Health Information Management Program at George Brown College

Health Information Management is a two-year diploma program (fully accredited by the Canadian Health Information Management Association) focused on providing the skills and knowledge needed by health information practitioners. It prepares graduates to participate in the collection and organization of health information.

Curriculum content emphasizes:

• biomedical sciences
• health informatics
• health record systems
• medical classification systems and coding
• data collection
• statistical analysis and presentation
• health-care legislation

PROGRAM STANDARDS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

• Keep current with relevant local, national and global health care and health information management issues, trends, technologies and standards to support health information management systems and processes and guide professional development.
• Assess personal health information from individual client visits for accuracy, completeness and consistency using knowledge of biomedical sciences, medical diagnoses and interventions, causes of diseases, and medical terminology, abbreviations and acronyms.
• Apply current, accurate codes and standards to relevant personal health information from individual client visits using health information, coding, classification and abstracting systems proficiently.
• Comply with the legal obligations, as well as with the professional, ethical and organizational standards that ensure privacy, security and confidentiality in the access, retention, storage and disposal of personal health information.
• Contribute to the development, implementation and evaluation of health information management practices, policies and processes to support client care, organizational goals, operations, and regulatory compliance.
• Participate in maintaining the completeness, accuracy, consistency, timeliness and integrity of health information throughout the management of its lifecycle.
• Use knowledge of systems interoperability standards, database architecture, software versioning, classification and terminology mapping, data collection requirements, legal obligations, and the health information management lifecycle, and apply fundamental project management principles and practices to support the procurement and implementation of health information management systems.
• Retrieve and release personal health information in response to legitimate requests, in accordance with statutory requirements, and within specified deadlines.
• Participate in the retrieval, analysis and presentation of relevant health information to stakeholders to support organizational decision-making, epidemiological studies and clinical research.
• Work professionally, ethically and collaboratively with stakeholders and as a member of the interdisciplinary health care team, within a structured, regulated and evolving system of health care, to enhance the collection, distribution, use, security and awareness of quality health information and its impact on client care.

YOUR CAREER

Health Information Management practitioners are in demand as key members of the health care community. They work closely with many other health care professionals to contribute to the management of health information and quality care.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES EXIST WITHIN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS WITH:

• acute care hospitals
• primary health care teams
• ambulatory care facilities
• workplace health and safety boards
• health record consulting firms
• Canadian Institute of Health Information
• specialized hospitals
• community care centres
• Ministries of Health
• computer companies
• research centres
• insurance companies