Get to Know More About CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician Certificate
- select the contributor at the end of the page -
The healthcare industry is on the rise. In fact, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has indicated that it is one of the world's fastest-growing and largest sectors. In 2019, it is estimated that the United States government will spend more than $4.5 trillion on health care. With such a treat, CompTIA offered its own healthcare IT certification especially designed for the healthcare industry – the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician Certificate. What is this certificate all about? How does one get it? What else is there to know?
The Changing HealthCare Landscape
As with everything else in the world today, healthcare is being impacted by the advent of computers and the Internet. More and more of its services are getting an electronic facelift. It is not just about getting medical and health information online, but even health records are being made available through the net.
Electronic health records are a systematic way of collecting health records of an individual and even of entire populations. These electronic health records are sharable.
In fact, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 has mandated that electronic health records should be put into good use and that would be one of its critical goals. The HITECH Act offered incentives for institutions to adopt and implement EHR systems.
The United States government has earlier predicted that over the next few years, around 50,000 new health IT workers will be needed to help implement electronic health records systems in medical and healthcare organizations.
And not only will the demand for IT professionals in the healthcare industry grow in the next few years, the salary will also increase. SimplyHired.com reports that the average salary of IT professionals in healthcare is close to $70,000 as of August 27, 2012.
It is with this background that CompTIA released another certification program for IT technicians in the health care industry, called the Healthcare IT Technician.
What the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician Is All About
CompTIA describes the health IT certification as one that would cover the skills and knowledge required to implement, support and deploy healthcare IT systems seen in a variety of clinical settings.
An article written by Ken Terry at Information Week, however, specifies that the new professional credential is geared towards those IT professionals who are in charge of installing and maintaining electronic health record systems. In fact, CompTIA confirms that one of the reasons why they developed the new certification is that a lot of firms are receiving tons of requests from doctors and healthcare professionals to assist in installing EHR systems.
The new CompTIA healthcare IT technician certification would be able to provide value-added resellers with the additional technical expertise and skills, as well as general healthcare knowledge to take on these requests.
CompTIA's senior director of workforce development, Gretchen Koch, also says that there was a demand for a certification that was recognized by the industry that goes beyond just getting the certificate of completion for undergoing federally financed health IT training programs.
Further, Koch says the new technology-neutral and vendor-neutral certification could help companies assess the skills of a potential health IT employee. In fact, those who have finished community college could get certified and could get positions such as implementation specialists or as software and technical support specialists. Both positions are critical in helping healthcare organizations come up with their own electronic health records systems.
The Details of the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician
The certification covers the following areas:
- Organizational behavior
- Medical business and IT operations
- Regulatory requirements
- Security
Those who have a basic understanding of how a medical practice or a healthcare organization works and those who know the best practices in security and code of conduct should try out for the test. Specifically, IT professionals who already have a CompTIA certification and have the skills and the knowledge to deploy, maintain and support IT systems in clinical settings can get certified. If you do not have an A+ certification, you could still get certified if you have 500 hours of hands-on and practical IT experience in the field or laboratory. Of course, this is just the recommended experience and is not a requisite to taking the test.
The CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician certification exam has 75 questions. Candidates would have 60 minutes to answer these.
A passing score is 650 out of a possible highest score of 900 points. This is currently available only in the United States.
Taking and Passing the Exam
As with other CompTIA certifications, you can choose to undergo some sort of classroom training at any of CompTIA's approved training facilities. You would also learn a lot by getting study materials to pore over.
You can also buy study materials from CompTIA. The study companions have been reviewed and approved by healthcare professionals to ensure that you learn everything you need to know.
If you do not have the time to go to a physical classroom, you can opt for eLearning sessions that you can take anytime, anywhere.
Once you are ready to take the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician examination, you can buy a voucher from the CompTIA Marketplace and find a testing center near you. You can view authorized testing centers from the Pearson VUE website here: http://www.pearsonvue.com/comptia/
CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician Certificate provides a good way to learn the skills and acquire the knowledge you need in healthcare informatics in a systematic and structured manner. It also proves the skills and knowledge that you have. It is one of the few credentials available to healthcare IT technicians and is specifically targeted to those who will implement and maintain electronic health record systems. Furthermore, this medical IT certification is targeted at a growing segment, healthcare IT, that will see increased demand as regulatory pressures increase, and adoption of which becomes critical to a medical practice or health organization.
Simply put, the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician Certificate is one of the surest bets you have in getting ahead in your career!
