MEDR 1322 - Intro to HIM v-PPE

A supervised virtual (Internet-based) professional practical experience (PPE) in health information management, which requires students to perform general hospital functions (e.g., HIPAA privacy and security), medical staff and hospital committee functions, patient records storage and retrieval, discharged patient record procedures, hospital statistics, and release of patient information. Students eligible to complete the virtual PPE in health information management (HIM) include those currently employed in the HIM department of a health care facility and those whom obtain permission of the instructor. Students are on site in the health information department of a health care facility for a minimum of 20 hours (of 80 total PPE hours) to perform certain functions, such as observing patient registration/billing functions, taking minutes at a health information committee meeting, and performing PPE tasks to develop interpersonal communication and professionalism skills. The PPE Coordinator makes on site arrangments in cooperation with the student, and placement at an alternate care setting (e.g., nursing facility, outpatient clinic, large physician practice, and so on) is permitted. Students work under the supervision of the College's PPE Coordinator, who is a qualified RHIT. The virtual professional practice experience allows students to obtain actual work experience in theoretical and application-based procedures previously studied. This virtual PPE consists of 80 hours (of which 20 are on site) and can be completed by the student on a full-time basis (40 hours/week for two weeks) or on a part-time basis over an extended period of time (e.g., eight hours/week for 10 weeks).