By Deanna Rasch, RHIT
The Health Information Management Technology
field is a rapidly-changing one, offering a wide range of career opportunities.
Whether a position calls for EHR integration and management, supporting the
revenue cycle, release of information, clinical documentation improvement,
working with health information exchanges, or quality improvement,
opportunities for growth and advancement are plentiful.
One of the great benefits of the HIMT field is
how many jobs offer the flexibility to work remotely. A recent (October 2016)
search on indeed.com yielded just under 1000 open remote-specific positions for
HIM workers.
Telecommuting is on the rise, not just in HIM.
According to a Gallup poll published in August 2015, 37% of the American
workforce is working remotely at least part of the time. Statistics from
GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com show that telecommuting has increased 103% since 2005. With property costs rising and space
at a premium, companies are recognizing the benefit of letting their workforce
go home to work; the potential savings, on average, are estimated at
approximately $11,000 per employee per year.
While some organizations allow
new hires to work from home starting day one, bear in mind that many companies have a tiered process for sending
employees home to work. Erin, a full-time employee at
a national health insurance company, has been telecommuting for eight years and
had to meet specific requirements first. “I worked in the office for several
years. Our company began offering telework to employees who met certain
criteria such as years of service, excellent performance reviews, proven track
record, and type of position. I had to attest that my work space met company
guidelines for security (a separate room with a designated desk and a door that
locks.) For the first year, I was permitted to work from home two days per
week, and when that was successful I was offered the opportunity to telework
full time.”
So your company decides to let
you work from home coding in your pajamas. How can you ensure success when
telecommuting?
Assess yourself
Working from home should enable us to work
distraction-free, resulting in a significant increase in productivity. However,
reality can be much different from perception, and it necessitates asking some
hard questions. Are you self-disciplined and independent enough to be
productive without a supervisor nearby? Are you easily distracted by chores or
bill paying? Are you able to resist the siren song of Facebook and Netflix?
Elizabeth Wintour, RHIT, CCA, an inpatient coder
at the Cleveland Clinic, suggests a few strategies for overcoming common
distractions. “I get my lunch ready the
night before or the morning before I start my shift. That allows me to relax
and enjoy my lunch break without getting distracted by the mess in the kitchen
or the dishes I'm creating.” Another potential interruption is the house phone.
“I turn off the ringer of my home phone during working hours because that line
is not used for work purposes. This helps me stay focused on work and not get
distracted by home life while I'm in my home office.”
Family, friends or neighbors
can also pose a threat to productivity. The perception that you “aren’t really
working” can result in phone calls, texts or other interruptions. While I don’t
mind accepting FedEx packages for my neighbor, I’m very protective of my work
hours. I don’t answer the phone or front door during the day, I only respond to
texts during breaks, and I don’t turn on the television for any reason. I set a
timer when my kids get home from school; we catch up on how their respective
days went, and when the timer goes off, they know to get a snack and start on
homework so Mom can finish working.
Bethany, a
Coding Specialist II at a large healthcare system in central Ohio, agrees.
“There are always so many things to be done around the house that it can be
easy to become distracted if you don't make yourself keep working. However, my
department has specific productivity requirements for the number of charts
coded per hour, and if those standards aren't met, telecommuting privileges can
be revoked. If I find myself veering off from the standard, remembering that
helps light a fire under me to stop daydreaming and get back to work.”
Assess your skills
Working from home means that you won’t be able
to drop by the Help Desk to ask for assistance with a PC issue. Being
computer-savvy helps when you only have yourself available for troubleshooting.
Yes, you can call or email to open a trouble ticket, but if you can fix the
problem yourself, you can save time and improve efficiency. You don’t want to
appear unproductive or miss an important webinar because you are having router
issues or Outlook is wonky on your new laptop. If you don’t feel that your
skills are up to snuff, consider taking a computer class at your local library
or community college.
Plan your workspace
My next-door neighbor works from home, and he
likes to say that all he needs is his laptop and his recliner. For those of us
in the HIM field, our requirements for a functional home office are a bit more
stringent. For example, HIPAA; will you be accessing any PHI? If so, do you
have the ability to secure documentation properly? While some users may have
employer-provided workstations and VPN, others use their own Internet
connections and personal computers to access secure company portals. And while
electronic safeguards are important, so are physical safeguards; locking fire
safes can be used for hard drive backups and securing tokens when not in use.
Bethany shared
her company’s approach. “Computers displaying PHI must be in a private,
quiet area of the house with little traffic. Also, my organization provides the
computers and software used for coding, so the software programs and the
computers lock at certain intervals if left unattended for a while, same as
in-house computers.”
Workstation configuration is important from a
health standpoint. According to Dr. David Agus, leading cancer specialist and
personal physician of the late Steve Jobs, sitting at a desk for five or more
hours is equivalent to smoking an entire pack of cigarettes. Current data and
research shows that we need to stand up and move around for four to five
minutes every 30 minutes.
“Don’t forget to stretch your legs every once in
a while,” says Wintour. “A
number of my coworkers commented that they found themselves sitting more throughout
the day in their home offices than in a traditional office. Maybe it's
because coworkers are a phone call or email away rather than a quick walk
away.” Using a workstation that can be raised or lowered can help with fatigue,
and facilitates movement throughout the day.
