HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HIT) CAREER

Health Information Technology (HIT) Career

Health Information Technology (HIT) Career

Job Details

When people think about careers in the field of health care, such jobs as nurses, doctors and even receptionists might be the first ones to come to mind. HIT (Health Information Technology) is a growing field. It possesses a wide range of employment possibilities. The function of HIT is to manage information and create a secure exchange between the providers and consumers of health care. The field of information technology comprises of areas that are designed to operate the functions of a business, for example, running an office or a business. A candidate opting for a career in the HIT (Health Information Technology) must have an associate degree (Demiris, 2004).

Jobs in HIT play a major role in the healthcare world. The purpose of individuals working in this field is to facilitate and enhance the decision-making process of the doctors by providing accurate and complete information to them. Individuals working in this field have made it easier to look at earlier diseases and diagnoses for the same patient through the electronic databases. Health Information Technology makes the operations of a hospital more efficient and less time-consuming. Maintaining and creating databases are an important part of HIT.

Individuals who are interested to pursuing a career in the field of HIT (Health Information Technology) can benefit from the plenty of job opportunities available in the field. Numerous job opening would be coming up this field because a number of individuals working in the field would retire permanently and leave the field permanently (Latifi, 2008).

Salary Structure of Health Information Technology Career

In general, the salary on an average for jobs in the field of Health Information Technology is $61,000. The average salaries can vary widely based on the location, industry, experience, benefits and company.

Clinical Documentation Specialist (CDS)

The CDS facilitates the improvement of overall completeness and quality of medical record documentation. It obtains appropriate documentation through interactions with staff and physicians and educates members of the patient care team on documentation guidelines (Tan, 2005).

The primary responsibilities of the CDS are:

To complete the review of patient's admission records within 24 hours of admission for a specified patient population to:

assess documentation in order to assign the principal and secondary diagnosis and procedures for accurate and optimal APR-DRG (all payer refined - diagnosis related groups) assignment, and

Begin a case-mix review worksheet

To carry out ...