What Do Medical Records Technicians Do (including Their Typical Day At Work)

Job Description

Medical Records Technicians compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the health care system. Process, maintain, compile, and report patient information for health requirements and standards in a manner consistent with the healthcare industry’s numerical coding system. They also assign the patient to diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), using appropriate computer software.

Other tasks include:

• Protect the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.
• Review records for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with regulations.
• Process patient admission or discharge documents.
• Transcribe medical reports.
• Resolve or clarify codes or diagnoses with conflicting, missing, or unclear information by consulting with doctors or others or by participating in the coding team’s regular meetings.
• Enter data, such as demographic characteristics, history and extent of disease, diagnostic procedures, or treatment into computer.

We asked Medical Records Technicians how satisfied they are with their job. Here is what they said.

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71% of them said they were satisfied with their job and 58% said they find that their job makes the world a better place or helps to make someone else’s life better.

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Typical Day At Work

On a daily basis, Medical Records Technicians manage the department or supervise clerical workers, directing or controlling activities of personnel in the medical records department. They protect the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.

• Plan, develop, maintain, or operate a variety of health record indexes or storage and retrieval systems to collect, classify, store, or analyze information.
• Assign the patient to diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), using appropriate computer software.
• Compile and maintain patients’ medical records to document condition and treatment and to provide data for research or cost control and care improvement efforts.
• Identify, compile, abstract, and code patient data, using standard classification systems.
• Review records for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with regulations.

We asked some Medical Records Technicians a few questions to find out what else does their work day look like. Here is what we found.

	Do you have telephone conversations everyday in this job?	65% said yes
	How important is it to work in a team in this job?	43% said very important
	Do you have group discussions everyday in this job?	60% said yes
	Do you talk or work with customers everyday in this job?	25% said yes
	Do you have to deal with angry customers everyday in this job?	7% said yes
	Do you have to make decisions everyday in this job?	56% said yes

Other responsibilities

Besides their typical day, Medical Records Technicians also prepare statistical reports, narrative reports, or graphic presentations of information, such as tumor registry data for use by hospital staff, researchers, or other users. They may also process and prepare business or government forms.

On a weekly to monthly basis, Medical Records Technicians Release information to persons or agencies according to regulations. They might also Develop in-service educational materials.

In addition, they Consult classification manuals to locate information about disease processes.

Although specific duties may vary, many of them Compile medical care and census data for statistical reports on diseases treated, surgery performed, or use of hospital beds.

To some Medical Records Technicians, it is also their responsibility to Retrieve patient medical records for physicians, technicians, or other medical personnel.

Working life

Standard 40 hour work week

Regular schedule like a 9 to 5

In a typical work week as a Medical Records and Health Information Technician, you can expect to work 40 hour work week.

Is this right for me

People who are suitable for this job tends to like following set procedures and routines. They like working with data and details more than with ideas..

They also like starting up and carrying out projects. They like leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

You can read more about these career personality types here.

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http://www.bls.gov/OOH/healthcare/medical-records-and-health-information-technicians.htm

http://www.ahima.org/