Health Information

                                   Health Information

A Registered Health Information Technician (or RHIT) plays an important role in ensuring patient record accuracy, organization, quality, security and accessibility. These professionals are also referred to as medical record technicians. Specifically, they manage medical records that contain a patient’s diagnosis, treatment, health certificate and insurance. These essential documents can be both on paper or encoded in an electronic database.
In This Guide

• Job Description and Outlook

• Education and Licensing Requirements

• Salary Guide

• Salary by Years Experience

RHITs use medical coding to categorize all patient data. This information is used for reimbursements and keeping the patient’s medical treatment history. Every hospital, nursing home and health clinic have one or more of these professionals on staff. This is because they make doctors’ and other health care providers’ work a lot easier by providing them up-to-date patient information to deliver high quality care.
In all healthcare settings, patient medical records are used as the basis for all care delivered. With this, these documents must provide accurate and updated information from a patient’s admission until discharge and follow-up care. Doing so allows doctors and nurses to provide the best treatment for the patient. Moreover, they make these medical records accessible and retrievable to third party payers, administrators and even researchers. They use codes to keep up with developments in patient care and come up with strategies to fill in gaps or eliminate redundancies. Insurance companies then use them to calculate reimbursements.
One area of specialization in health IT is cancer registry. RHITs also play the role of a cancer registrar. They provide data to be used in epidemiological research and public health for cancer awareness campaigns. They guard and keep the most important tools in modern health care settings in accordance to the standards stipulated in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
RHITs specialize in medical terminology, the disease process and electronic health records systems. They work collaboratively as a health team member even though they do not work closely with the patients. This is because they provide essential information for the health team regarding patient care and treatment.
Furthermore, they usually work full-time with night and weekend shifts depending on the facility and employer. Generally, they spend their working hours behind the scenes. They do not often come out in the patient wards. They stay in the office and work directly with the health team and third party providers. They clarify ambiguities in medical orders and validate entries in patient medical records. Due to the nature of their work, they are more likely to develop health problems such as ergonomic injury and eyestrain. Occupational precautions must be observed.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for medical record technicians will increase by 21 percent from 2010 to 2020. The BLS reported that there were 179,500 RHITs working in the United States in 2010, and 37,700 more will be needed in the coming decade. The aging population will drive this job market growth. This is because there will be a greater need for medical procedures that involve more claims for both public and private insurance. In addition, the growing demand for healthcare professionals equates to the need for more medical record technicians who will organize and manage the informatio.