Clinical Coder
What the work is
Assigns clinical codes to narrative descriptions of patients' diseases, operations and procedures in accordance with recognised classification systems to allow for easy storage, retrieval and analysis of health data.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Reviews patients' medical records and extracts relevant information
- Assigns appropriate codes to diagnoses, procedures and other medical information, using recognised classification systems
- Ensures accuracy and completeness of coded data
- Collaborates with Health Professionals to clarify documentation and obtain additional information as needed
- Conducts regular audits to ensure compliance with coding guidelines and standards
- Generates reports and statistical analysis based on coded data
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a mix of behind-the-scenes roles: a hospital records office, a strata building and a film production office. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A messy situation ends with everyone knowing who is doing what and by when
- A document, a form or a code is checked and found right the first time
- Someone thanks you for the thing they never had to think about, because you did it
Hard days
- Everyone wants an answer now, and the answer depends on someone else
- Standing between two parties who each think the other is being unreasonable
- A simple mistake in a record that can ripple through everything afterwards
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 599931, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.