Managing Patient Health Information: 4 Key Tasks of a Health Information Specialist

How hard is it to handle patient data? Learn more about the responsibilities of a health information specialist to see if it's a good fit for your skills.

Did you know that health information technician jobs should see a 15% increase from 2014 to 2024? This large increase is due to the great importance of these jobs.

Health information specialists manage patient health information. This is a very important task that affects everyone. Everyone has been a patient at some time in their life.

If you want to learn more about being a health information specialist, keep reading. We've made a list of the four key tasks that they perform.

1. Reviewing

Health information specialists are experts in reviewing health records. These health technology professionals review patient charts for accuracy and completeness.

Every patient chart should be complete and accurate. This is important for every patient's future in healthcare.

Medical providers always look at previous medical records before seeing their patients. Incorrect or incomplete charts are not useful to medical providers.

This can cause an interruption in their care. This includes their continuity of care and treatment. Without this review process, patients could get less-than-adequate care.

2. Organizing

Health information specialists have to organize patient information. These professionals organize charts into databases and registries.

These experts then follow and track patient outcomes. Health information specialists follow patients past their initial visit.

By following these metrics, health information specialists can improve their future charting methods. This will ensure that medical providers are tracking useful information. This information helps patient outcomes.

Without proper electronic organization, health professionals would lose patient charts. Medical professionals would not be able to read them.

3. Insurance

Health information specialists code patient charts for insurance companies. They do this by assigning clinical codes to each patient chart.

Clinical codes determine reimbursement for the medical facility and coverage for the patient. Anyone could understand why this is important.

Insurance coding is a very specialized skill. Health insurance specialists know insurance coding well. Insurance coding is almost always a need for job candidates.

Many medical technology careers involve insurance coding. Health information specialists are the ones who verify these patient charts.

4. Confidentiality

Health information specialists have one great responsibility: keeping confidentiality.  Healthcare providers must be experts in patient privacy. Health information specialists are no different.

These professionals have access to patient charts and sensitive patient information. They have to keep this information under lock-and-key. Health information specialists have to avoid revealing any sensitive data.

Sensitive data includes names, birthdays, addresses, diagnoses, and more. Any piece of information that can identify a patient is private.

This may sound easy, but confidentiality laws are very sensitive. Health information specialists have to understand these laws and follow them.

Becoming a Health Information Specialist

Do these tasks sound exciting to you? If so, you should consider becoming a health information specialist. It is a respectable and important position in healthcare.

Healthcare information specialists manage and protect patient information among other important healthcare tasks.

You can look for health information specialist positions using the ITJobCafe. Feel free to browse available jobs if you're looking for other available positions. 

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