HITECH Workforce Program Overview
Crosstraining online for Healthcare and IT Professionals
The HITECH Workforce Program is transitioning from a grant funded program to a 6 to 18 month certificate to allow professionals more time to work on their courses. The program is offered through Continuing Education through Summer 2013 (June and July start dates), and transitions to credit courses starting in Fall 2013. This program is an intensive, online, educational program designed to provide a qualified pool of Healthcare and IT workers to ensure a successful:
• Nationwide adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs),
• Information exchange across health care providers and public health authorities,
• Redesign of workflows within health care settings to gain quality and efficient benefits of EHRs,
• EHR Transition while maintaining privacy and security of medical information.
The HITECH Workforce Program is designed to cross train professionals with two years of experience or two years of education in either healthcare or Information Technology. Training will provide the individuals with knowledge, skills, and aptitudes necessary to implement and maintain electronic health records system in hospitals, physician's offices and clinics. See student testimonials: http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/workforce_program_student_testimonials_v2_3.pdf
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Department of Education, approximately 50,000 qualified health information technology workers will be needed to meet the federal mandate which requires all Medicare and Medicaid providers to implement Electronic Health Records (EHR) by 2015. It is estimated that Texas will need 10,000 workers by 2015 with upgraded skills for both EHR and Health Information Exchange (HIE). Reference: Texas State Workforce Needs Survey
Next Classes begin : June 3rd and July 11th, 2013.
Application deadline is ten working days prior to start date (May 17th for June 3rd classes).
Courses will be offered as credit and continuing education (CE) effective August 2013. CE tuition rates will be based on in-district rates. See tuition rates at:
http://www.midland.edu/docs/admissions/fees_tuition.pdf.
Information for the program:
* Classes are set on an eight week schedule.
*Students may start the program during any 8-week session (six-week sessions during the summer).* $100 per course for continuing education courses offered June and July 2013. Then, regular tuition rates apply.
* Program is completely online.
* 2 classes per eight week session is recommended, however, students may choose to take only one course at a time due to other obligations.
* Expected time needed to be successful in the course is estimated at 5-8 hours a week depending previous background and education.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis as courses start each eight weeks, however, application deadlines are 10 working days before the classes begin. See HITECH Application below for more details.
HITECH Application (pdf)
AHIMA CE Credits (pdf)