Grant provides health IT training for rural SD providers

Need for health IT expertise spurs development of enhanced training course

BY KRIS BEVILL

Larry DuBray, a physician’s assistant, visits with a patient at Horizon Health Care Inc.’s Mission Community Health Center in Mission, S.D. PHOTO: HORIZON HEALTH CARE INC.

Data entry and analysis has become part of the job for many health care workers throughout the country, particularly in rural areas where clinics are staffed by a handful of workers and cannot afford to retain a full-time information technology (IT) expert. However, many of those health care professionals are not trained in IT and while they may be able to perform those duties adequately, there is a need to enhance the skills and knowledge of workers performing those tasks. A network of health care providers known as the Prairie Health IT Network, led by Howard, S.D.,-based

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