Back in 2009 the HITECH Act was passed seeking to improve American health care delivery and patient care through an investment in health information technology. Most of the people I talk to think of this legislation in terms of "meaningful use" incentives. A few people actually know that this act made provisions for other programs such as HIEs, "beacon communities", "SHARP programs", Community College and University based training and competency exams. The competency exams (link here) test several EHR implementation areas such as project management, clinical and technical health IT skills.
The Clinician/Practitioner Consultant qualification exam caught my attention and in August 2011 I registered for the competency exam at www.pearsonvue.com/hitpro/ . The exam was so new that there was no material that I could purchase in order to study. Looking at healthit.hhs.gov I determined that the areas tested were divided in the following domains:
- Fundamentals of health workflow process analysis and redesign
- Quality improvement
- Working with HIT systems
- Health Information Management Systems
- Planning, Management, and Leadership for Health IT
In the end I had to rely on the clinical and technical knowledge I had accumulated over the years. The 3 hour exam was intense and
I was ecstatic to receive the news that I had passed it. In November 2011 I received my Clinician/Practitioner Consultant certificate, which I am proudly attaching here:
Mission accomplished!
Can you recommend study material?
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote the exam I did not have any study material. I had to rely on my experience. I am sure things have changed in the past two years.
ReplyDeleteI recommend that you get in touch with one of colleges that are part of the HHS college consortia. They would be able to give you an indication of the study materials. Go to the link below and choose out of the 5 regions:
http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/community-college-consortia
Good luck!
-Doru