Midwest Community College Health Information Technology Consortium Launches Website

CLEVELAND - The Midwest Community College Health Information Technology (HIT) Consortium announced in a press release that it has launched a new website, www.mwhit.org, to recruit participants and inform employers about its HIT training program. The consortium consists of 17 large, innovative community colleges in 10 Midwest states that will offer training in the growing HIT field.

The website is designed to help meet the consortiums goal of recruiting and training 2,700 people annually for the HIT training program, which includes campus-based and distance learning. Target recruits include current or dislocated employees, veterans and students with backgrounds in health care or IT fields. The training program takes six months or less to complete, and scholarships are available for qualified individuals.

Key pages on the website provide specific information about the workforce roles that will be covered by the training, the colleges that will offer the various training programs and the locations of the training sessions.

We're very pleased to launch a site to support national electronic health records implementation and ultimately serve as a resource for individuals to find new employment, said Norma Morganti, executive director of the consortium. Studies indicate that as many as 50,000 additional HIT professionals may be needed over the next five years. This is because reliance on electronic health records is increasing rapidly due to market and regulatory changes in the health care system.

Cuyahoga Community College, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is the lead for the Midwest Community College HIT Consortium. The training provided by the consortium is funded by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act), a key component of health care reform.

The Midwest Community College Health Information Technology Consortium provides training in six workforce roles to support electronic health records implementation across 10 Midwest states through campus-based training, distance learning and connections with employer partners. The consortium will recruit and train a minimum of 2,700 health career and information technology professionals and students annually, to assist them in becoming health information technology (HIT) professionals.

Led by Cleveland-based Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), the consortium represents 17 of the largest and most innovative community colleges in the Department of Health & Human Services Region C. The colleges include Cuyahoga Community College, Ohio; Cincinnati State Community College, Ohio; Columbus State Community College, Ohio; Delta College, Michigan; Des Moines Area Community College, Iowa; Johnson County Community College, Kansas; Kirkwood Community College, Iowa; Lansing Community College, Michigan; Macomb Community College, Michigan; Madison Area Technical College, Wisconsin; Metropolitan Community College, Nebraska; Milwaukee Area Technical College, Wisconsin; Moraine Valley Community College, Illinois; Normandale Community College, Minnesota; Sinclair Community College, Ohio; St. Louis Community College, Missouri; and Wayne County Community College, Michigan.

This project is supported in whole or in part by ARRA HIT Grant # 90CC007901 and was awarded to Cuyahoga Community College by the Federal HHS Office of the National Coordinator. Cuyahoga Community College is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based upon race, gender, nor ethnicity.