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Health Information
Management (HIM)
HIM Career
Health Information Management professionals work with health care
data. They acquire, analyze, interpret, maintain, release, and
protect medical information be it in digital or paper form. They
also design, implement, and maintain health information technology
systems.
HIM professional work in many different types of jobs, including
medical coder, cancer registrar, HIM supervisor, HIM manager, HIM
director, compliance officer, information privacy officer,
information security officer, quality improvement analyst, release
of information professional, IS professional, and software
professional. In the future, many new HIM jobs will be created with
the adoption of the electronic health record.
HIM professionals work in health care, but often do not work
directly with patients. They work in a variety of healthcare
settings, including hospitals, physicians' offices, long-term care
facilities, consulting firms, mental health facilities, correctional
facilities, accounting firms, insurance companies, and
pharmaceutical firms.
Education level for people working in HIM varies from
on-the-job trained file clerks to highly educated doctorate level
professionals. Formal HIM training programs incorporate
medicine, management, finance, information technology, and law into
their curriculums.
Several HIM credentials are available through AHIMA. For more info,
see the credentials page.
RHIT & RHIA Exams
RHIT certification exam - AS
degree in HIT/HIM required
Good study and review books for the
Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) exam are the Merida
Johns' and Mervat Abdelhak's books below. A popular review guide for this exam is the PRG Guide for the RHIA & RHIT examinations by
Patricia Schnering, better known as the "PRG study guide."
New for 2009!
AHIMA now offers an online RHIT exam prep series. It consists of self-paced, 6-12 lesson courses covering five RHIT domains. Each module costs $80-195 depending on the class and student's membership status. Some modules are available now, and all will be available by Jun 1st, 2009. For more info, visit AHIMA's distance education section.
RHIA certification exam - BS
degree in HIM required
Good study books for the Registered
Health Information Administrator (RHIA) exam are the Kathleen LaTour's and Mervat Abdelhak's books below. Plus the same PRG study guide as above.
I passed the RHIT exam several years ago on my first try with a very high score. This is how I prepared for it:
Textbook -- I mostly used our main
textbook "Health Information: Management of Strategic Resource" by Abdelhak for my exam preparation. This was before AHIMA published their textbooks for the RHIT and RHIA programs.
Review guide -- I used
the Professional Review Guide for the RHIT Exam book for test practice. This book is also known as the "PRG study/review guide" for the RHIT and RHIA examinations. It was originally published by the PRG Publishing company, but Delmar Cengage Learning acquired them in 2005.
Timeline -- I took the exam a few months after graduation when the HIT/HIM program material was still fresh in my mind.
by Mervat Abdelha, Sara Grostick, Mary Alice Hanken, Ellen B. Jacobs
Saunders, Mar 2007
in-depth study and review of the most important facts and information from HIM
companion study guide to the Abdelhak textbook book below
ISBN-10: 1416030042
ISBN-13: 978-1416030041
HIM Books
The HIM books
provide an overall view of health information management (HIM) and
health information technology (HIT), and help you prepare for the
RHIT and RHIA exams.
