Health Information Management professionals collect, integrate, and analyze primary and secondary health care data, disseminate information and manage information resources related to the research, planning, provision, and evaluation of health care services. Accreditation The Department of Health Information Management (HIM) administers two programs, the Health Information Technology (HIT) program, and the Health Information Administration (HIA) program. Each is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) in cooperation with the Council on Accreditation of the American Health Information Management Association. Admissions A student eligible for admission to the University is eligible for admission to the HIM programs. Applicants for readmission and transfer students must meet criteria at the time of application. A student who has been suspended from either program is not eligible for readmission. Facilities The Department of HIM is located in the basement of the George T. Madison (GTM) building. The main office is in GTM 18. There are five faculty offices, one classroom and three laboratories in addition to the main office in the northeast section of GTM. CE Programs The annual Clinical Site Supervisors Workshop hosted by the HIM department provides CE hours for professionals in the clinical sites. Clinical site supervisors also receive 1 CE credit a year for their participation in the educational program. In addition to these CE opportunities the HIM department hosts teleconferences and seminars as available. All teleconferences and seminars are available for CE. Clinical Experiences Following completion of the freshman level basic HIM courses students whose GPA meets the criteria are scheduled for 30 hours in a healthcare facility so they may have an opportunity to practice basic procedures in the workplace and to decide if this is the environment in which they wish to be employed. Following the completion of all course work the students are scheduled for eight weeks in a variety of healthcare settings. It is at this time they work with HIM professionals to observe management techniques and perform assignments and projects under the direction of their supervisor. This experience provides the student an opportunity to practice skills learned in the classroom in the workplace. Special Facilities The department has three laboratories, one is the traditional paper record processing laboratory designed to operate as a mock Health Information Management Dept., one is a 20-workstation, networked computer laboratory in which computer applications such as abstracting, coding, word processing and spreadsheet applications are practiced and the third is an optical disk laboratory where students practice scanning, indexing, and retrieving patient information. There are currently over 100 health care facilities contractually affiliated with the HIM programs which provide experimental learning opportunities to the student.