CAHIMS Exam Flashcards

Q: What is the current CAHIMS exam format?

HIMSS describes the CAHIMS exam as a two-hour examination with 115 multiple-choice questions. One hundred questions are scored and 15 are unscored.

Q: What score is required to pass CAHIMS?

CAHIMS scores use a 200-to-800 scale, and 600 is the passing point. HIMSS does not publish an overall candidate pass rate.

Q: What are the CAHIMS eligibility pathways?

A high school graduate needs 45 hours of relevant continuing education or 150 hours of relevant experience. A candidate with an accredited associate or higher degree needs 25 continuing-education hours or 75 experience hours.

Q: How soon can I retake the CAHIMS exam?

An unsuccessful candidate must wait 60 days before testing again. After three failures, a new application and full fee are required, and the 60-day waiting period still applies.

Q: How long is CAHIMS certification valid?

CAHIMS certification is valid for three years. A certificant can maintain it through the current continuing-education renewal process or by qualifying for and passing the examination again.

Question 1

How does an acute-care hospital differ from an ambulatory clinic?

Accepted Answer

A hospital supports inpatient and high-acuity services; an ambulatory clinic delivers care without an overnight admission.

Question 2

What is a healthcare payer's core role?

Accepted Answer

It finances or reimburses covered care, applies benefit rules, and processes claims for members or beneficiaries.

Question 3

What is the purpose of accreditation in healthcare?

Accepted Answer

An external body evaluates an organization against defined quality, safety, or operational standards.

Question 4

What does a hospital registration function create?

Accepted Answer

The administrative encounter and identity information needed to connect the patient, services, scheduling, and billing workflow.

Question 5

What is revenue-cycle management?

Accepted Answer

The processes that capture services and move them from registration and documentation through coding, billing, payment, and follow-up.

Question 6

What does a clinical application support?

Accepted Answer

Direct care activities such as documentation, orders, medication administration, results review, or clinical decision support.

Question 7

What does an administrative healthcare application support?

Accepted Answer

Business functions such as scheduling, registration, staffing, supply chain, billing, or finance.

Question 8

What is a server's role in an information system?

Accepted Answer

It provides shared computing, application, storage, or network services to authorized clients.

Question 9

What is a local area network (LAN)?

Accepted Answer

A network connecting devices within a limited area such as a clinic, office, unit, or campus segment.

Question 10

What does a virtual private network (VPN) provide?

Accepted Answer

An encrypted connection that lets an authorized user or site access resources across an untrusted network.

Question 11

What is cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

On-demand use of shared computing resources delivered as services, with responsibility divided between customer and provider.

Question 12

What is telehealth?

Accepted Answer

The use of communication technology to deliver or support health services, education, monitoring, or consultation across distance.

Question 13

What is a patient portal?

Accepted Answer

A secure patient-facing service for functions such as viewing information, messaging, scheduling, forms, or managing care tasks.

Question 14

Why must health IT staff understand clinical and business departments?

Accepted Answer

System changes cross workflows; knowing each department's role helps identify dependencies, users, risks, and requirements.

Question 15

What is clinical informatics?

Accepted Answer

Applying information and technology to organize, analyze, and use health data in support of care and clinical work.

Question 16

How does an EHR differ from a single departmental system?

Accepted Answer

An EHR integrates a longitudinal patient record across care functions; a departmental system focuses on a specialized workflow.

Question 17

What is interoperability?

Accepted Answer

The ability of systems to exchange information and use the exchanged information with preserved meaning.

Question 18

What is HL7 FHIR designed to support?

Accepted Answer

Standards-based exchange of healthcare information through modular resources and modern web-oriented interfaces.

Question 19

What does DICOM standardize?

Accepted Answer

The format and exchange of medical images and related information between imaging devices and systems.

Question 20

What is LOINC commonly used to identify?

Accepted Answer

Laboratory tests, clinical observations, measurements, and document types with standardized codes.

Question 21

What does SNOMED CT represent?

Accepted Answer

Detailed clinical concepts and relationships used to encode meaning in health records.

Question 22

What is clinical decision support (CDS)?

Accepted Answer

Knowledge or patient-specific information delivered at an appropriate point to assist a clinical decision or action.

