The Health Information Manager (previously referred to as Medical Records Administrator) is a professionally educated person who is responsible for the patient medical records kept in a hospital or other health care institution. While duties and amount of responsibility designated to this individual depend to a great extent upon the size and type of employing institution, the Health Information Manager is responsible for seeing that each patient's medical record is complete, kept confidential, and safeguarded from individuals not involved with the medical care of the patient. In large hospitals, Health Information Managers are responsible for the overall functions of a Medical Records Department, including the management and supervision of other personnel, utilization review, and analysis of the quality of patient care. Confidentiality and legal aspects are also among their responsibilities - including handling subpoenas and depositions. In small hospitals, they may be one of a few employees in the medical records department and may perform technical as well as professional duties. Wherever they work, it is their responsibility to facilitate the flow of health information to all departments and to maintain a record system capable of rapid retrieval of a patient's record. The daily operations of the department may be handled by the Health Information Technician (previously referred to as Medical Records Technician). This person reviews medical records for completeness and accuracy, sees that all information on a patient is available and arranged properly in the patient's chart, and translates the names of diseases and surgical procedures into coding symbols for retrieval and payment purposes. Computers, microfilm and microfiche equipment are some of the modern aids used to carry out the functions of this position. Technicians also file and microfilm records, compile statistics and data, type medical reports, and with experience, may supervise other personnel. The preparation and preservation of health records is important not only to the daily functioning of a hospital, but also for hospital accreditation procedures. Accurate records are also necessary for research, insurance claims, legal actions, evaluation of treatment and medications prescribed, and for instruction in the education of medical, nursing, and other personnel.

Medical record technicians entering this field usually have formal training in a 2-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. Technicians may also gain training through an Independent Study Program in Medical Record Technology offered by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Hospitals sometimes advance promising medical record clerks to jobs as medical record technicians, although this practice may be less common in the future. Advancement generally requires 2-4 years of job experience and completion of the hospital’s in-house training program. Most employers prefer to hire Accredited Record Technicians (ART). Accreditation is obtained by passing a written examination offered by the AHIMA. To take the examination, a person must be a graduate of an accredited 2-year associate degree program, or a graduate of the Independent Study Program in Medical Record Technology who has also obtained 30 semester hours of academic credit in prescribed areas. Technicians who have received training in non-accredited programs or on the job are not eligible to take the examination. Experienced medical record technicians generally advance in one of two ways--by specializing or serving in a management position. Many senior medical record technicians specialize in coding, particularly Medicare coding or in tumor registry. In large medical record departments, experienced technicians may become section supervisors, overseeing the work of the coding, correspondence, or discharge sections, for example. Senior technicians with ART credentials may become director or assistant director of a medical record department in a small facility. However, in larger institutions the director is a medical records administrator, with a bachelor’s degree in medical record administration.

• 4 year Bachelors Degree

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. 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. The need for detailed medical records in offices and clinics of doctors of medicine should translate into rapid growth in employment opportunities for medical record technicians in large group practices and offices of specialists. Rapid growth is also expected in health maintenance organizations, nursing homes, and home health agencies.

Medical record technicians need a strong clinical background to analyze the contents of medical records. Other occupations that require a knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology without directly touching the patient are medical secretaries, medical transcribers, medical writers, and medical illustrators.

$40,000

• Carnegie Mellon University - Heinz School
• St. Louis University Doisy School Of Health Sciences
• University Of Kansas School Of Allied Health
• University Of Missouri - Columbia Department Of Health Service Management & Informatics

• American College Of Healthcare Information Administrators
• American Health Information Management Association
• National Environmental Health Association