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Chapter 2 Career Skills in Health Informatics
43
health concerns are genetic. The presence of a genetic marker for cancer
or heart disease can shed light on a patient’s illness or set of symptoms.
Finally, the medical record contains personal identifying information
such as a Social Security number to connect a patient to the correct record.
Increasingly, HIM employees work with electronic health records,
which are stored on a computer database instead of in paper fi les. HIM
workers understand the fl ow of information within healthcare facilities,
from large hospital systems to a physician’s private practice. HIM workers
are vital to the daily collection, management, and protection of health
information.
People who work in the fi eld of health information management
are called health information technicians. Health information technicians
can specialize in particular kinds of information and data. For example,
some—like Myesha, whom you read about at the beginning of the
chapter—learn to code diagnoses and procedures using a numbering
system. Each numerical code determines the payment the healthcare
provider receives from Medicare, Medicaid, or other insurance programs.
Other health information technicians may specialize in cancer registry
data collection. This data is used to track treatment, survival, and
recovery rates for research purposes.
Technicians work in all types of medical facilities, from dental offi ces
to medical clinics to hospitals. Day shifts are common, with evening and
night shifts available in facilities that are open 24 hours a day. A two-year
associate’s degree is the most common educational requirement for a
health information technician.
Employers prefer to hire credentialed technicians. To become
credentialed, a worker must pass a test to become certifi ed and will
continue to take classes each year to keep that certifi cation up-to-date.
There are separate certifi cations for health information technicians and
medical coders (Figure 2.2).
Technology is changing the work and job titles of some health
information technicians. For example, the medical transcriptionist
used to type medical record information from a physician’s recorded
dictation, a verbal recording describing a patient’s symptoms and the
treatment given. This was a special skill that involved listening, pausing
the recording, and accurately typing what was said. Recent improvements
in computerized speech recognition software have made typing almost
completely unnecessary.
Figure 2.2 Certifications for Health Information Technicians
Registered Health Information
Administrator (RHIA®)
manages patient health information and
medical records
Registered Health Information
Technician (RHIT®)
ensures that medical records are complete,
accurate, and entered in the correct format
Certified Coding Associate
(CCA®)
qualified to code in both hospitals and
physician practices
Certified Coding Specialist
(CCS®)
skilled in coding patient medical record data
in the hospital setting