Resume Tips for Health Care Professionals

By Michele Drayton
Feature Author

The candidate for the medical coding job said he was meticulous.  But his resume, rife with misspellings, debunked that claim.  The recruiter moved on to the next prospect.

Health information-related jobs -- including coding, billing and abstracting -- require flawless attention to detail; an inaccurate code can translate to lost dollars for a hospital or physician's practice.  A hiring manager will have good reason to doubt a candidate's ability to code an inch-thick chart if misspellings dot a one-page resume.

Too many candidates fail to realize the purpose of a resume -- to whet the appetite of a hiring manager and open the door to an interview.

Here are a few tips to foolproof your resume for a health information-related position:

• Choose a Format - Use chronological or functional (skills-based), or a combination of both, depending on which best highlights your skills.
  • The chronological format presents work history, with the most recent job first.
  • The functional resume emphasizes skills and work experience related to them.  (Job seekers who've worked in a different industry, but want to break into health information management, might consider this format to draw attention to transferable skills.)
• Mesh Assets with Employers' Needs - Employers want to learn what you know and how you can help them.  In every descriptive phrase, convey how your skills affected results or the bottom line.  If your coding record exceeded a particular standard for accuracy or productivity, or earned an award, say so in the resume, said Gwen Hughes, a professional practice manager with American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) in Chicago.  Or perhaps, you can mention that your ability to capture additional documentation resulted in enhanced revenues for a facility.
• Weave Details into Your Resume - A coder outlining work experiences in a resume should include relevant details.  Mention whether the job was performed in a 60-bed outpatient clinic or a 500-bed tertiary-care, urban teaching hospital.  Similarly, a job candidate should identify the type of chart coded, such as inpatient, outpatient, emergency, observation, etc.
• Speckle Your Resume with the Right Words - Health information management is filled with acronyms and buzz words, such as DRG, JCHAO, HCFA, ASC, CPT, compliance and reimbursement.  Your resume should also highlight credentials related to health information management, such as CCS (certified coding specialist), RHIT (registered health information technician) and RHIA (registered health information administrator).
• Highlight Transferable Skills - This recommendation holds true both for job seekers within the industry who want to broaden their experience and newcomers who want to persuade a hiring manager to talk to them, even if they worked in a different field.  A former teacher trying to break into health information management can mention skills in leading, focusing, organizing and using time management practices, for example, said Cyndi Thomas, a recruiter based in Tampa, Florida.  

In addition, some candidates may have gained significant skills outside the job, such as demonstrating professional interest and clinical exposure by mentioning a volunteer stint in a hospital, said Hughes, of AHIMA.

• Avoid Common Mistakes - Typical resume blunders include:
  • Addition of personal and irrelevant information, e.g., height, weight, health, marital status and religion.
  • Too lengthy (One page suffices, but two may be warranted for job candidates with significant experience and achievement.)
  • Omission of essential contact information, such as telephone numbers.
  • Passive verb usage, e.g., "I was tasked to code 60 charts a week."
  • Poor design (A resume shouldn't look as though it rolled off a resume software assembly line; make your resume distinctive.)

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