Healthcare IT as a career?

Can Healthcare IT be considered it's own "field" in IT? It seems to move up past entry-level IT support roles, you have know a lot about medical businesses and how they operate, as well as clinical knowledge. Does anyone have experience working in Healthcare IT and can comment?

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10Linefigure

You can make anything your career. For Healthcare IT there are a lot of other rules and systems you need to know. Some people can consult on and build these by contract others may have it as a career. If you enjoy it go for it.

Bokeh

Theres several colleges that offer a Healthcare related IT program. I did almost 6 years working for a healthcare company, and we constantly had to be aware of HIPPA and other regulations regarding patient data and the security of it.

If it is something you might be interested in, see if you can get in and talk to someone at one of the local hospital's IT department. Offer to buy them lunch and pick their brains, see if it is something that you are interested in.

It's just not hospitals, but also dental, funeral, companies that make products for the healthcare industry (surgical, hearing aides, testing equipment, etc)

--chris--

I'm in healthcare IT. If you have any specific questions, fire away or PM me.

Healthcare is a great industry for IT, the core of the "business" relies so heavily on technology for compliance & patient care that the IT department here is just as important as the physicians and nursing staff.

We have no need for intimate medical knowledge. The basics of HIPPA are not to gossip and don't play with patient data. Do those two things and your golden.

TomkoTech

Well HIPAA is a lot more in depth than those two things lol. However as long as you aren't the one tasked with taking a non-compliant hospital into compliance, the policies practices and procedures should already be well in hand, and you will not need to really worry about much other than following those. There is a lot of money in Healthcare IT. As for the OP.

I don't think it's really it's OWN field. However there are degrees geared towards it. But a network admin with no healthcare experience should be able to walk right into a network admin position in a hospital with ease. You don't really need to know the medical side of things. There are scenarios where you will have to "scrub in" to access faulty equipment and such. But in my experience most advanced medical equipment is still based on a linux/windows platform, or some type of DOS based system. On the rare occasion I wasn't able to just figure out where things were a simple call to the manufacturer will get you in touch with someone who can walk you through what you need.

ande0255

I don't currently work with our healthcare partner, but the HIPAA forms could take up several hours of my day at very least once a week to keep up with the compliance, which I absolutely cannot stand reading through. I personally would stay away from it, but that's just a personal preference of not reading dozens of pdf's on policies and procedures a month.

--chris--

TomkoTech wrote: »

Well HIPAA is a lot more in depth than those two things lol. However as long as you aren't the one tasked with taking a non-compliant hospital into compliance, the policies practices and procedures should already be well in hand, and you will not need to really worry about much other than following those. There is a lot of money in Healthcare IT. As for the OP.

I don't think it's really it's OWN field. However there are degrees geared towards it. But a network admin with no healthcare experience should be able to walk right into a network admin position in a hospital with ease. You don't really need to know the medical side of things. There are scenarios where you will have to "scrub in" to access faulty equipment and such. But in my experience most advanced medical equipment is still based on a linux/windows platform, or some type of DOS based system. On the rare occasion I wasn't able to just figure out where things were a simple call to the manufacturer will get you in touch with someone who can walk you through what you need.

My overview of HIPPA was just that, a quick calming of nerves. The domain I work in, nothing leaves the hospital and everything is encrypted. Like you said, once you are in compliance its just a matter of following some basic rules that are common sense.

A third party handling the storage or transfer of medical data/computers, yeah I could see that part being a real PITA as far as documentation and compliance goes...but that type of work doesn't exist here. Its left up to a team off site that passes down orders. If your are hired as desktop support or a network admin or a system admin in a hospital, you really wont have to worry about HIPPA much. Keeping it in mind when making decisions, yes...but pouring over documents...no.

devils_haircut

I worked a short contract in healthcare IT. I did not like it. I now work in K-12 education, and I like it much better.

As a contractor, I felt like I had way too many bosses (basically everyone but the janitors). I also wasn't a big fan of working for such a large IT department with so many moving pieces. It's probably a great place to learn and find a good mentor, but I like being part of a much smaller team and being free to make changes and experiment (within reason). YMMV.