Bellevue College Healthcare Informatics Program: A Comprehensive Overview

Healthcare is rapidly evolving, driven by an ever-increasing volume of complex data. The Bellevue College Healthcare Informatics program is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in this dynamic environment. This program focuses on understanding healthcare data systems with an emphasis on process and data, user-centered design thinking, and statistics and predictive analytics.

What is Healthcare Informatics?

Healthcare has become more than just examinations and treatments. The science of healthcare is driven by information and data. Informatics uses data to manage patient care, improve health, and manage the business of healthcare. Healthcare informatics uses data to solve problems in patient management, hospital operations, information technology, ancillary care, and the implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems. This program focuses on the interoperability of healthcare information systems and electronic health records.

To be successful in the increasingly complex world of healthcare data management, you must understand the foundations of healthcare information systems and electronic health records and be able to apply data analytics and problem-solving skills to the available resources. Instead of trying to understand and learn this on your own, the Healthcare Informatics program is designed to introduce you to the concepts and skills to be successful in using data and information in healthcare.

Program Highlights

The Bellevue College Healthcare Informatics program stands out for its focus on practical skills and industry relevance. The topics include understanding healthcare data, workflow quality, change management, system operations, and user-centered design principles.

Emphasis on Current Healthcare Business Norms and Trends: The program emphasizes current healthcare business norms and trends.
Skill-Building Focus: The content focuses on building skills that are used by informaticists working for healthcare organizations.
Technical and Business Writing: Writing assignments are based on technical and business writing, ensuring students develop the skills to be effective in healthcare organizations.

Curriculum Overview

The curriculum is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of healthcare informatics, covering a range of essential topics.

Understanding Healthcare Data
Workflow Quality
Change Management
System Operations
User-Centered Design Principles
Project Management
Process Improvement
Healthcare Training Approaches

Program Options: BAS and Certificate

Bellevue College offers two pathways for students interested in healthcare informatics: a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree and a Healthcare Informatics certificate. The BAS program can be completed in two years and the certificate can be completed in one year. Some students choose to take fewer courses and extend the time it takes to complete the program, typically due to work schedules. All the courses consist of self-paced activities that are arranged in weekly modules. Reviewing videos and recorded lectures, completing assigned reading and assignments to verify comprehension and practice skills are primarily managed by the student. Many students in the program are working professionals.

Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Healthcare Informatics

The BAS is designed to teach informatics skills to students entering the healthcare workforce with a bachelor's degree. The BAS includes a course that introduces students to the world of healthcare and the program includes an experiential course that allows the student to gain practical experience and apply what they learned in a real-time work environment. The first 90 credits of the degree are fulfilled by general education co-requisites.

Healthcare Informatics Certificate

The Healthcare Informatics certificate is a post-secondary non-degree award designed to build skills in the rapidly emerging field of healthcare informatics. This one-year program is for students that already have a Bachelor's degree. The certificate is designed to give healthcare and IT professionals the basic informatics skills to apply to their experience.

Admissions

Both the BAS and certificate programs have specific admission requirements.

Selective Admissions: This is a selective admissions program. Meeting minimum requirements does not guarantee admission, as the number of qualified applicants may exceed the number of available seats in the program.
General Admission: First-time Bellevue College students must apply for General Admission before filling out the BAS degree application.
Transcripts: All students who have transfer credits will need to follow the steps for submitting official transcripts from all regionally accredited colleges attended other than Bellevue College. This will include completing the program-specific Transfer Credit Request form for each transcript. Your application can be reviewed with unofficial transcripts.
Application: Fill out and submit the BAS application. The Application Fee of $50 will be accepted at the time of completion.

Learning Environment

The program utilizes a flexible and accessible learning environment.

Read also: Bellevue College Mascot

Asynchronous Learning: All of the required courses are offered as online, asynchronous learning. Optional drop-in virtual sessions may be held by the instructor. All coursework is managed through the Canvas learning system. Pre-recorded lectures, readings, and assignments are delivered in the virtual course.
Self-Paced Activities: All the courses consist of self-paced activities that are arranged in weekly modules. Reviewing videos and recorded lectures, completing assigned reading and assignments to verify comprehension and practice skills are primarily managed by the student.

