Interesting article on those interested in healthcare IT

jmasterj206

Are certifications less crucial for healthcare IT jobs? - Computerworld_

and and interesting quote.

"The definition of an IT professional has changed from a pure play to a
subject-matter expert," Foote said. "It's better not to get another
certification for your tool belt, but to go and get some business courses, take
some marketing courses or operations courses."

Akaricloud

Business courses really can help more than most people would expect.

This really makes me wonder if I should stay in the healthcare field. I'm about to graduate with a MIS degree from a business school and am currently working for a Medicare Advantage company.

jmasterj206

I too work in healthcare and probably will stay here. The one real downfall is that it is a 24-7/365 operation. As time has progressed I have found myself getting away from the technical side of things and more into budgeting and project management. I think one of the issues of getting into entry level healthcare is that a lot of places want experience in EHR's such as epic, cerner, and mckesson. You can't really get that unless you already work in a facility that already has these systems implemented. I'm not wondering in the near future if some of the larger players in the electronic health record business are going to start offering certifications.

it_consultant

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Are certifications less crucial for healthcare IT jobs? - Computerworld_

and and interesting quote.

I have been saying this for a long time on these forums. In order to be a truly good IT pro you have to wear the multiple hats of all the people who you support. I have to know manufacturing basics, medical basics (many of my clients are medical offices), lots of accounting, etc. That means, sometimes, the best IT guys I work with are less technical and more process. A shiny new IT solution does no good if your accountant can't print a check, while the cruddy 10 year old system they were used to printed checks consistently. After all your work on said solution, the most important thing in the world is that everyone can do exactly the same (or substantially similar) things that they used to be able to do. Remembering that your accountant still prints checks and needs to every Tuesday is what separates geeks with paychecks from true IT professionals.

erpadmin

it_consultant wrote: »

I have been saying this for a long time on these forums. In order to be a truly good IT pro you have to wear the multiple hats of all the people who you support. I have to know manufacturing basics, medical basics (many of my clients are medical offices), lots of accounting, etc. That means, sometimes, the best IT guys I work with are less technical and more process. A shiny new IT solution does no good if your accountant can't print a check, while the cruddy 10 year old system they were used to printed checks consistently. After all your work on said solution, the most important thing in the world is that everyone can do exactly the same (or substantially similar) things that they used to be able to do. Remembering that your accountant still prints checks and needs to every Tuesday is what separates geeks with paychecks from true IT professionals.

Well said, sir.

The successful IT professional is the person that understands the business needs of his/her client.

Everyone

jmasterj206 wrote: »

I'm not wondering in the near future if some of the larger players in the electronic health record business are going to start offering certifications.

They already are. Well Epic does at least. The hospital I used to work at was switching from McKesson to Epic. They spent a lot of money sending people to Epic training to get certified.

They won't let you run their software unless your organization has enough people certified on it. Their certification only counts at the organization you got it at. If you change companies, you have to recertify for the new company. They do have some that count everywhere, but I believe you still have to have the site specific cert on top of it.

the_Grinch

"We need people with liberal arts degrees that work in security operations right now," he said. "They're not deeply technical, but they're able to communicate and help companies to plan strategies. For example, if you are going to be engaging in social media, how would this content, if compromised, create a security threat? Those are things that have to be attacked by a person who works on both sides of the fence."

I am a fan of the liberal arts degree, but is this guy serious? Am I wrong, would you want someone not deeply technical planning your IT Security strategy? Sounds like his hospital will be paying fines when they find out they had a breach and 20000 patient records were exposed.

I found this article to have opposing views, that probably should have been addressed. On one hand you have the guy above saying you need people who aren't deeply technical and on the other you have a guy sayings that they want certified guys. There really aren't a ton of vendor neutral certs out there, so it is inherent that if you have say the CCNA or MCITP you will probably be close to "deeply technical". We had a client (medical provider) who did actually have one nurse, who was fairly technical. I will say that he made things easier, but a lot of times he would do more harm then good with the lack of IT knowledge. Sometimes the eagerness to learn something still doesn't put you in the proper mind frame to solve an issue....

it_consultant

Everyone wrote: »

They already are. Well Epic does at least. The hospital I used to work at was switching from McKesson to Epic. They spent a lot of money sending people to Epic training to get certified.

They won't let you run their software unless your organization has enough people certified on it. Their certification only counts at the organization you got it at. If you change companies, you have to recertify for the new company. They do have some that count everywhere, but I believe you still have to have the site specific cert on top of it.

We tried to get epic into one of my clients (37 total providers) and they said we were too little. Which sucks because they use the Exampla and Kaiser portals (they are specialists) which are Epic and they really love it. They decided to go with ECW for one reason or another. It took us literally 2 weeks to parse out how they use their faxes and how that work process changes when they go to ECW. Fun time in the medical industry, but guaranteed work for guys like us.

Akaricloud

the_Grinch wrote: »

I am a fan of the liberal arts degree, but is this guy serious? Am I wrong, would you want someone not deeply technical planning your IT Security strategy? Sounds like his hospital will be paying fines when they find out they had a breach and 20000 patient records were exposed.

I agree with you on this. Yes a liberal arts degree can help a lot but you still need a strong technical background. Ideally a candidate has both and I feel like that's easily obtainable with a liberal arts degree and certifications.

droberts70

Akaricloud wrote: »

I agree with you on this. Yes a liberal arts degree can help a lot but you still need a strong technical background. Ideally a candidate has both and I feel like that's easily obtainable with a liberal arts degree and certifications.

This is where I stand. I have a masters degree in school administration, so that should probably be leveraged. Rather than spending money for another bachelors degree (i.e. adding one in IT), some certifications could probably go a long way.

Would you agree?

powerfool

It seems as if they are a bit late to the game on this article. While there definitely are plenty of people that can benefit from this advice, this has been the trend for several years now...

Turgon

Akaricloud wrote: »

I agree with you on this. Yes a liberal arts degree can help a lot but you still need a strong technical background. Ideally a candidate has both and I feel like that's easily obtainable with a liberal arts degree and certifications.

I have a History bachelors so I suppose Im covered, but I never worked in Healthcare.

Turgon

droberts70 wrote: »

This is where I stand. I have a masters degree in school administration, so that should probably be leveraged. Rather than spending money for another bachelors degree (i.e. adding one in IT), some certifications could probably go a long way.

Would you agree?

If you have a masters degree then you already have a graduate education under your belt. I wouldn't spend more time and money on college. Invest it in finding the right kind of work and then once you have it, work 60+ hours a week. Pick up certifications that will help you along the way.