Groups Plan Strategies To Use Health IT Work Force Grants

More than 80 community colleges and universities this fall will begin training nearly 50,000 health IT workers as part of an HHS grant program that aims to help physicians and hospitals adopt electronic health records, ComputerWorld reports (Mearian, ComputerWorld, 7/16).

Source of Funding

HHS in April announced $144 million in grants to target health IT research and work force development.

Funding was disbursed through the 2009 federal economic stimulus package (iHealthBeat, 4/5).

Breakdown of Plans

For the training, HHS has designed a curriculum to educate individuals with a health care or IT background for 12 specific roles.

The programs fall into two groups:

• A six-month program; and
• A one- to three-year training program for more advanced administrative and technical roles, such as senior clinician leaders and privacy and security specialists.

Graduates will receive a certificate in their specialties, and each school will receive approximately $1 million to implement the curriculum.

Regional Extension Centers

A large focus of the effort will be dedicated to training staff to work at 60 regional extension centers, which will help rural institutions and small physician practices install EHR systems.

The centers are expected to employ up to 30 trained workers, who will:

• Assist health care providers with reimbursement procedures;
• Assess a facility’s health IT infrastructure;
• Suggest compatible EHR systems;
• Oversee system installation;
• Analyze workflow; and
• Determine if EHR deployment meets federal “meaningful use” standards (ComputerWorld, 7/16).

Source: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/7/16/groups-preparing-ways-to-use-hhs-grants-for-it-training-programs.aspx