Workforce Roles

CPCC will teach the following four roles as part of the Health IT Grant: 

1. Clinician/Practitioner Consultant

• Analyze and recommend solutions for health IT implementation problems in clinical and public health settings, bringing clinical expertise directly to bear.
• Advise and assist clinicians in taking full advantage of technology, enabling them to make best use of data in electronic form, including data in registries, to drive improvement in the quality, safety and efficiency of care.
• Assist in selection of vendors and software by helping practice personnel to ask the right questions and evaluate the answers they receive.
• Advocate for users’ needs, acting as a liaison between users, IT staff, and vendors.
• Ensure that the patient/consumer perspective is incorporated into EHR deployments and that full attention is paid in the deployment to critical issues of patient privacy.
• Train practitioners in best use of the EHR system, conforming to the redesigned practice workflow. 

• Health Management Information Systems
• Working with Health IT Systems
• Fundamentals of Health Workflow Process Analysis and Redesign
• Quality Improvement
• Planning, Management and Leadership for Health IT

2. Implementation Manager

• Provide leadership ensuring that implementation teams, consisting of workers in the roles described above, function cohesively.
• Apply project management and change management principles to create implementation project plans to achieve the project goals.
• Interact with diverse personnel to ensure open communication across the end-users and with the support team.
• Lead implementation teams consisting of workers in the roles described above.
• Manage vendor relations, providing schedule, deliverable, and business information to health IT vendors for product improvement.
• Coordinate implementation-related efforts across the implementation site and with their Health Information Exchange partners, troubleshooting problems as they arise.
• Apply to these activities an understanding of health IT, meaningful use, and the challenges practice settings will encounter in achieving meaningful use.

• The Culture of Health Care
• History of Health Information Technology in the U.S.
• Fundamentals of Health Workflow Process Analysis and Redesign
• Working in Teams
• Planning, Management and Leadership for Health IT
• Introduction to Project Management

3. Implementation Support Specialist  

• Execute implementation project plans, by installing hardware (as needed) and configuring software to meet practice needs.
• Incorporate usability principles into software configuration and implementation
• Test the software against performance specifications.
• Interact with the vendors as needed to rectify technical problems that occur during the deployment process.
• Proactively identify software or hardware incompatibilities.
• Assist the practice in identifying a data back-up and recovery solution, and ensure the solution is effective.
• Ensure that the mechanism for hardware/software recovery (e.g., data backup or redundant systems) and related capabilities are appropriately implemented to minimize system downtime.
• Ensure that privacy and security functions are appropriately configured and activated in hardware and software.
• Document IT problems and evaluate the effectiveness of problem resolution.
• Assist end users with the execution of audits. 

• Terminology in Health Care and Public Health Settings
• Introduction to Information and Computer Science
• Working with Health IT Systems
• Installation and Maintenance of Health IT Systems
• Networking and Health Information Exchange
• Configuring EHRs
• Special Topics Course on Vendor-Specific Systems

4. Practice Workflow and Information Management Redesign Specialist

• Document the workflow and information management models of the practice.
• Conduct user requirements analysis to facilitate workflow design.
• Develop revised workflow and information management models for the practice, based on meaningful use of a certified EHR product. Revised models will anticipate implementation of:

• As the practice implements the EHR, work directly with practice personnel to implement the revised workflow and information management model.
• Working with practice staff, develop a set of plans to keep the practice running if the EHR system fails.
• Working with practice staff, evaluate the new processes as implemented, identify problems and changes that are needed, and implement these changes.
• Design processes and information flows for the practice that accommodate quality improvement and reporting

• The Culture of Health Care
• Terminology in Health Care and Public Health Settings
• Introduction to Information and Computer Science
• Health Management Information Systems
• Fundamentals of Health Workflow Process Analysis and Redesign
• Quality Improvement
• Usability and Human Factors