Health information program open for enrollment

  POPLARVILLE – A new degree program at Pearl River Community College is designed to meet the needs of the healthcare labor market.
  Students can enroll now for the health information technology program that begins in August with the fall 2014 semester.
  HIT professionals collect, maintain and analyze the data the doctors and other health care professionals use.
  “We need people that can actually work in information technology and health information,” program director Amy Branch said. “We’re trying to retrain our workforce, moving away from papers and pencils.”
  Graduates of the program will be able to work in hospitals, doctors’ offices and clinics and can also find jobs in the legal field as well.
  “It’s being driven by the federal government’s push toward electronic medical records,” said Dr. Scott Alsobrooks, PRCC vice president for economic and community development. “It takes a pretty distinct skill set beyond the paper and pencils we used to use.”
  The program, funded by a Department of Labor grant aimed at retraining of underemployed workers, will include medical billing and coding, medical terminology, computer application and electronic file storage. Some of the courses are already offered at PRCC and are being folded into the new program, Alsobrooks said.
  Students can enroll in the program at the Poplarville campus or the Forrest County Center in Hattiesburg. Prerequisites are an ACT score of 18 and completion of anatomy and physiology.
  For information, contact Branch at 601 403-1119 or Tina Coleman at 601 403-1105 or tcoleman@prcc.edu in Poplarville or Carol Byrd-Brown at 601 554-4694 or cbyrd-brown@prcc.edu in Hattiesburg.