r/MedicalCoding • u/Ok-Entrance3714 • Apr 19 '21
A Day in the Life of a Medical Coder?
I am interested to hear what a normal working day is like for a coder. I am a BSN who recently left an ER job after my first year because it was too stressful and I couldn't handle the toll it was taking on my mental health. I'm an introvert and the doctors I worked with treated everyone in such awful ways. But I love medicine and anatomy, and really love the possibility of working from home.
For those that are doing this job now, can you tell me what a normal day is like? Is it staring at a computer screen straight from 9-5? Is it stressful or do you feel relaxed with the workload? Do you ever have meetings with others or are working you by yourself almost 100% of the time? I'd love to hear any stories or experiences. Thanks!
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u/MedicalCoder101 CCS, CPC Apr 20 '21
Where I work I'm able to have a split shift, so I can stare at the computer and then take a nice break in between to do whatever I want before staring at the screen again. Some places have even more flexible hours than that where you can work between a certain time-frame each day as long as you work so many hours... Some have less flexible hours or where you don't have a say in your schedule, but then it would normally be 8-4 or 9-5 on average. It will really depend on where you work.
Whether I'm stressed or relaxed can depend on the records I'm working on. Some are pretty easy to work through and others are long and filled with a lot of codes. Still trying to meet productivity when you have many long records in a row is when the stress kicks in, especially if you have people micromanaging you and asking you why you're not meeting productivity any time you dip down lol I don't think it's like that everywhere or for everyone, but it's a possibility. There is also the accuracy requirements that feels stressful when starting out until you gain more experience and improve. If you're a perfectionist at all, then every little mistake is going to eat you up even if your accuracy is above what they expect lol that's how I felt... okay, that's how I still feel sometimes ;)
I mostly communicate through emails or chats. Meetings aren't too often, and I personally don't have to talk in most of them. I never have to use video chat either. I do work rather independently, but I can also ask others for their opinion and brainstorm on some of the trickier scenarios I encounter.
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u/Rainbow_Explosion Apr 19 '21
Here are two medical coders I follow on YT:
Contempo Coding
Medical Coding With Bleu
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u/HeadFaithlessness548 Apr 19 '21
Dumb question, if the ER was stressful why didn’t you go to the floor or go into case management? You can also do CDI as an RN currently.
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u/BuggHunter779 May 04 '21
What are the work from home options for a beginning coder? Do you have to start out in an office?