Question 23

What is alert fatigue?

Accepted Answer

Reduced attention or response when users receive too many low-value or repetitive alerts.

Question 24

What does computerized provider order entry (CPOE) do?

Accepted Answer

It lets authorized clinicians enter orders electronically for routing, checking, fulfillment, and documentation.

Question 25

What risk does barcode medication administration address?

Accepted Answer

It supports verification that the selected patient and medication match the active order at administration time.

Question 26

What is a health information exchange (HIE)?

Accepted Answer

An arrangement or service that enables authorized health information sharing across separate organizations or systems.

Question 27

Why map a clinical workflow before changing a system?

Accepted Answer

The map reveals handoffs, delays, workarounds, decision points, and safety dependencies that requirements must address.

Question 28

What is the purpose of the systems development life cycle (SDLC)?

Accepted Answer

It structures work from planning and analysis through design, implementation, evaluation, maintenance, and retirement.

Question 29

How does waterfall differ from agile delivery?

Accepted Answer

Waterfall moves through largely sequential phases; agile delivers in shorter iterations with repeated feedback and reprioritization.

Question 30

What does a gap analysis compare?

Accepted Answer

The current state with a desired future state to identify missing capabilities, processes, resources, or controls.

Question 31

What is a functional requirement?

Accepted Answer

A statement of what a system must do for a user, workflow, or business process.

Question 32

What is a nonfunctional requirement?

Accepted Answer

A quality or constraint such as availability, response time, usability, security, capacity, or recoverability.

Question 33

What is an RFI used for?

Accepted Answer

A request for information explores vendor capabilities and the market before a formal solution solicitation or decision.

Question 34

What is an RFP used for?

Accepted Answer

A request for proposal asks vendors to present a solution, approach, qualifications, terms, and pricing against defined needs.

Question 35

What does a service-level agreement (SLA) define?

Accepted Answer

Measurable service expectations, responsibilities, performance targets, and remedies or escalation between parties.

Question 36

What is recovery time objective (RTO)?

Accepted Answer

The target time for restoring a process or service after disruption.

Question 37

What is recovery point objective (RPO)?

Accepted Answer

The maximum targeted amount of data loss measured backward in time from a disruption.

Question 38

What does unit testing evaluate?

Accepted Answer

A small component or function in isolation against its expected behavior.

Question 39

What does integration testing evaluate?

Accepted Answer

Whether connected components, systems, and interfaces exchange and process information correctly together.

Question 40

What does user acceptance testing confirm?

Accepted Answer

Authorized users verify that the solution supports agreed requirements and real workflows before approval for use.

Question 41

Why is change control necessary?

Accepted Answer

It ensures proposed changes are reviewed, authorized, tested, documented, scheduled, and reversible when needed.

Question 42

What does least-privilege access mean?

Accepted Answer

Give each user or service only the permissions needed for current authorized duties, and remove access when no longer needed.

Question 43

What are the three goals in the CIA security model?

Accepted Answer

Confidentiality prevents unauthorized disclosure, integrity protects accuracy and completeness, and availability keeps information accessible when needed.

Question 44

What should an associate do when asked to hide an unfavorable metric?

Accepted Answer

Preserve accurate reporting, explain the concern, and escalate through the appropriate ethical or compliance channel.

Question 45

What should an IT strategic plan connect?

Accepted Answer

Technology priorities, capabilities, measures, and investments to the organization's mission, clinical goals, and business strategy.

Question 46

What makes a key performance indicator useful?

Accepted Answer

It is clearly defined, measurable, relevant to an objective, consistently calculated, and paired with a target or decision use.

Question 47

Why identify stakeholders early?

Accepted Answer

Different groups influence, use, support, or are affected by the change; early engagement exposes requirements and resistance.

Question 48

What is governance in health IT?

Accepted Answer

The decision rights, accountability, policies, and oversight used to align technology and data with organizational goals.

Question 49

What does change management address?

Accepted Answer

The people side of transition through communication, sponsorship, participation, training, readiness, reinforcement, and feedback.

Question 50

What is a risk register?

Accepted Answer

A maintained record of identified risks, likelihood, impact, owners, responses, status, and monitoring actions.

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