Pitt Community College, one of the five institutions across the country that is leading a regional consortium of community colleges to train thousands of new health information technology professionals, is set to begin classes this month.
The consortium received $10.9 million in federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services for the first year. Additional funding is available for a second year after successful completion of a mid-project evaluation.
The funding provides assistance for the Pitt Community College consortia of 20 community colleges, including Central Piedmont Community College and Catawba Valley Community College across a 13-state region.
Each community college will provide a non-degree training program designed to be completed in six months or less.
The intensive, non-degree program is designed to provide a qualified pool of workers with both medical and IT knowledge to help boost the adoption of electronic health records and information exchange across healthcare providers and public health authorities. It is also aimed at helping the redesign of workflows within healthcare settings to gain the quality and efficiency benefits of EHRs, while maintaining privacy and security of medical information.
Students must have either medical or information technology background to enroll in the program.
Training is expected to begin Sept. 30 in six health IT priority workforce roles, including:
- Practice workflow and information management redesign specialists; Clinician/practitioner consultants;
- Implementation support specialist;
- Implementation managers; and
- Technical/software support staff and trainers.
