Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
One of the departments of the hospital that is very effective in improving the quality of patient care is the health information management (HIM) department. This department supports the quality of health care and services by maintaining, managing and improving health information. Therefore, this department is very important because of the maintenance and management of such information. The changes caused by technological developments in this department have increased the importance of this sector and created new educational needs for its staff. Employee training is a process for improving the adaptability of employees to the changing organizational environment. Therefore, this possibility should be provided for the staff of the HIM department. One of the most important actions in educational programs is to identify and rank educational needs. Accurate identification and measurement of these needs is essential to improve and increase the quality of education and research in the health system. In this regard and considering the importance and sensitivity of medical information, the educational needs of the HIM department staff should be determined and prioritized. This study aims to determine and prioritize the educational needs of the HIM department staff in two hospitals in Ferdows City, Iran using the needs assessment method.

Methods
This is a descriptive study that was conducted in two hospitals in Ferdows City, Iran in 2021. The study population included all employees of the HIM department in these hospitals. Due to sample study population, the sampling was done using a census method. The data collection tool was Zarei et al.’s questionnaire, which includes four items related to demographic characteristics (age, work experience, type of employment, and educational level) and 28 items related to educational needs in the fields of computer and technology use, data collection, health information classification, statistical methods, and occupational safety & health. A five-point Likert scale from 0=not need to 4=very much need was used. Based on this scale, a score of 0.1-1 shows low need, a score of 1.1-2 shows moderate need, a score of 2.1-3 shows high need, and a score of 1.3-4 shows very high need. in the present study, the reliability of the questionnaire using the Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.90, and its internal consistency using Cronbach’s α was obtained 0.87. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, and frequency in SPSS software, version 19.

Results
Of 40 distributed questionnaires, 30 were completed and returned. In the field of computers and information technology, the results showed that the mean need score was 2.6 out of 4, indicating a high need for education in this field (65%). The highest need was related to familiarity with the electronic file management system (76%). In the field of data collection, the mean need score 2.8 out of 4, which indicated a high need (70%) for training in this field. The highest need was related to familiarity with the legal aspects of health information management (75%). In the field of health information classification, the mean need score was 2.8 out of 4, indicating a high need (70%) for training in this field. The highest need was related to familiarity with medical terms to help check medical records and extract information (75%). In the field of statistical methods, the mean need score was 2.6 out of 4, which indicated a high need (65%) for training in this field. The highest need was related to familiarity with Excel and SPSS software (74%). In the field of occupational safety & health, the mean need score was 2.4 out of 4, indicating a high need (60%) for training in this field. The highest need was related to familiarity with risk/crisis management (65%).

Conclusion
Considering the importance of the HIM unit and the role of its employees in the management of information in hospitals and given that the skill of using computers and information technology is one of the main needs for the implementation of electronic health management systems in the hospital, it is necessary the increase the computer and information technology skills of staff in the HIM department. On the other hand, the employee’s positive attitude towards electronic health systems depends on their computer skills. Therefore, considering the change of procedure from using paper medical documents to electronic documents, there is a need to increase their skills in the field of computer and information technology. The results of this study showed that the educational needs of the HIM department employees are at a high level; therefore, the best option for improving their skills is to hold training courses. It is recommended that training courses be held according to their skills. One of the limitations of the present study was the small sample size which was due to the low number of hospitals (two hospitals) and the HIM department staff in Ferdows City.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This article is the result of a research project entitled "educational need assessment of the health information management department staff of teaching hospitals in Ferdows City" approved by Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2021 (Code: IR.BUMS.REC.1400.312).

Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-forprofit sectors.

Authors' contributions
Conceptualization, investigation, data collection, writing the original draft: Akram Azad; Methodology, review & editing: Zohreh Javanmard.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interests.

Acknowledgements
The authors consider it necessary to express their gratitude to all the employees of the health information management department of the educational hospitals of Ferdows City who cooperated in conducting this research.


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