Healthcare Documentation

Many healthcare documentation specialists work from their homes as independent contractors, subcontractors, or as home-based employees. Others work in doctors’ offices, public and private hospitals, teaching hospitals, medical schools, healthcare documentation businesses, clinics, laboratories, pathology and radiology departments, in the Emergency Department of hospitals or physician’s office as a medical scribe, insurance companies, medical libraries, government medical facilities, rehabilitation centers, legal offices, research centers, veterinary medical facilities, nursing homes, etc.

Qualified healthcare documentation specialists who wish to expand their professional responsibilities may become editors, quality assurance specialists, or supervisors. Experienced healthcare documentation specialists may become teachers, working in schools and colleges to educate future HDSs, work as managers, authors of textbooks, or owners of healthcare documentation businesses. They may provide instruction and training to new EHR users; help create EHR templates; design, test, and implement best practices in EHR use; develop and implement EHR policies and procedures to meet regulatory compliance; offer compliance services and training; provide ongoing training and support to EHR users, and many others.

A career in Healthcare Documentation is right for you if you:

• See yourself in a career that offers diverse opportunities.
• Would like to work in health care, but not directly with patients.
• Have an aptitude for science, but also like management, law, and computers.
• Want to work from home.
• Have excellent English grammar skills.
• Possess good visual and auditory ability with excellent listening skills.
• Have a high level of concentration for extended periods of time.

Richland Community College’s comprehensive Healthcare Documentation program is approved by the Approval Committee for Certificate Programs (ACCP), a joint committee established by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) to approve Healthcare Documentation education certificate programs. AHIMA and AHDI acknowledge the ACCP approval committee as the process to identify quality Healthcare Documentation education programs that have been evaluated by a peer review process against a minimum set of standards for entry-level Healthcare Documentation professionals. This process allows academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and private companies to be acknowledged as offering an AHDI Approved Healthcare Documentation Programs.

The Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist (RHDS) exam is an industry-recognized exam. The RHDS credential serves as a benchmark for entry into practice. It demonstrates job-readiness to industry employers. Graduates from approved schools are generally better prepared to sit for the Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist (RHDS) exam.