12 Key Attributes Medical Records And Health Information Technicians Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Alex Garcia

Monday, January 4, 2016

Medical records and health information 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.

The core tasks that medical records and health information technicians are likely to carry out include:

Protect the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.
Review records for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with regulations.
Retrieve patient medical records for physicians, technicians, or other medical personnel.
Release information to persons or agencies according to regulations.
Plan, develop, maintain, or operate a variety of health record indexes or storage and retrieval systems to collect, classify, store, or analyze information.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that medical records and health information technicians would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Having a strong preference for conventional work environments. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 100%

Being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 94%

Being honest and ethical.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 93.4%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 91.6%

Developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 89.6%

Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 85.6%

Being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 84.4%

Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 84%

Maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 82%

Being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 81.2%

A willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 80%

Accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 80%