers provide on-site user support before and during implementation of HIT/EHR systems above and beyond basic vendor support.  This role will ensure various controls    (i.e. privacy and security) are functioning, assist in providing data back-up, test the software against performance standards, and identify hardware and software incompatibility.  This role may also provide support in the traditional “help desk” model, and interact with end-users to diagnose IT problems and implement solutions.

Required Background: Participants enrolling will need one of the following to qualify:

• 2- or 4-year degree in computer/IT field
• Certification in computer/IT field with at least 3 years work experience
• 5 years work experience in computer/IT setting with supervisor’s recommendation
• Current training in computer/IT with instructor’s recommendation

Click here to download a list of the classes