A medical record is the permanent report of a person's illness or injury kept to preserve information of medical, scientific and legal value. The record includes all medical reports which describe how the patient's illness was diagnosed and treated. Medical records are needed to help doctors diagnose and treat future illness, to verify insurance claims, to plan hospitals, to inform the public health officials, and to aid researchers.

The health information technician works in the health information department of a hospital, clinic, nursing home, school of veterinary medicine or other health facility, and is responsible for many aspects of preparing, analyzing and preserving health information needed by the patients, by the hospital, and by the public. The duties include reviewing medical records for completeness and accuracy and also translating diseases and operations into the proper coding symbols.

The health information technician is invloved in patent billing and reimbursement as a coding specialist. Other duties include compiling statistics of many kinds, assisting the medical staff by preparing special studies and tabulating data from records for research. Supervising the day-to-day operation of a health information department, taking records to court and maintaining the flow of the total work picture.

Practice in the college health information laboratory as well as in medical records departments of cooperating hospitals and other health care facilities, either within or outside the area, provides opportunities for additional educational experience which is the vital core of the program.

Students who graduate from the program are eligible to take the National Certification Examination to become a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT). Graduates can continue health information management education toward a baccalaureate degree at four-year colleges.

Schedules will be redesigned for those requiring preparatory courses or those deciding to pursue part time study.

Visit the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) for career, professional development and practice resources.