Employers arrange for medical coding training for their team for many different reasons. For example:
- Ensuring everyone is up to speed with annual code updates
- Addressing coding quality issues identified by recent internal or external audits
- Encouraging coders to earn a coding credential to demonstrate their mastery of coding skills and a commitment to ongoing professional development
- Cross-training their pool of top coders to keep them engaged and allow flexible reassignment in response to demand
In an effort to obtain the best results from training efforts, group training should not be overlooked. The group training dynamic is powerful and should not be underestimated.
Regardless of whether your team is a mix of seasoned and not-so-seasoned coders or consists of only all-stars or novices, educating the whole team provides an opportunity for detailed sharing of information. Everyone has a strength they can use to mentor the team and everyone can benefit from being a learner once in a while. Pairing a coder who is weak in a specific area with a coder who is stronger in that skill can accelerate the mastery of coding skills. Weaker coders may not be ready to step up to more complex cases, but the process of improving their skills puts them on the path to eventual mastery.
Training your team as a group can have three distinct benefits:
- Sharing of insights: We all learn differently and we all have different levels of understanding. Being part of a team training effort means everyone shares the same training materials. Being able to review materials with a colleague and get their take on a topic (e.g.,“Let me show you an example of how the new guideline should be applied”) can provide a new perspective that contributes to increased comprehension of a difficult coding concept.
- Emotional support: Having a friendly face to commiserate with and offer an “atta-boy” when the coding system is swimming in your head, can help keep your team on track. “You can do it!” can mean everything when you really need to hear it!
- Competition: So long as it remains friendly and supportive, competition is a powerful tool to keep a team focused and moving forward. Hearing “I am going to conquer these updates to the code system this weekend. What are you doing?” might encourage the level of effort necessary for the whole team to reach the goal.
Coding is an exciting field — there is always room to grow and learn. There are additional levels of comprehension and deeper understanding to reach. There are new codes and guidelines released annually that must be incorporated into your coding toolkit as well as new diagnoses and procedures to learn about. The organization may be changing its mix of cases or new providers with unique styles of documentation may come on the scene.
Whatever the challenge, the dynamic of group learning allows for sharing, support and healthy competition.
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