It’s no secret the healthcare industry is poised to continue growing, and within that sector, Health Information positions are in demand. Healthcare organization need people to input and maintain patients’ health records—such as examinations, diagnostic tests, treatment procedures and various other recorded documents making up an accurate medical history.
At Arizona College, we empower motivated individuals to take the first step to start a career in the Health Information sector. Continue reading to see the top skills required to have a successful career as a Health Information specialist.
An Eye for Detail, Organization
All these skills you’ll find on this list are important to your success as a Health Information specialist, but none will make your job easier than being extremely detail-oriented and organized. With so many patients and records to keep tabs on, even the slightest habits of disorganization can cause a snowball effect bleeding throughout the entire system. Making a seemingly simple mistake — like typing in the wrong medical code or confusing one patient’s records for another’s — can affect a patient’s direct health and waste valuable time and resources digging back through the paperwork to make corrections.
Problem Solver
A worthwhile skill to possess in navigating life in general, a resourceful problem solver in the health information field will be able to conduct thorough research in troubleshooting the various ways in which a claim can be denied. The widespread use of electronic medical records have lifted the burden of heavy digging off health information specialists, but they still need to use the same line of thinking when entering patient information to ensure mistakes aren’t made.
Computer Proficiency
It would make sense that a career in healthcare information would require computer savvy. The main programs to know as a healthcare information specialist is definitely Practice Management software and Electronic Medical Records software. Used across the industry for accurate data monitoring and analysis, these software packages are how a doctor keeps track of the various patients they’ve seen in the past three months, six months and even a year. Becoming familiar with these type of software will make your job much, much easier.
Clear Communicator; Written and Verbal
Specialists will rarely interact directly with patients, but they will work with a wide range of people. From doctors and nurses to fellow technicians and staff members, there’s no shortage of people to interact with on a verbal and written level. As you get seasoned in the industry, you’ll likely learn a lot of technical terms, emerging regulations and patient privacy policies, which others around you may not be as familiar. Taking the time to clearly explain these concepts to doctors and nurses, whether written or verbally, will gain you more respect and trust in your organization. It’ll also save you a boatload of time repeating yourself or redrafting emails.
Think a career in health information is right for you? We’d love to hear from you. Kindly fill out the Request Information form on the right to begin your journey today!
Information in this blog post is accurate as of September 2, 2015.