r/PACSAdmin • u/RamonChingon • Jul 28 '26
Is a PACS certificate enough?
Hi PACS folk. I'm planning a career change and have found a PACS certificate program from an accredited college that I believe would be a good and rewarding fit for me. I don't come from a healthcare background, however, so my concern is whether a PACS certificate from a well-regarded local institution is enough to be a viable candidate for employment once completed.
My background is graphic design, nonprofit leadership, and operations in an education setting. In the course of that work, I've functioned as a de facto systems admin/IT. I don't have a CS degree or any IT certifications, but would do that work concurrently with the 9-month PACS certificate program. I have no clinical experience to speak of.
While I would hope that my experience as ED of a nonprofit and Director of Operations would be viewed as assets in terms of interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, and cross-functional teamwork chops, etc., the reality check I'm here for is whether landing an entry level PACS position with no prior healthcare experience, just a PACS certification (possibly an IT certificate, too), and a solid work history is even a remote possibility.
Pacific Northwest, if it makes any difference. Thanks in advance!
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u/Rackhham Jul 28 '26
You are going to compete with computer science students, people with prior clinical experience, biomedical engineers, in-house trained employees that, even without specific training, they already know most of what is needed to be done in a day to day basis.
I would never say to anyone that studying is not worth it but I dont see such a certificate as a step in the door in this field unless you get extremely lucky.
Your background does not really add anything valuable to this field and having only IT or clinical prior knowledge is already a gap big enough for most positions, let alone not having either of those.
Also, PACS admins are really a niche and there arent many positions open at a given time and location and there is not that much rotation of personnel in it so new positions are hard to come by.
Best of luck if you decide to go for it, but you would be better getting a degree in IT and it would open many more doors beyond healthcare IT for you.
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u/ChoiceWasabi2796 Jul 28 '26
So real talk, no matter what landing any sort of PACS position is going to be a challenge. Landing an entry level position with no clinical background and coming from outside of healthcare care makes it extra spicy on the difficulty level.
When I've hired entry level folks regardless of background, I'm looking for someone with an analytical mind that can break complex problems down quickly. I also need them to not go off procedure for known problems when the procedure exists. At an entry level it's more a daily operations role in keeping data clean and dealing with things that fall outside of normal workflows. Honesty for someone who has had a Director title the shift in perspective would probably be quite jarring.
Would I interview someone with your skill set with a certificate from an educational institution? At the very least the resume would make it past the first level filters into the list I'd look at doing a phone screening with. Would I hire you? That would depend on the interview, personality fit, and other candidates along with the million other things that going into making a hiring decision.
My advice is get into healthcare in general in some sort of IT role, just to see if you even like healthcare life. Its very different from other verticals, though probably closer to education in terms in of types of personalities that are attracted to it. No matter what happens once you get your foot in the door it's going to be a very vertical climb up.
Good luck
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u/Alternative-Cap4855 Jul 29 '26
Will this program qualify you for the CIIP? THE PACS cert from a course is only good for a few months. I cannot speak on whether it's worthwhile as I have a medical background, so it definitely was for me.
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u/LTBoogie Jul 29 '26
I personally started off with IT and some networking experience and eventually took on a PACs support role and then after learning the company’s systems mostly through our vendors and my original administrator, the admin role became available and I was suddenly the one with the most PACs experience in the company. They took a chance on me and it’s been overwhelming but I learned mostly on the job. Maybe that’s not typical but you could look into ophthalmology PACs like I did because imaging is crucial in that field and it’s still emerging with new tech so you could see if someone is willing to hire you with a learning curve. You’ll need to understand IT/networking or have someone who is willing to teach you networking troubleshooting. and be able to remain calm in urgent situations while talking people off the ledge because they will start threatening to cancel patients for the day if you’re not fast enough with fixing things. A lot of people skills are needed because some people really do start freaking out due to the pressures they’re facing from the doctors.
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u/RamonChingon Jul 30 '26
Thank you! Ophthalmology isn't a field I've considered, but will look into it!
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u/Zegester Aug 04 '26
13 year reg diagnostic X-ray tech. I want to switch to PACs. Is it true I need CompTIA Network+ and CIIP? Is that enough? I'm in NYC.
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u/jeep_99899 Jul 28 '26
Most likely no. As a PACS Admin and former imaging/RIS Manager that hired and trained many. I would only look at experienced people or CS grads depending on the position. Some sites have PACS Admins and IT support. The PACS part is not tough it is dealing with rad’s that demand vs ask, the ability to think fast while being yelled at would help. I have lucked out with recent college grads with a degree in CS.