Associate of Science - Health Information Technology

This program is designed to prepare students for employment in a variety of healthcare settings. Although medical records and health information technologists do not provide direct patient care, they work regularly with physicians and other healthcare professionals. Health information technologists organize and manage health information data by ensuring its quality, accuracy, accessibility, and security in both paper and electronic systems. They use various classification systems to code and categorize patient information for reimbursement purposes, for databases and registries, and to maintain patients’ medical and treatment histories. Health information technologists can specialize in many aspects of health information. Some careers in Health IT are: Technical and IT security specialist, project manager, corporate health information director, application and implementation specialist, systems analyst, data analyst, system architect, interface expert, and data quality manager. Most work as medical coders, sometimes called coding specialists, or as cancer registrars. Some of the major employment sectors for health information technology professionals are hospitals, clinics, schools, consulting firms, insurance companies, healthcare associations, pharmaceutical companies, and public healthcare organizations. Other primary employment sectors are nursing homes, doctors’ offices, rehabilitation centers, government agencies, and bio-tech companies.

Graduates are eligible to take the Registered Health Information Technician certification exam administered by the American Health Information Management Association.