Synchronous learning classes are run in real-time and can include in-person and virtual web conference software like Zoom or Skype. Asynchronous classes have all the course material accessible online and students can access it at different times and at different locations. Online synchronous courses are typically like a traditional classroom with scheduled class time and live discussion. Asynchronous learning allows more flexibility in the time they choose to learn and the pace to absorb the course content. The course instructor will set up a prescribed order for the materials, but students can choose how much time they spend on the materials. The course materials are designed to cover specific topics and present reading, articles, videos, recorded lectures, and self-guided activities to teach the skills and concepts for the topic.

Skills Development

A key focus of the program is on developing skills that are highly valued by employers in the healthcare informatics field. A list of skills was compiled from a set of 15 local experts working in healthcare informatics on what organizations were looking for in job applicants. A section of this program is identifying and documenting skills that you build in this program to be able to market yourself to healthcare organizations when you finish the program.

Data Management and Analytics
Understanding Healthcare Data Systems
Process Improvement
Project Management
User-Centered Design

Experiential Learning

The BAS program includes a mandatory experiential course that includes field study or Capstone project. The field study or internship includes 108 hours of onsite participation with a healthcare organization. The Capstone is a project that requires sponsorship and data collection from a healthcare organization.

Course Flexibility

Yes, students who have not been admitted to the program can register for up to 10 credits of 300- level coursework on a space-available basis. Students who are applying to the program can start taking classes right away. Healthcare professionals who want to take an individual course can take HCI courses without application to the HCI program. Follow the steps to Apply for Admission to Bellevue College. Then enroll in an HCI course. If the course needs a permission number, contact the Program Chair, Eric Stewart for a course code. New students are encouraged to take the onboarding and overview courses in the beginning and the experiential courses near the end of the program but the sequence of courses is flexible.

Non-Traditional Credit

For certain courses, you may be able to earn non-traditional credit for prior learning or work experiences. Credit could be awarded through successful completion of a challenge exam, evaluation of certification/training or by approval of a submitted portfolio or other items that prove you have met course learning outcomes. Please refer to additional information on BCâs policies and procedures regarding non-traditional credit .

Career Outlook

Healthcare Informatics is a relatively new job classification. Besides the improvement of technology in healthcare, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provided an incentive to motivate the implementation and use of electronic health records in 2009. In 2014, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) requested that the Standard Occupational Classification have a separate category for healthcare informatics. The occupation of Health Informatics Specialist is expected to grow rapidly. They compare to the Data Scientist occupation, which is expected to grow 36% over the next 10 years. The current job market for Health Informatics Specialists is favorable, especially in the Seattle area.

The primary difference between healthcare information technology and informatics is that Health Informatics workers apply science to ensure the effective use of data, information, and knowledge that supports the safe and effective delivery of healthcare and improves health and wellness. According to the Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, a Health Informatics Specialist is given the status of âBright Outlookâ. Bright Outlook occupations are expected to grow rapidly in the next several years, will have large numbers of job openings, or are new and emerging occupations.

Program Distinctions

The HCI at Bellevue College is designed to build skills and knowledge to be applied to a career in healthcare informatics. The program differs from other college programs where the goal of the degree or certificate is to obtain employment. There are very few programs in the US that have a Bachelorâs degree in informatics and the field is growing where the number of entry-level informatics is rapidly growing without a source of training to produce qualified candidates.

Scope of Informatics

The study of informatics is broad and includes more subjects than can fit into a two-yearâs Bachelorâs program. For example, medical informatics is the study of medical data to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients. This program doesnât cover informatics in medicine, mental health, dental, pharmacy, or any of the specialty informatics areas. This is also not a research-based program, which includes genomics, translational informatics, or machine learning. These are advanced topics that are well suited for a Masterâs level degree, which you would be ready to transition to at the end of this program.

The HCI program at Bellevue College includes Clinical Informatics, Nursing Informatics, Population and Public Health, Telemedicine, and Virtual Health. Data scientists focus primarily on the available data and use coding and programming to analyze, process, and model data to identify trends. Yes, there are many approaches and disciplines within healthcare informatics. This program focuses on building skills for data management and analytics to support administrative and operational systems within healthcare organizations like hospitals, clinics, and ambulatory patient care facilities. Most of the tasks and skills in informatics focus on the data that is available to patients, healthcare staff, and administration.

tags: #bellevue #college #healthcare #informatics #program #details