Health care job growth last month

As we start this New Year, I often wonder how our economy will change in 2010. We're in a recession, but it may not feel like a recession to those working in the health care industry. Here are some stats from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

In December, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.3 million, and the
unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, were unchanged. At the start of the re-
cession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.7 million,
and the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent.

There's no surprise there. However, here's where it gets interesting:

Health care employment continued to increase in December (22,000), with notable
gains in offices of physicians (9,000) and home health care services (8,000).
The health care industry has added 631,000 jobs since the recession began.

Wow! Can you believe that employment within the health care industry increased last month? Companies may not do much hiring over the holidays, but hospitals and clinics need workers. Home health care services saw some significant growth last month and I'm sure we'll continue to see tremendous growth as America's aging population requires additional home health services.

You can read about last month's employment stats by visiting the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Did you learn about medical informatics during medical school?

Do you call it medical informatics, biomedical informatics, or health informatics? What did you medical school call it? Maybe your medical school didn't even cover the topic of medical informatics. That seems to be the story for many medical school graduates (otherwise known as physicians). The topic of medical informatics isn't even available as an elective. As a result, students graduate from medical school and they may know that computers are important for the future of health care, but they don't really know much about the specifics of health informatics.

How many people finish residency to pursue a fellowship in biomedical informatics? I'd say it's only a small percentage at this point. What about others? Do they sign up for a graduate degree in health informatics? Maybe they should take formal courses or attend major national conferences. There are many ways to get involved with informatics, but you need to have a strong interest in technology and you have to be motivated to teach yourself if you're not going to invest time and energy into formal training.

There are many exciting opportunities in the world of medical informatics. To find them, you need to be connected to the right individuals so that they can open up opportunities for you. I know that there are many startup companies that are looking for medical consultants to help them as they develop specific services and products that revolve around health information technology (health IT).

Negotiating and Compromising with Difficult People

Physicians don't learn about these types of things during medical school. Who's heard of "conflict resolution" courses during medical school? Well, if you're interested in the business world of health care, make sure you have some solid leadership skills so that you can manage conflict in the workplace. Dale Carnegie has an article titled, "12 Tips for Negotiating and Compromising with Difficult People" and here's a short summary of the advice they offer:

Negotiating is the process of attempting to agree on a solution. Compromising, or settling on a mutually agreeable solution, is the result of successful negotiations. Compromise is all about being flexible. It means being able to generate alternate solutions when you've "hit the wall." Whether it involves a person you can't get along with, an idea you know will work but that others are reluctant to agree to, a change in office systems, or a turf war that needs ending, learning to negotiate and compromise is essential to your success.

1. Have a positive attitude.
2. Meet on mutual ground.
3. Clearly define and agree on the issue.
4. Do your homework.
5. Take an honest inventory of yourself.
6. Look for shared interests.
7. Deal with facts, not emotions.
8. Be honest.
9. Present alternatives and provide evidence.
10. Be an expert communicator.
11. End on a good note.
12. Enjoy the process.

To read the complete article on Dale Carnegie, click here.

Founded in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has evolved from one man's belief in the power of self-improvement to a performance-based training company with offices worldwide. We focus on giving people in business the opportunity to sharpen their skills and improve their performance in order to build positive, steady, and profitable results.

Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS)

The world of Health IT is full of acronyms.You can expect to see this one after many people's names fairly soon. It's CPHIMS. Do you know what it stands for?

Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS)

CPHIMS is a professional certification program for healthcare information and management systems professionals. Individuals who meet eligibility criteria and successfully complete the CPHIMS exam are designated a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS).The CPHIMS credential provides both internal and external rewards. It is a mechanism to validate your skill, knowledge and abilities.

• Distinguish yourself from your peers as certified in healthcare information and management systems;
• Expand your career opportunities;
• Validate your healthcare information and management systems knowledge, competency and credibility;
• Provide yourself with skills and tools to help you make a difference in your career, your organization, and your community;
• Demonstrate your commitment to continuing professional development;
• Enjoy the pride of recognition of knowing that you are among the elite in a critical field of healthcare; and
• Hold a premier credential based on a sound assessment to distinguish yourself in an increasingly competitive marketplace. 

In order to become a CPHIMS, you must pass an exam. That's right, it's time to study and look for some test-prep courses.

The examination consists of 115 multiple-choice test items, presented during a 2-hour session. Scoring is based on 100 items pre-selected for desirable psychometric characteristics. The additional 15 test items are included as pretest items. Performance on pretest items does not affect a candidate’s score.

Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility standards are designed to include those experienced in healthcare information and management systems, but exclude others. To participate in the CPHIMS examination, a candidate must qualify under one of the following options.

• Baccalaureate degree plus five (5) years of associated information and management systems experience*, three (3) of those years in healthcare.
• Graduate degree plus three (3) years of associated information and management systems experience*, two (2) of those years in healthcare.

*Associated information and management systems experience includes experience in the following functional areas: administration/management, clinical information systems, e-health, information systems, or management engineering.

How many CPHIMS are out there? Right now, the list is relatively small. In fact, you can view that list right here. However, you can be sure that this list will grow considerably over the next few years as ARRA dollars get poured into the health care system (HITECH provisions within ARRA).

To learn more, visit: http://www.himss.org/ASP/certification_cphims.asp

Medical Director of Ambulatory Informatics

Here's a job post that you'll find on the AMDIS (Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems) website under "Career Opportunities" (and this one isn't for a CMIO position):

Medical Director of Ambulatory Informatics
Florida Hospital, Maitland, FL

Principal Duties and Job Responsibilities:

* Enhance patient safety and quality of care
* Manage the implementation of an ambulatory electronic patient record system
* Educate and coach physicians on plans that support organizational technology goals
* Deliver education programs to physicians
* Work with the President of the ambulatory group, CMIO, and Physician Leaders to promote and support clinical information systems
* Facilitate forums to conceptualize, design, evaluate, and support the adoption of clinical IT systems and advise the CMIO about concerns, ideas, and feedback on adoption and clinical IT system performance
* Promote the role and importance of clinical IT to improve clinical safety and efficiency
* Implement training of physicians, nurses and other clinicians in the use of new and existing clinical IT systems
* Represent the interests of the ambulatory group, as needed, in meetings for ambulatory and inpatient setting

**  Click here or on the article title to read the full post**

Thank you for your support on Facebook

We have over 180 "fans" on Facebook and I want to thank everyone for supporting http://www.NonClinicalJobs.com/ on Facebook. If you'd like to support this site on FB, then please become a fan of our Facebook page here.

If you plan to look for a new job in 2010, grow and expand your social network because you never know who you might meet. There are so many job search success stories that are rooted in social networking. Perhaps you've personally experienced the power of social networking as it relates to job hunting. In any case, it always helps to have a strong network of friends and professional colleagues. 

Health Information Technology (Health IT) acronyms

Are you keeping up with all these health IT acronyms?

EHR
EMR
CPOE
HIT
CMIO
CPHIMS
HITECH
ARRA
ASP
CCHIT
DICOM
FHA
HL7
NAHIT
HIMSS
and many more!

Well, instead of publishing a comprehensive list, I thought I would direct you to some useful resources that will help you understand all these complex acronyms.

• The first is from the HealthIT.HHS.gov site. Click here to view that list of Health IT acronyms
• The next is a resource from the Rural Health Resource Center. Click here for that list of Health IT acronyms (will open as a PDF).
  

There are many more resources out there and none appear to be comprehensive because there are simply so many acronyms in the world of health information technology.