Healthcare IT Support

Now that you've been introduced to the world of Health IT and the important role played by electronic health records (EHRs), we'll focus on other technologies that play a role in maintaining ongoing operations in healthcare. Telemedicine, patient portals, barcode scanners, printers, and medical devices are just some of the technologies that impact providers and patients. As an IT support specialist, you’ll be asked to troubleshoot issues with a wide variety of tools. You'll see a scenario with a medical device installation where issues related to IP addresses, networking, and MAC addresses come up. When there are disruptions in technology, you’ll need to use training, tip sheets, and problem-solving skills to determine how best to handle the situation. Supporting a high reliability organization means being familiar with the existing processes and protocols for handling calls, creating tickets, escalating issues, and resolving matters. We’ll introduce you to the concept of self-service tickets and the guidance given to hospital staff on how to submit a ticket. You’ll learn about the different priority levels for tickets as well as the tiers of IT support. When a call comes in, there are some important resources you’ll need to access in order to troubleshoot the problem. These can range from standard question templates to tip sheets to complex matrices and knowledge base articles (KBAs). Having these tools in your arsenal is essential as a Health IT support specialist. We‘ll also cover the JIRA process, the need for excellent documentation, and ways in which requests for change are communicated.

In the final course of the Healthcare IT Support program, we will focus on the types of healthcare data that you need to be aware, complexities of security and privacy within healthcare, and issues related to compliance and reporting. As a health IT support specialist, you’ll be exposed to different types of data sources and data elements that are utilized in healthcare. It’s important for you to understand the basic language of healthcare data and for you to recognize the sensitive nature of protected health information (PHI). Maintaining data privacy and security is everyone’s responsibility, including IT support staff! We’ll go into detail about HIPAA and the risks associated with security breaches, ransomware and phishing. We’ll go into detail about some of the key laws and regulations specific to healthcare and the importance of compliance with them. You'll leave this course well versed on the Stark Law, the Joint Commission and the purpose of quality measures. We wrap up the Healthcare IT Support certificate with tips on job interviews, skills that can make you standout, and words of advice on the endless possibilities in this dynamic and growing field. Make sure you talk to others who’ve been there before about the process of being hired at a large health system. Be rest assured that you’ll receive training when you start a new role, and you might even be partnered with someone else for the first few weeks as you get onboarded. Remember, this is not the end--rather, it’s just the beginning of the next step in your journey!

This is a very exciting time to be exploring a career in Health IT Support! In this introductory course, you’ll learn about various roles in IT support that are common in healthcare. IT support staff play critical roles in many different healthcare venues. In addition to helping clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms, you may end up providing support in a skilled nursing facility, ambulatory surgical center, virtual care setting, or even a patient’s home! On any given day, you may interact with nurses, physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists, social workers, other allied health professionals, patients or caregivers. Each of these individuals rely on IT support specialists to help them maintain a high reliability healthcare organization. As you learn about what makes Health IT unique, we hope you find inspiration in the stories shared by some of our very own IT support staff at Johns Hopkins. They’ll talk to you about the most common problems they help resolve as well as the complexity and range of issues that arise. Whether you dream of being an end-user computer support specialist, working at a healthcare help desk, or rising to an analyst role, we’re thrilled that you are embarking upon this journey. Welcome again!