The Community College of Vermont has been selected to receive grant funds from the US Department of Health and Human Services to educate information technology professionals in healthcare. CCV will receive a $580,471 grant and become a member of the Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals in Health Care, established by a $16 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to help US health care providers nationwide invest in electronic health records systems.
The goal of the regional Consortia, led by Tidewater Community College and including 23 community colleges from Virginia to Maine, is to educate 7,500 information technology professionals in healthcare over the next two years. These individuals will assist in reorganizing the work of healthcare providers in pursuit of meaningful use of health information technology (IT) to improve health and care, provide on-site user support before and during implementation of health IT systems in clinical and public health settings, and support technology deployed in clinical and public health settings.
CCV will provide training in three areas to establish or expand health information technology (HIT) systems: Practice Workflow and Information Management Redesign Specialist, Implementation Support Specialist, and Technical/Software Support Staff. The goal is to place 225 Vermonters in these three roles across the two-year grant period. CCV has found a creative, timely way in which to partner with health care organizations as we move forward with meeting the requirements of meaningful use for electronic medical records, said April Tuck, Senior Director of Human Resources at Copley Hospital in Morrisville. With the increased need for employees who are fluent in all aspects of health care information technology, CCV s program will provide candidates with some of the most critical tools. This benefits the health care organizations, potential employees and our greater community.
According to CCV Director of Allied Health Programs Darlene Murphy, With 12 sites statewide and a robust online division, CCV is in a great position to serve the workforce needs of healthcare providers throughout Vermont to implement electronic health record systems. Our strong student support, quality teaching by faculty who are experts in health information and information technology, and the skilled leadership of our allied health advisory committee will help ensure the success of this program. In addition, students who receive the training will be well-positioned to continue their education through CCV s Health Information Specialist certificate and other programs in Health Informatics at Vermont institutions of higher learning.
CCV will work with partner organizations throughout Vermont to implement the federally funded program. Dr. David Cochran, president and CEO of Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. welcomes the partnership. "Vermont and the federal government have made major commitments to help provider practices implement and use electronic health records and health information exchange across the state over the next few years. Assisting practices will require more trained people than there are available. We are delighted that CCV, as a participant in the Community College Consortium, will be helping to build the workforce we need."
Source: CCV. 6.10.2010
Community College of Vermont gets $580,000 for healthcare IT program
Submitted by tim
on