JANUARY 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Informatics: a new kind of health worker
MEDFORD Asante
Health System found itself recently in a sort of technological
no-man’s land.
On one side, the IT workers who keep Asante’s day-to-day
technology systems up and running. On the other, clinicians
who’ve found themselves not only using more and more
health-care-specific IT, but who’ve also found
technological glitches and large volumes of electronic data
harder and harder to handle.
What the hospital system needed for relief was a new kind of
worker who could combine IT know-how with health-care
savvy.
So Asante teamed up with Rogue Community College, landed a
$433,000 grant and created a new kind of employee: the
health-care informatics assistant.
Through a training program set up with RCC, 22 Asante
employees — receptionists, phlebotomists and the like
— will take a total of 16 courses in everything from
anatomy and chemistry to networking and databases.
When finished, they will be promoted into the position of
health-care informatics assistant to train new clinicians on
department systems, troubleshoot, install equipment and perform
other tasks.
“Which will allow our health-care providers to spend
more time with patients,” says Mike Hancock,
Asante’s HR director.
The development of this position is the latest evolutionary
step for medical informatics in Oregon, which 40 years ago was
little more than a few doctors tinkering around with
early-model computers. Now medical informatics permeates health
care in everything from electronic records to
computerized databases, websites and more.
“Anyone who’s involved in clinical information
really needs to understand how it operates,” says Bill
Hersh, professor and chair of the department of medical
informatics and clinical epidemiology at Oregon Health &
Science University. “And it’s not just computers
and IT; it’s an entire understanding of health
care.”
JON BELL
Have an opinion? E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
