Number crunching to get your blood pumping

March 4 , 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Number crunching can be good for your health - and your job prospects. If you like obsessing over the details, enjoy working with numbers and want to make a contribution to health care, a career in health information may be the ideal choice for you.

?We?re not on the front lines working with patients,? says Laurie Kenward, the Health Information Services Program Coordinator at Douglas College. ?We?re in the background, but we play a very important role supporting the health care system, health care providers and the patient.?

The program at Douglas College is the only one of its kind in B.C., training students for this important and highly specialized niche in the health care sector.

Health Information Services professionals fill two key functions in hospitals and other health care organizations - they keep track of every single condition patients have and the services they receive by coding the information and entering it into a national database, and they manage access to patient information requests within the boundaries of B.C.?s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Many positions will open when the Baby Boomers retire, says Kenward. ?We?re just like all of the other health care professions. There?s going to be a huge population retiring in the next five years and hospitals are going to need health information professionals. And once you are in the field, there?s always room to advance into data analysis, research and management.?

These days in health care, accountability is the key word. ?Everything the government is doing right now involves accountability. They?re making the health authorities accountable for everything they do, and that means work for health information professionals.?

The program at Douglas College is recognized by the Canadian College of Health Record Administrators, which means the diploma allows graduates to work anywhere in Canada once they successfully complete their certification exam.

Linda Choy, who graduated in 2002, worked at the Children and Women?s Health Centre of B.C., abstracting and coding obstetrical charts before landing a new job as an Analyst at the Canadian Institute for Health Information in Toronto about a year ago.

?At the health centre, I reviewed the patient charts and picked out certain pieces of information such as what was the main reason the patient came to the hospital and which procedures were performed. Then I took all of this information and assigned international standardized codes to it.?

Information from hospitals is collected by the provincial governments and eventually ends up at Choy?s workplace, which uses the data to produce national statistics and reports for hospitals and provincial ministries. Choy performs data analysis to help produce annual reports which compare hospitals at a provincial and national level.

In today?s climate of hospital accountability, the role of health information services is more important than ever. ?Knowledge is power. We?re providing information to important decision makers,? says Choy. ?It really affects health policy in the hospital and at the provincial level - it gives a true reflection of what?s going on. Everyone can talk about a shortage of nurses but you need actual numbers to find out where the shortage is.?

To find out more about Douglas College?s Health Information Services Program, attend a free information session on Monday, March 8 at 5 p.m. in Room 1614 at the New Westminster Campus (700 Royal Avenue). For information call Laurie Kenward, the Health Information Services Program Coordinator, at 604-527-5076.

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For more information, please contact:
Laurie Kenward, Health Information Services Program Coordinator: 604-527-5076
Kimberley Fehr, Communications & Marketing Office: 604-527-5325