The Health Information Management program at SWOSU helps prepare students for a variety of careers within the HIM field.
Currently, SWOSU has the only accredited bachelor’s and master’s HIM programs in Oklahoma. However, there are a few accredited associate programs in the state.
The bachelor’s program has been accredited since 1976, but the master’s program just received its initial accreditation last year.
Dana Lloyd, an instructor in the program, said health information management still is a lesser known major and students rarely come in as freshmen. A majority of the students come from other health care majors such as nursing students who have trouble with blood and other bodily fluids or pharmacy majors who don’t enjoy chemistry.
Lloyd also said many students also are business majors who want to work in health care and nontraditional students wanting to advance further in their careers.
“It’s different than health care administration, which a lot of people have heard about,” Lloyd said. “We focus a lot more in clinical aspects, informatics and information protections.”
Several career paths for HIM students include:
• Health information managers who maintain and ensure the security of patient records.
• Medical coders who are review patient information for issues so the data can be coded property for patient care, population health statistics and billing purposes
• Data analysts who compile medical data in healthcare studies
• Coding compliance auditors who monitor clinical documents and administrative data for coding mistakes or billing issues
• Clinical documentation specialists who maintain charts, medical records and reports in clinical trails
• Clinical system manager who updates and maintains computer system used in health care
Lloyd said the field has expanded in recent years. Previously, patients had a physical medical records kept in a filing cabinet at the doctor’s office. This left the industry pretty stagnant and many schools closed their program.
When the medical field switched to digital medical records, there was a need for more jobs it the industry, specifically to maintain the security of private patient information.
Lloyd said the growing industry may mean more accredited programs will open the state. Right now, she knows one is trying to open, but it takes 2 years to get accredited.
HIM is a professional program, meaning students must go through an application process. The bachelor’s program requires students to complete a majority of their general education credits and enter with a minimum 2.5 GPA.
The master’s program is open to all undergraduate degrees. Students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA.
Once students complete the program, they are eligible for the Registered Health Information Administrator exam (RHIA), which, in turn, makes them eligible to test for additional certifications.
SWOSU’s HIM program has a 78-percent pass rate for the RHIA exam, which is higher than the national rate of 69 percent. Lloyd said she would like to see those numbers increase, but it was difficult getting students to test last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, 85 percent of students who completed the bachelor’s program were employed within a year of graduation. Master’s students have a 100-percent placement rate.
HIM students can look forward to more real-world when SWOSU completes the Rural Health Building.
Sharon Lawrence, chair for the School of Allied Health, said this new building should incorporate allied health, nursing and rural pharmacy in a way which gives back to the community. The building will be funded through 25 percent of the Yes Weatherford penny sales tax, with the amount capped at $7 million.
“My dream for the building is we will be able to provide some community healthcare using the all of the different programs we have on the SWOSU campus,” Lawrence said.
So far, not a lot of planning has happened, but Lawrence said the SWOSU has a lot to offer the public. In addition to HIM, nursing and pharmacy, SWOSU has rehab specialists and counseling services.
“I am hoping once we begin to plan this, we will have a working health center on the bottom floor of the building,” she said.
Right now, the location of the building is the old tennis courts between the science and pharmacy building, which currently functions as a parking lot.