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ATC Spotlight
Health Information Technology program earns accreditation
When Joyce Waters, M.A., R.H.I.A., C.C.S., and Sarah Malone, M.A., R.H.I.A., C.C.S., joined Athens Technical College
in September, 2010, they had a mission — to get the college’s Health Information Technology associate degree program
accredited.
Mission accomplished!
The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education notified the college in
June that the accreditation had been approved. In July Ms. Waters, Health Information Technology program chair, and Ms.
Malone, an instructor with the program, received the official letter announcing that the program was accredited effective June 14.
The designation means that the program at Athens Technical College has undergone a thorough evaluation, meeting
specific standards approved by a peer review board, and that degrees issued for Athens Technical College’s Health Information
Technology program will be recognized by other colleges, institutions, employers and recruiters.
The status will benefit the program, and more importantly, its students, the women say.
“It means our students can sit for National Board exams to earn their Registered Health Information Technician
certification,” said Ms. Malone, who commutes to Athens from Conyers. “We can now do a tumor/cancer registry program, a
national crediting program.”
“With accreditation, we can get more students,” added Ms. Waters, a Decatur resident. “There is more interest, and we’re
getting more telephone calls because more people want to attend an accredited program.”
The college’s Health Information Technology program served more than 100 students fall semester and is growing, Ms.
Waters said. The program graduated 22 students at the end of spring semester, she added.
The Health Information Technology program began at Athens Technical College in the spring of 2009. Currently, the
program has five full-time or adjunct instructors.
Photo caption: Joyce Waters, left, Health Information Technology program chair, and Sarah Malone, an instructor with the program,
worked to get the college’s program accredited
Click here for more information.
Don Nelson
706 227-5460
http://www.athenstech.edu/Spotlight.cfm?i=385
7/26/2012
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