Medical coding is a highly technical and complex field that requires a lot of training and knowledge of medical procedures, but the Hilldale Health Department is one of the few in Michigan that is using the job as a marketing tool to increase patient safety.
The city has a long history of hiring physicians, and the Hillison’s medical technology staff is the only one of its kind in the state.
But this year, Hillendale is making it a full-time job.
The department hired an associate professor of health administration to help with the job, which is part of a larger effort to improve patient safety at Hillendale.
The program is called Medical Code and the program will last through June, said Jennifer McQuillan, assistant dean of medical education at the university’s College of Nursing.
It involves hiring medical coders, teaching them to use technology, and then developing a training program to train the coders.
Medical Code is a program that allows Hillendale to hire the best and most qualified medical codgers in the country, she said.
The company is hiring the codgers through the medical coding program.
“We have the highest number of coders we’ve ever had in this field,” McQuellan said.
“So it’s kind of the icing on the cake for us.”
The Hillendale Medical Code program is part-time and unpaid.
McQuelan said it’s important to remember that Hillendale Health Department uses the codings for its own benefit.
“The medical coding programs are paid, and it’s for the health care needs of the patients,” she said, adding that she hopes that people who are looking to take the coding job understand that it is part time and unpaid, and that it’s to help them to learn to be better doctors.
The Hilldale Medical Code job is the second-highest paid position in the city, according to a 2015 analysis by the state’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The median pay for a Hillendale resident was $61,857, according the bureau.
The bureau also found that medical codings are paid at a median wage of $51,974 in the field.
That’s more than 10 percent of the median annual salary of a Hillview resident.
Hillendale’s medical coder salary is about $33,000 a year.
The pay disparity between the Hillview and Hillendale residents is part and parcel of the health system’s ongoing struggle to find qualified coders for its growing patient-care needs.
“They are doing this work in a highly skilled and well-paid position,” said Jennifer McGowan, director of communications for the Hilliard County Hospital Association, which represents Hillendale and the city.
Hilliard has a population of about 7,500, but it’s expected to grow to about 9,500 by 2020.
“As the population continues to grow, we’re going to need more doctors, and we need more specialists to provide that care,” McGowan said.
Hillison Health has about 8,700 residents, which McGowan described as a “good” number.
The number of doctors who are working at Hilliard’s medical center is about 8 percent, but those numbers have increased significantly in the past five years, according of a 2017 report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Hillcrest has about 6,000 residents and McGowan estimated that about half of Hilliard residents are working in medical coding.
The other half are teaching medical coding at the Hillcret Health System, which provides primary care, trauma care, and other health services.
Hillbills medical coding jobs will last two years, with a five-year term for the coder position.
Hillington has about 12,000 resident residents and there are about 3,600 coders working in the department, according a 2016 analysis by HealthTech Michigan.
The most popular positions are associate medical codergist and associate clinical medical codurgist, which are paid $51 per hour and $35.75 per hour, respectively.
In 2016, Hilliard was ranked number three in the U: Health Care Technology and Technology Care Systems, with 9.1 percent of its medical codered positions.
The state is ranked number four in Health Care Tech and Technology in terms of number of certified medical codigators.
“When it comes to technology and technology care, there is no one that is going to beat Hilliard in this business,” said McGowan.
She said that Hillcrets medical coding positions will continue to attract the best coders to the city’s medical community.
“It’s a wonderful, diverse group of individuals that have tremendous technical skills and know how to code,” McGowan said, “so we are very excited about it.”
Hillcres medical coding hiring begins next week.