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| Medical Record Technicians |
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| Employment Increase: |
62% |
| People In Field: |
123,000 |
| Average Salary: |
$21,840 |
| Qualifications: |
Associate Degree |
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Nature of the Work:
When you enter a hospital, you see a whirl of white
coats of physicians, nurses, radiologic technologists, and others.
Every time these health care personnel treat a patient,
they record what they observed and did to the patient. This
record includes information the patient provides about their
symptoms and medical history, and also the results of
examinations, reports of x-ray and laboratory tests, and diagnoses
and treatment plans. Medical record technicians organize
and evaluate these records for completeness and accuracy.
Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement:
Medical record technicians entering the field usually
have formal training in a two-year associate degree program
offered at community and junior colleges. Courses include
medical terminology and diseases, anatomy and physiology, legal
aspects of medical records, coding and abstraction of data,
statistics, databases, quality assurance methods, and
computers as well as general education.
Job Outlook:
Hospitals will continue to employ the most
technicians. Most job openings will occur because of replacement
needs. The job prospects for formally trained technicians should
be very good. There will be approximately 123,000
medical record technicians by 2005. Employment of medical
record technicians is expected to grow much faster than the
average for all occupations through the year 2005 due to rapid
growth in the number of medical tests, treatments, and
procedures and because medical records will be increasingly
scrutinized by third-party payers, courts, and consumers.
Sources of Additional Information:
Information on careers in medical record technology,
including the Independent Study Program, is available from:
American Health Information Management Association
919 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400
Chicago, IL 60611
A list of CAHEA-accredited programs for medical
record technicians is available from:
American Medical Association, Division of Allied Health Education and Accreditation
515 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610.
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