What is Health Information Management: Degree Programs For Medically-Minded Students

Some people know they want to work in healthcare, but don't quite see themselves as a future doctor or nurse. The good news is that those aren't the only options. Health information management is a newer field that may not be on everyone's radar yet, but it's integral to the healthcare sector and may help prospective students tap into their desire to study something medically-oriented without taking such a hands-on role.

What Is Health Information Management?

Health information management is the science of keeping medical data organized and confidential. Workers in this field do most of their job on computers, but it is still considered part of the healthcare field in some capacity. It is their job to input health data, to sort and classify it, and to release it only to authorized people (usually the individual to whom the information pertains and those to whom they've given express permission).

These workers can be found in doctors' offices, hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and everywhere else where health information is frequently handled. Some also work for places like insurance companies and law offices in order to allow these enterprises to better handle cases involving a medical angle. With more and more information being produced and stored in all aspects of our lives, demand for these professionals is sure to rise in the coming years.

Why Is It Useful?

Health information management is fundamental to functional, individualized medicine. Everyone responds differently to certain medications, for example, and some people will be more vulnerable to certain diseases or post-operative complications based on their past medical history.

If these things are known prior to the start of any treatment, they can be accounted for from the start without needing to waste time exploring avenues that will not work and may even cause some harm.

What all of this means is that the more data a doctor can have access to about their patient, the better treatment outcomes will generally be. Health information management work is meant to make this data accessible in cases like this when it could do a lot of good, while still keeping the data itself almost entirely private.

Additionally, medical professionals understand that being ill can be a very difficult and stressful thing to go through. Not everyone wants to be open about their illness or conditions, especially if they are suffering from something that is commonly stigmatized like schizophrenia or depression. This is why health information management also has a compassionate component to it.

By ensuring that patients can have the utmost confidence in the safety of their personal health information, this field help alleviate some of the extreme stress of health conditions from vulnerable people. They can undergo whatever treatments they need while feeling confident that that knowledge will remain a secret from employers, acquaintances, friends and even family if they wish.

Why Is Training So Important?

In the United States, health information privacy is regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA for short. This law states that individuals are entitled to ownership of and privacy for their personal protected health information. As a general rule, most details about a person's health conditions or any tests they undergo fall under that umbrella - even something like a picture of someone in a hospital bed can constitute a HIPAA violation when it is released, accidentally or otherwise, by a healthcare professional. When something so small is treated so seriously, you can see why things like test results and medical evaluations must be guarded with extreme care.

If someone slips up, they could face legal troubles, heavy fines (up to $1.5 million per year for violations in each of the four categories of severity, for a total overall maximum of $6 million annually), possible loss of licensure and even potential jail time. It's safe to say that neither you nor your employer want to deal with any of these consequences, so proper handling of health information is absolutely critical to this job.

There are standard procedures in place for situation and they must be followed to the letter in order to remain completely compliant with this law. Doing so will not only keep you out of trouble, but will also ensure that your security measures are as tight as they can possibly be. You will learn everything you need to know in this capacity in a health information management program, and employers require this credential from their applicants in order to ensure that they have that knowledge.

Are you interested in HIM? If you want to handle vital information in a medical setting, consider earning an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Health Science with a Focus in Health Information Management from ECPI University. For more information on this accelerated program, connect with a knowledgeable admissions counselor today.

It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

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Gainful Employment Information – Health Information Management - Associate’s

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