Wintour suggests another
alternative: “I use the sleep-timer on my clock radio to remind me to get up at
least once every hour. I turn the radio on with the sleep-timer set for 60
minutes. When the radio shuts off, I know it's time to get up and move and hit
the sleep-timer for another 60 minutes.”
Professional approach
While one of the great benefits of working from
home is the ability to roll out of bed and get straight to work, consider
whether or not this will impact your approach your job. Not to mention, what if
you realize you have a WebEx meeting? “I wear business dress to my desk. Not
necessarily suit or stockings, but an outfit I wouldn’t be ashamed to video
chat in,” says Julia Welch, CCS, a remote abstractor for the Community Hospital
of the Monterey Peninsula.
“I've
worked from home for the last five years and my dressing rule includes a
shower/hair/makeup routine just like as if I was going to the office. I'm
generally dressed in jeans and a sweater, but look more than presentable to
answer the door or a video call as they pop up. There is nothing worse for my
motivation than looking into the mirror at 2:00 in the afternoon and looking
like you just rolled out of bed,” says Erin Wu, a healthcare consultant from
New York.
Schedule
Set a schedule and stick with it as much as
possible. While telecommuting offers a great deal of flexibility and autonomy,
maintaining a schedule is helpful both for your organization and for you.
Coworkers and managers who receive quick responses to calls or emails during
regular work hours have greater confidence that you’re getting work done. On a
personal level, it helps to clock out both physically and mentally when your
work day is done. “When it’s quitting time, I have to quit. I’m the kind of
person who gets immersed in a project and pretty soon it’s eight PM, ten PM,
midnight. If I don’t stick to my work schedule, I just keep going,” says Jody
Gilbert, a senior editor for Tech Pro Research who has been telecommuting for
20 years.
Wintour agrees. "An effective way to separate work life from home life is to keep only work-related materials in my home office so that I can close the door and have no reason to go in there when I’m done for the day."
Erin has a similar approach. "When teleworking, it is easy to lose track of time and work longer hours than you would in an office." She suggests setting specific start and stop times and sticking with them.
Erin has a similar approach. "When teleworking, it is easy to lose track of time and work longer hours than you would in an office." She suggests setting specific start and stop times and sticking with them.
How do you develop your schedule? Think
realistically about what will work, and if you will need to be available for
others. Are you a coder and can work whatever eight-hour shift you like within
a 24-hour period? Or will you be interacting with others in other time zones
for web meetings or phone calls? If so, those requirements need to be addressed
when planning your schedule. If you don’t ever seem to be around when needed,
the perception of ‘unavailability’ can have a negative impact.
Communicate
Staying in the loop can be hard, particularly if
only one or two people in a department are working off-site or if telecommuting
is a new venture for a company. Some organizations offer an internal instant
messaging application so that employees can stay in quick contact. Other
organizations may offer employee portals with a knowledge base or board where
questions may be asked and answered. Not having the ability to pop over to a
coworker’s cube can sometimes make things more difficult. “When I have a quick question, it would be nice
to have a coworker whom I could just physically turn to for immediate feedback.
Sure I can send an e-mail, or make a phone call, or set up a Lync meeting to
share my screen, but sometimes even those extra steps create longer delays for
what should be a quick question,” says Wintour.
“Each separate coding
workgroup (e.g., emergency room coders, ambulatory surgery coders, inpatient
coders, etc.) holds a virtual Webex meeting once a month. This gets us all
together in one place (metaphorically speaking) at the same time and lets us
actually speak to each other out loud. We use this as a time to catch up on
coding updates, bring up any issues we're having, or get questions answered,”
Bethany says.
At Erin’s, company, “we stay connected with
Instant Messenger, email, and the telephone during the day as well as bi-weekly
team meetings via phone. Many of us have one-on-one calls with our manager to
connect. We also have in-person team-building events a couple times per year.”
Lack of communication can inhibit productivity
and adaptability. In a field where change is constant, staying in the loop is
extremely important. “I think our industry's rules, laws, coding and
regulations change very quickly. It can be challenging to keep up with all of
those changes and to adjust workflows and processes to quickly and effectively
adhere to them,” says Erin.
For people who are more social, telework can
represent a drastic change. “If you’re the kind of person who needs constant
interaction with others, or if you thrive in a busy office environment,
telecommuting may not be the best choice for you,” suggests Gilbert.
“Working from home can be lonely, and I do miss
the social aspect of the workplace,” says Erin, but she agrees that the benefits
of working from home outweigh any negatives.
Invest in Your Own Success
The benefits of working from home are numerous;
less investment in business attire, savings on transportation costs, greater
scheduling flexibility, and a thirty-second commute from the office to the
kitchen. If you are a good fit, and your company is willing to send you home to
work, don’t squander the opportunity. Taking telecommuting seriously by being a
motivated, dedicated worker demonstrates gratitude for the opportunity and a
personal investment in the process. By setting a good example as a successful
teleworker, you ensure that companies are more likely to expand their remote
work program, which will ultimately have a positive impact on the HIM industry.
As Erin says, “The work/life balance that is
achieved with telework is invaluable! Teleworking has allowed me to
simultaneously feel accomplished as an employee and as a mother.”
About the Author
Deanna Rasch is an RHIT
and a part-time coding analyst. When not working from home, she can be
found knitting, reading, playing board games, fishing, kayaking or
target shooting with her family at their property near Mohican State
Park.
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