Since September 2010, Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), located in Charlotte, North Carolina, has cross-trained people with a proven health care or information technology background to provide electronic health record solutions to health care providers through a workforce grant from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology. With five cohorts of students already begun, CPCC admitted 507 students into four workforce training roles: (1) Clinician/Practitioner Consultant; (2) Implementation Manager; (3) Implementation Support Specialist; and (4) Practice Workflow and Implementation Management Redesign Specialist. Of the original completers, two-thirds were employed after going through the program.

CPCC had the third highest number of enrolled students in its region and the highest successful completion rate as of March 2012, and is looking to build on that success in the coming year. Most of the participants in the program are from CPCC's 23 county service area as assigned by the project region lead, but since the courses for the workforce training program are all online, CPCC has been able to serve students from areas across the nation, including California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Since April 2011, 1,374 people have contacted CPCC for more information about the Health Information Technology (HIT) Workforce Training program. This is attributed to outreach efforts to professional organizations such as American Health Information Management Association, North Carolina Health Information Management Association, Health Information and Management Systems Society, North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, and American Medical Informatics Association, as well as major health care systems in the region, including Carolinas Healthcare System and Novant Health, and the state Area Health Education Centers program. Disseminating information through these professional avenues allowed CPCC to target the population best suited to participate in this workforce training program and open lines of communication to ensure that the college is serving the needs of the community.

CPCC's HIT Workforce Training Program is gearing up for its next round of classes to begin in June and already has 204 people qualified and ready to be admitted. The ONC-funded training program is anticipated to serve students through March 2013. CPCC continues in its 50th year to serve the Charlotte area as it transitions to new technologies and in training a 21st century workforce.

Contact: Kevan Weaver, BS RHIT, ONC HIT Grant Project Director, 704.330.6162

Jerry Landry is the Program Coordinator of the ONC HIT Workforce Training Program at Central Piedmont Community College.