Health Informatics Salary

Health related jobs are always in demand, but there’s a lot of different jobs in this field. One of them is health informatics, and it’s a fairly unknown job because these people don’t typically work directly with patients.

Unlike nurses and doctors, they don’t save lives, but they are still very much needed in a hospital or clinic. They are the ones making sure everything runs smoothly, and that patient records are kept up to date. This may be the type of job for you, but what exactly is the work environment for such a job, and what is the health informatics salary?

Let’s first see what a health informatics technician typically does. The nature of the work is quite simple, but can vary depending on where you work. The basic job description is to make sure all the patient data is entered correctly, and available for the medical personnel.

This can be done in a variety of ways. You may have to do a lot of data entry, like getting written notes into a computer system. You may also have to organize that data in the system, like sorting them by patient name, adding missing information, correcting false entries, and so on. You may have to deal with some patients directly, such as asking them for missing papers, or calling them up to make sure their address hasn’t changed.

Finally, you may have to deal with special assignments, like creating control groups for medical experiments, or taking down notes about them. There is no direct patient care involved, but you do have to deal with all the data surrounding these practices.

The work environment will vary depending where you work. All hospitals and clinics need health informatics technicians. Some of them need these people 24/7 as well. So you may end up working shifts, including nights and weekends. Becoming a health information technician doesn’t require much, usually an associate degree, or a certificate. You do need to be able to learn software quickly however.

Most medical facilities use specialized data entry software, along with custom made databases. You need to learn to use them effectively. There’s also some security accreditation that they may ask you to get, because you deal with confidential data all the time. Still, the barrier for entry is quite low, and as a result the entry salary is usually around $25,000.

If you go work for a private clinic, you may get more than a public institute, and after a few years, you can get around $42,000. This salary could continue to grow even higher as your skills and experience continue to improve.

There’s many reasons to want to become a health informatics technician, such as an appreciation for data entry, if you like working with computers, and being in a medical environment. The low barrier for entry means it’s quite easy to get in too, and with continued training and certification, you could earn a substantial salary to boot.