CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician HIT-001 Authorized Cert Guide Har/Psc/CD Edition

at around 380 pages of prose (the rest is glossary and index,) this book is a solid solution for tying together the core sets of knowledge that are on the HIT-001 exam. CompTIA suggest the A+ as a pre-requisite for the HIT-001, and this book does not cover the content from the A+ in enough detail to stand alone. If you have taken security+ and networking+ you will also benefit, but this book and the accompanying practice questions are enough to get you a pass for the content from those higher level IT exams. It has an added benefit of being well written and organized. Unfortunately it is often a bit too sparse when it should focus and elaborate on a topic. A more complete edition could easily ad 200 pages.The best way to use this book is as a tie in for all of the different content areas that form the HIT-001. It won't give you mastery of any of them, but it will give you an excellent idea of how the test will approach them AND to what degree you should prepare for all of the content areas. If you wish to guarantee success, then you should also expect to do a bit of extra reading. Fortunately, with this guide, you have a pretty good idea of just how much you need do. Having taken the test, I suggest the following:1 first thing you should do is be comfortable with the A+ content, particularly A+ level of networking, security, and hardware/system setup content. If you are at the level of STRATA, the book may be enough to pull you up, but you will certainly miss questions on the test.2 Go to Wikipedia, print the articles "HIPAA", "HL7", "HITECH act", "OSI Model" These four topics (especially the first two) represent several questions on the exam, and are not discussed at length in the book. Reading the Wiki's will help cement the information.3 start reading this book. ANY term/acronym you do not understand must be memorized. Pay special attention to the first 2 chapters, this is the truly unique part of the HIT-001 exam, and features heavily in the exam.4 go back through the book, and focus on anything contained in a chart, you will likely have questions on them. particularly things such as HL7 meta tags, OSI levels, and the departments of a hospital (and their corresponding IS.)5 become comfortable with HIPAA, understand the role of each article, with special emphasis on article 2, and the practicalities of implementing HIPAA in a hospital and inter-business setting. Become comfortable identifying what is and isn't a HIPAA violation between hospital employees and businesses, and the role of the IT tech in preventing and responding to violations.6 Use the CD to study the practice questions until you know them all. This is actually a considerable amount of additional content, and should not be skipped.7 Go take and pass your test!

I’ve only been in the healthcare industry for four months; this is all very new to me. I passed the A+ about ten years ago, and remained in various IT roles, but mostly limited to helpdesk work. I did very little research about this exam beforehand, and recently found out that it will be expiring on February 28th, 2017. The certification will be good for life, but it wont be offered after the end of February. Before knowing that, I had already purchased the voucher and this book. [...]Pros:The text is very well written.Provides good broad concepts of IT in the healthcare industry.Provides insight on other departments within the healthcare industry.Provides a better understanding of medical equipment.Cons:About 40% of what is in the book is covered on the actual exam. You will want to study additional materials along with this book.The technical concepts you learn in this book only scratch the surface of what is on the A+; Microsoft’s MCDST (exam 70-685), and Net+.Final Thoughts: If I had missed one more question I would have failed this exam. I scored a 652 out of the minimum passing score of 650. I passed by the skin on my teeth. I wouldn’t have taken this exam a second time, as CompTIA is expiring this in the next couple of months. I used the IT knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years, along with the materials from the book and included practice exams. As others pointed out, the practice exams aren’t that great, and I would agree. Some of the questions are repeats, and some have flat out wrong answers. One reviewer pointed out that the more critical points of study are the first few chapters of the book, and I would agree.This is not an exam cram book; I mistakenly thought it would be. I ordered the book on the 6th, and took the test on the 16th – and barely passed. I’ll be re-reading the text a few times to better understand my role, and how a hospital operates. I’m not sure if CompTIA will replace this with a similar certification, but regardless, this book contains very helpful concepts in the healthcare industry.

TL;DR - I passed the test the first try after reading this book. I credit this book 30% of my reason for passing and my other IT experience 70% for passing.I read all the reviewed from here and many sites and for the most part they seem to be a fair representative of this book for the sole purpose of passing the HIT-001 exam from CompTIA. I firmly believe that it is possible to actually pass the exam just reading this book ***based on -MY- personal pool of 75 questions I was given*** however maybe I was very lucky.If you have recently passed or have an A+ or the "skills" of one then you are 50% already done with the test and all you really need is to read and focus on Chapters 1-4 and possibly 6 which are about the hospital and types of hospital devices.If you already work in a hospital for a number of years (Which seems to be a number of reviewers, including myself) then all you need is Chapters 1-3, as everything else you should know already having dealing with hospital employeesHowever, in the end again it's not to say it's a useless book as I did learn a few things from it I just never knew before and is an easy read.VERDICT: The book does it's job

One of the few books you can buy, read and study and stand a good chance of passing the CompTIA exam. Unlike most of CompTIA's current exams the Healthcare IT Tech exam doesn't attempt any deception or rely on performance based (simulation) questions. It is pretty straight forward and what you see is what you get. It may be worth your while to go ahead and take this exam while you can. This is probably another certification that will come and go from the CompTIA inventory much like PDI did. This exam doesn't cost that much and one you can claim for life.