By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Can Thinking Younger Make You Live Longer?
    April 20, 2011
    Image
    Obesity’s Outlook Unchanged
    June 13, 2011
    When It’s An Emergency Elderly Not Treated As Well in Hospitals
    July 16, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: How Do I Become A Clinical Documentation Specialist?
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Finance > How Do I Become A Clinical Documentation Specialist?
FinanceMedical Education

How Do I Become A Clinical Documentation Specialist?

Rehan Ijaz
Last updated: September 28, 2020 8:38 pm
Rehan Ijaz
Share
8 Min Read
SHARE

  Are you considering becoming a clinical documentation specialist? Here’s everything you need to know about the experience and education required. The median annual earnings of a clinical documentation specialist are $36,000. The figure is as per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It?s one of the most important careers in the medical field. Clinical documentation specialists work with hospitals and healthcare systems in monitoring patient records. Clinical documentation specialists are in high demand all over the world and is a good career line to follow. Are you considering becoming a clinical documentation specialist? Here’s everything you need to know about the experience and education required. What Do Clinical Documentation Specialists Do? Clinical documentation specialists deal with the management of patient records in a facility. They are responsible for managing data and liaising with medical officers for proper referencing. You are basically involved in handling patient data and liaise with medical officers for correction. What Does It Take to Be a Clinical Documentation Specialist? The journey to be a clinical documentation specialist is shorter than that of a doctor or a surgeon. However, you still need to undergo quality training and certification before you start practicing. The basic entry-level education is an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree. The course takes 2-5 years to finish. The initial years are spent on learning the area of study and the last years being mostly practice and experience gaining. You are required to study areas of biology, medical health records, information systems, and archiving. What Do Clinical Documentation Specialists Earn Clinical documentation specialists earn a decent salary. The median salary is anything above $36,000 with the majority of specialists earning more than this rate. The salary varies depending on whether one is working for a private medical institute or for public institutions. Other factors that could determine your salary include location, department and years of experience as well as the workload. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that job opportunities for health information technicians will grow by 13% by 2026. The figures are attributed to a growing population of elderly persons and the need to digitize patient?s data for easy retrieval. How Do I Become a Clinical Documentation Specialist? You might be asking yourself, how do I become a medical documentation specialist? There is no one single answer to this but you have to go through over various hurdles before reaching your goal. This is a combination of classwork, experience, and lots of work. Below are factors to consider. 1. Education Requirements Stellar performance in school is key towards becoming a clinical documentation specialist. Many universities and colleges offer this course either as an associate or a bachelor’s degree. This can be in the form of health information technology (HIT) or health information management (HIM) degrees. The years of study vary as well as the depth of study. The curriculum for clinical documentation specialists includes various courses in science. They include epidemiology, biology and information archiving and elements of information science. There is also considerable time spent in laboratories, in lecture rooms, and in a medical internship. 2. Experience Clinical documentation specialists need to have a level of experience before they embark on a career. This begins at the university internship level where you can gain supervised experience preparing you for your first job. Beyond the internship, many healthcare documentation specialists can undertake volunteer sessions. These offer them quite some good hands-on experience. Most organizations need some prior experience before they employ you. It should be in areas of health information management and nursing. You can gain this experience by being a coder or a records technician in small to a medium medical facility. 3. Certification The clinical documentation specialist certification is one of the major certification courses. It?s offered by the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists. This association conducts the Clinical Documentation Specialist examination. Those excelling are allowed the full practice. Clinical documentation specialists can undertake a test to earn certification. This is offered by the American Health Information Management Association. This certification grants you license as a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT). With this, you can practice at any facility. You are a recognized certified clinical documentation specialist. 4. Personal Traits Clinical data specialists must possess some personality traits that make them grow in their career. They must be able to learn quickly, keen to details and must not be bored with tables and forms. They have to be very patient with fellow workers. The rationale is that some of the records are often incomplete or not clear hence you must keep the line open for back and forth consultation. You will also have to be IT literate and able to interpret medical information. Besides, you need a general knowledge of the medical field. This includes regulations and medical vocabularies. 5. Opportunities for Advancement There is room for growth in this sector. You can take accredited Master?s programs in health informatics (HI) and health information management (HIM). These are mainly research-based courses that offer you the opportunity to work with medical consulting firms. They are open avenues for career progression including getting jobs in specialized facilities. 6. Alternate Careers There are various alternative careers that you can take but still, remain within the line of medical records. These can include a medical secretary which is a clerical position responsible for basic appointments. You can also become a medical coder and develop codes for patient data or advanced medical information scientists. Another career line would be a medical transcriptionist. Their work is to listen to recorded audio conversations between a doctor and a patient and transfers it into printable documents. Clinical Documentation Specialists Is a Decent Career with Achievable Goals The career path of a specialist in clinical documentation is not as sophisticated as one may think. There are various achievable steps to take including quality education, certification, and experience. What is more appealing is that the job pays well and those qualified easily find job opportunities. There are more careers for you to consider in the medical records field apart from a clinical documentation specialist.

TAGGED:clinical documentation specialisthealthcare careersmedical careers
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Health
May 15, 2025
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction heart treatment
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction
Cardiology
May 13, 2025

You Might also Like

The Interview: Some Lessons for Healthcare PR

December 29, 2014
Image
Medical Education

6 Tips for Avoiding Illness When You Work in a Medical Office

June 6, 2012
revenue cycle
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

Six Secrets to Ramp up Your Revenue Cycle

April 24, 2013
tax shelter
BusinessFinanceHealth ReformPolicy & Law

Consumer-Directed Tax Shelters

March 12, 2015
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?