Certified Professional in Health Information Management System (CPHIMS) Exam Preparation:

The very fact that you have visited this blog is indicative enough that you have a fair idea about

• What is CPHIMS?
• Who is the parent organization that started this certification
• The benefits of CPHIMS
• The eligibility Requirements
• Fees, etc.

If not then please visit http://www.himss.org/health-it-certification/cphims.

The purpose of this blog is to share my experience and how I prepared for this certification. So before getting deeper in to that, I wanted to share few statistics on CPHIMS. The infographic below gives a good overview on CPHIMS certification. It answers some of the questions such as

- The total number of CPHIMS professional
- Who in general takes CPHIMS certification
- What is the pass percentage

Where & How did I take the exam?

I took the exam in India. The process is little lengthy compared to US. The registration process takes 2-3 weeks’ time. I assume that would be the case with all the locations except for US and Canada, I may be wrong. The CPHIMS certification exam is managed and conducted by Applied Measurement Professionals, Inc. (AMP) (http://www.goamp.com/Pages/default.aspx). AMP is a professional organization that provides certification to organizations, government agencies, professional associations and private industry with innovative assessment and management solutions. People who generally want to take the CPHIMS exam have this question where can I take the exam, is there an online scheduling system, what would be the cost? Actually GOAMP provides answer to all these questions. On the GoAMP website go to the candidate section, you will see three dropdowns

1. Select a Category: Healthcare
2. Select a Program: Healthcare Information & Mgmt. Systems Society
3. Select an Examination: Certified Professionals in Healthcare Info. & Mgmt. Systems

Once you make the above selections, you will be redirected to the Healthcare Information & Mgmt. Systems Society page. There you can Register for the Examination, Reschedule an already registered examination, locate testing centres and various other stuff. There is no chronological order in terms of viewing the information however if you want to take the exam then you have to first ‘Register for this Exam’. If you are a new user then create an account else enter as an existing user to schedule the exam. Note: If you are a HIMSS member with active membership then do not forget to provide your HIMSS ID while registering, the examination fee is less for HIMSS member.

The ‘locate testing centres’ link provides you the list of test centres in various countries. At present there are 34 countries other than United States where this test is being conducted through goAMP. So based on you requirement you can identify the testing centre where you would like to take the exam. Note: Check the eligibility requirement before taking this exam. You need to meet certain criteria to appear for the exam refer candidate handbook for more information. Make sure that you meet all the requirements else your effort will go in vain.


CPHIMS Exam Content

The CPHIMS Examination is structured as follows:

• Composed of 115 multiple-choice questions. A candidate’s score is based on 100 of these questions. Fifteen (15) are ‘trial’ or ‘pretest’ questions that are interspersed throughout the examination. These 15 questions are equally important as you would not be able to distinguish between the ‘trial’ and ‘actual’ questions. So you do not have any option but to attempt all the 115 questions. 
• Time allowed is two (2) hours to complete the CPHIMS Examination. The questions are categorized by the following cognitive levels:

o   Recall (RE): The ability to recall or recognize specific information

o   Application (AP): The ability to comprehend, relate or apply knowledge to new or changing situations

o   Analysis (AN): The ability to analyze and synthesize information, determine solutions and/or evaluate the usefulness of a solution

The certification is categorized into 3 broad sections

1. General
2. Systems
3. Administration

Note: Go through the candidate handbook to get better understanding on the exam content.

CPHIMS Examination Preparation and CPHIMS Questions

The method of preparation and amount of time spent preparing for the CPHIMS Examination can be driven by the candidate’s preferred study style, level of professional experience or academic background. The exam is structured to test candidates knowledge of healthcare industry, IT, Management & Leadership. Most of the questions asked in the exam are completely application of knowledge. Someone having a good exposure in healthcare industry is definitely advantageous.

The questions are multiple choice with just one answer or multiple answers. Questions with multiple answers are confusing as all the options might look right. One has to be very careful while answering these questions. There are few questions that are very straight forward and rather very easy. You can also expect analytical and mathematical questions – where in you have to do some calculation to get the answers. Believe me those are really very tricky!

I have got around 8 years of experience as Business Analyst in US Healthcare but still I found the certification to be very professional and difficult. On a scale of 1 to 10 with one being least difficult and 10 being most difficult, I would rate the certification at 8. This can vary from person to person. 

I referred the following documents and resources for my preparation

• CPHIMS Review Guide, First Edition. Now the Second Edition is available. I didn’t use edition 2 however happen to go through it. It is revised and has additional information which was not there in the first edition. 
• BABOK – for ‘Systems’ section 
• Managing healthcare Information system - Karen A. Wager, Frances Wickham Lee, John P. Glaser 
• PMBOK 
• Information Systems for HC Management - Austin and Boxerman’s 
• HIMSS Library - http://www.himss.org/ResourceLibrary/?navItemNumber=17397
• Google and YouTube where of great help. 
• LinkedIn – Join the CPHIMS group, people share their experience regarding this certification.

I bought the CPHIMS Self-Assessment Examination (SAE), A Self-Assessment Examination (SAE) for the CPHIMS Examination is an online tool created by HIMSS to simulate the CPHIMS Examination. This tool is available for purchase at http://store.lxr.com/dept.aspx?id=49.

The SAE has 100-questions and is developed using the same procedures as the CPHIMS Examination, and conforms to examination specifications in content, cognitive levels, format, and difficulty. However, the questions presented in the SAE are different from the questions contained on the CPHIMS Examination.

There are lot of resources available these days, the HIMSS eLearning Academy has come up with online training options and based on your requirements you can enrol to any of the plan. For more information and the upcoming schedule, visit http://himss.learn.com

On LinkedIn lot of people have referred about David Lovison's CPHIMS Self Test App. It’s available on iTunes for $13. I haven’t used the app but I have seen good reviews, people seemed satisfied with the app.

I wish there was a shortcut to success, but there isn't any. One has to be disciplined and study regularly to go through every section of the guide or as mentioned on the candidate handbook. I prepared for 2-3 months before appearing for the exam. One important point that I want to make is just going through the ‘Review Guide’ is not enough you have to go through other reference materials and should have a good understanding of the healthcare Industry. The questions in the Review Guide and SAE are really useful it sets the perspective however the questions asked in the real exam are very different.

D-day! Do’s & Don’ts
Since it's a professional certification it's ok to be anxious. I was worried too. Keep Calm and take the Exam!

• You can ask the instructor at the test centre for a Paper, basic calculator & pencil. 
• 115 Questions in 120 minutes; ideally you will have 1.04 minutes for each question but it is difficult to predict how much time you going to spend on a question. Some of them are very simple might take just 5-10 seconds to answers some might take 2-3 minutes. So you have to balance the time accordingly. 
• Whenever I felt I have spent 30+ second on a question and was not sure about the answer I use to mark it and write it down on a paper to visit it later and move to the next one. Generally mathematical questions took some time to resolve. 
• If you feel you are getting nervous take deep breathes and relax. This isn't the end of the world.