Success Stories Blog Posts, Shout Outs, and News from SBBCollege

SBBCollege offers Nursing Career Information Session to assist with nursing shortage

SBBCollege Santa Maria is holding a program to address the nursing shortage in California. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state of California is looking to fill 800,000 vacant positions in the nursing field within the next two years*.

SBBCollege Santa Maria will be holding a Nursing Career Information Session on Tuesday, June 18th at 4:30pm. This session will educate perspective students on the benefits of a career in nursing and on the relevant courses offered at the College. A former graduate from the nursing program at the College and who is now currently employed in the nursing profession will be on hand to offer their experiences and to inspire students considering a career in this area.

Currently, California falls far short of the national average of 825 registered nurses employed per 100,000 head of population. The state has only 653 registered nurses employed per 100,000 people – and a shortage for vocational nurses is similar.

Joseph Liddicote, Campus Director of SBBCollege Santa Maria, comments: ‘Nursing is a challenging yet incredibly rewarding career and is a crucial part of the healthcare team. We aim to train the next generation of caregivers for the Santa Maria community — and in all care settings, including hospitals, outpatient centers, community clinics, physician offices, schools and nursing homes.

‘Job outlook is expected to be strong for years to come with The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating that nursing will create approximately 587,000 new jobs nationally by 2016*. The program is designed for students looking to realize their potential in the nursing field and I look forward to meeting them at the event.’

Students in the SBBCollege Vocational Nursing Program learn vital signs assessment, medication administration and other patient care skills in a clinical setting. The hands-on training provides students an understanding of skills for patient care and safety, such as hygiene, feeding, transfer techniques, medication administration, oxygen administration, Foley catheter insertion and care, tracheostomy care, and wound care. The students practice the techniques they learn in a supervised laboratory setting and then perfect them at clinical sites with real patients.

Click here to learn more about how to get started in nursing in Santa Maria. Or, call 1-866-749-7222.

*http://www.bls.gov/

Medical Office Training Courses at SBBCollege

Are you interested in starting a medical office job or training to be a medical coder or biller? Consider medical office administration training and earn a degree in health information technology.

SBBCollege offers medical office training, including a health information technology online degree program. With medical courses in medical office procedures, medical billing, electronic health records and more, students can train for an administrative position in a medical office or facility.

Medical Office Training Courses at SBBCollege include:

Medical Office Procedures
The medical office procedure class is designed for students to become familiar with confidentiality and HIPAA. This topic is huge in today’s world, as people are more and more concerned with privacy. It also covers professional responsibility and the interaction of patients and the healthcare profession.

Medical Insurance Claims
This course in the medical office degree program includes CPT and ICD coding, both diagnosis and procedure coding. Students will understand the basic health insurance claim process – starting from when the patient is seen, the patient’s information is entered in the computer, the claims form is filled out and payment is received. Students receive hands-on training in this course, as they are given scenarios and fill out specific claims forms based on those scenarios.

Medical Billing Procedures
Another hands-on medical course, as health information technology students learn how to use computerized procedures, such as accounts receivables. Students also receive training on how to enter charges and payments made by insurance companies, insurance billing and scheduling appointments.

Electronic Health Records
Electronic health records (EHR) are more prevalent in the medical field, as all medical records are required to be electronic by 2014. It’s important for our students to receive training in EHR. This course also covers up-to-date industry news to receive real-world knowledge.

Medical Law and Ethics
This course is designed for students to learn privacy and the responsibility of patient confidentiality. Students will learn key medical legal terms, review actual court cases and what ethics are and how to apply them to the healthcare profession. For instance, if a family member of a patient comes in to the medical facility and wants to see the patient’s records, as a medical professional, you can’t just give it to them. You need the patient’s signature. Without it, there could potentially be a law suit.

Medical Document Coding
Students learn new ICD-10 coding. Scheduled for use on October 1, 2014, students need to learn the new diagnosis codes and the theory of the new coding.

As a health information technology school in California, SBBCollege offers the medical program at the college campuses in Bakersfield, Rancho Mirage, Ventura, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara, as well as online medical classes.

Click here to learn more about medical coding and billing classes near Palm Desert or your community. Or, call 1-866-749-7222.

What type of jobs can be done in a medical office?

There are a lot of different types of professional roles in a medical office, especially those working in the front medical office. For students in a medical office job training program, below are some of the jobs in the medical field they could potentially have.

• Assisting practices and/or hospitals with coding and billing, insurance claims and entering them into a practiced management software system. This is a very important task -- if medical codes are not correct, an insurance company can delay or even deny a patient’s medical claim.

• Medical transcriptionist such as interpreting and typing of operative reports, lab work and physician visits for entry into the patient medical record.

• Collections and accounts receivables follow up and patient financials, including appeal letters, contacting insurance companies and/or patients for payment. This is also important because this brings the money into a practice – which helps the practice pay its overhead, employees, etc.

• Examine insurance company claims and/or process claims sent in by medical practices. Another important job, as one would need to process everything and make sure it matches the medical records – vital for denying and approving claims.

• Health information technology (aka medical records) within medical practices to oversee electronic health records. All offices’ records are supposed to be electronic by 2014, so this is a very important position.

• Approve/recommend referrals so that patients can see a specialist, surgery authorizations, and scheduling of procedures for physicians.

These are just a sampling of medical office support duties. If these types of medical office positions interest you, a degree in health information technology may be for you.

SBBCollege offers an associate’s degree in health information technology at the college campuses in Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Ventura, and Rancho Mirage, as well as medical office administration courses online. Medical office training courses include medical office procedures, medical document coding, medical insurance forms, medical billing procedures, electronic health records and more.

Click here to learn to learn more about medical coding and billing classes in Ventura and in your local community. Or, call 1-866-749-7222.