CAHIMS Preparation Certificate Online Program
Now is the time to get credentials that can help you become part of the growing field of health information technology. Whether you have experience in healthcare or IT, a Certified Associate in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CAHIMS) certificate from Bellevue College advances your path to a career in health IT. Request more information today to get started.
CAHIMS Preparation Program Overview
The online, Certified Associate in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CAHIMS) program at Bellevue College, Seattle is designed for students who have prior education or experience in IT or healthcare. The digitization of medical records is revolutionizing healthcare, and the CAHIMS certificate will advance your path to a career in health IT. The courses cover healthcare, health information technology, and health information management systems. Our curriculum is aligned to the new CAHIMS certification administered by HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society), helping prepare you to take the CAHIMS certification exam.
If you’re looking for a rewarding career where you’ll be able to help facilitate and improve the digital infrastructure in an array of healthcare settings, our flexible, online program will help you get off to a great start.
- Instructor-led, online program lets you take classes on your time while providing full guidance
- Full- and part-time options are available to fit your schedule
- The total cost for the CAHIMS program is just $1285
- Choose your start date — Summer (June 27, 2016 or Fall (September 23, 2016)
For more information:
Email us using the form above, or call Continuing Education Customer Service at 425-564-2263 for more information.
Course Descriptions
- Healthcare Environment and Professional Skills – 50 hours
- Healthcare Technology Environment and Security – 50 hours
- HIT Systems Life Cycle Management – 50 hours
Healthcare Environment and Professional Skills
This course gives an overview of the healthcare environment and of the leadership, planning, professional and communication skills that are essential to be successful in this environment. It covers the healthcare systems as a whole including provider, governing and payment organizations.
Course Content Outline:
- Healthcare Environment
- Healthcare Delivery Organizations
- Healthcare Payment Systems
- Role of Healthcare Professionals
- Government Regulation and Certification
- Leadership and Change Management
- Quality Standards
- IT Strategic Planning
- Business Communication and Ethics
- Teams and Team Building
- Professionalism and Customer Service
- Staying Current with Technology and Industry
Learning Outcomes:
- Explain basic characteristics, interrelationships, and services of different types of healthcare organizations
- Distinguish among major clinical and business departments and functions found in healthcare organizations
- Discuss the impact of commonly accepted laws, regulations, accreditation, and other state and local rules that govern the healthcare industry
- Identify significant business trends affecting the healthcare field and discuss their potential impact on providers and customers
- Describe strategies to monitor and assess ongoing individual or specific organizational performance indicators
- Explain the key elements of healthcare organizations ethical business principles
- Explain best practices that support effective business communication for different purposes and audiences
- Describe the purpose and outline the main components of a strategic plan
- Describe individual and team roles, responsibilities, and discuss effective team processes
- Describe the purpose and compare different approaches to change management and control
- Identify the key elements and effective characteristics of system, operational, and department documentation
- Identify effective ways to stay current with industry, practice and technology trends
- Identify key characteristics of effective customer service and professional conduct in the healthcare environment
- Define quality standards in the healthcare industry and identify practices that comply or do not comply with these standards
Healthcare Technology Environment and Security
This course gives an overview of the healthcare technology environment, various health IT applications, and associated privacy and security policies and compliance. It focuses on health information management systems as well as applications that connect into these systems, and on the flow and transfer of data throughout the healthcare system.
Course Content Outline:
- Healthcare Technology Environment
- Health IT Applications
- Electronic Health and Medical Records
- Clinical and Financial Applications
- Consumer Health Informatics
- Systems Architecture and Components
- Healthcare Data Exchange and Standards
- Privacy and Security Policies and Compliance
- Security Risk Assessment and Audits
- Data and Systems Security Management
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Learning Outcomes:
- Describe the role and characteristics of various IT applications, such as clinical, administrative, financial applications commonly used in healthcare
- Explain the roles and characteristics of the information and communication technologies, such as
- infrastructure, servers, web services, data exchange and storage that supports the healthcare environment
- Discuss significant technology trends affecting the health IT field
- Describe organizational policies and procedures to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data
- Identify organizational roles (e.g., information security, physical security, compliance) responsible for managing vulnerabilities
- Compare procedures and tools to identify and mitigate potential privacy/security risks and breaches, and
- to conduct audits
- Define the different levels of and strategies to maintain data management controls (e.g., data ownership, criticality, security levels, protection controls, retention and destruction requirements, access controls)
- Describe the key elements of disaster recovery and business continuity plans
- Describe the key elements of privacy and security audits
HIT Systems Life Cycle Management
This course gives an overview of the healthcare information management systems life cycle, including analysis planning and design, selection and acquisition, implementation and management, and testing and evaluation. The focus is on best practices and standards that guide effective implementation and maintenance of information systems to support clinical processes and workflow in healthcare organizations.
Course content outline:
- Health Information Management Systems Analysis, Planning and Design
- Clinical Process and Workflow Analysis
- Business, User and Technical Requirements
- Usability and Human Factors
- Health IT Project Management
- Health Information Management Systems Selection
- Health Information Management Systems Acquisition
- Interoperability Standards and Certification
- Health Information Management Systems Implementation
- End User Training and Support
- Health Information Management Systems Monitoring and Maintenance
- Testing Methodology and Planning
- Testing Implementation and Documentation
Learning Outcomes:
- Outline effective strategies to gather, analyze and prioritize user and technical requirements
- Describe processes that support the documentation and analysis of current business and clinical processes (e.g., process mapping, flow diagramming, needs analysis)
- Explain the key steps in proposal development and systems specification, including system verification, validation, and reliability activities
- Describe issues that relate to usability and human factors in system selection and implementation, and best practices to resolve these issues
- Describe the purpose and identify the elements of requests for information and requests for proposals
- Identify the key steps and factors in systems and vendor selection, and in systems acquisition
- Explain key elements of the systems lifecycle management process, with specific roles and responsibilities for each phase of the process
- Describe strategies for user training and support, and ways to assess these strategies based on user feedback and systems performance metrics
- Outline the main roles and responsibilities in routine systems monitoring and management
- Describe the purpose and format of various systems documentations
- Outline testing methods and plans to support systems implementation and ongoing performance