Admitting and Discharge Clerk, Admitting and Discharge Clerk Schools, Training, Jobs, and Careers

What is an Admitting and Discharge Clerk?
Most facilities have Gatekeepers. These gatekeepers let you in and out of the gate of the facilities they keep. The health care industry is no exception to this. In fact, you can say it is doubly so.

It is vital that healthcare facilities have records of the patients they see. Admitting and discharge clerks are the ones that accomplish this by letting patients in and out of the gate of a healthcare facility system. In the course of their duty, they do things like:

1. Collect personal information from patients
2. Make sure there is proper insurance information for each patient
3. Get medical history from patients
4. Assign room and bed to patients based on diagnosis
5. Send patients’ charts to doctors and nurses
6. Provide patients with identification tag, like wristband
7. Get patients the right supplies for safety and security reasons
8. Help secure patients’ personal belongings, like clothes
9. Provide information to help patients get around the healthcare facility
10. Update health information systems for patients before and after treatment
11. Return patients personal belongings before they go home
12. Etc.

The admitting and/or discharge clerk job, as with most jobs in the medical field, requires someone who can maintain confidentiality of information. The clerk can not share patients’ information with anyone who is not authorized to have it. Otherwise, the clerk and medical facility will be in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

How to Become an Admitting and Discharge Clerk:
One will need a high school diploma or GED before they can become an admitting and discharge clerk. While in high school, it would be a good idea to study things like, biology, social studies, computer skills, sociology, etc.

In some healthcare facilities, there is no further study required after high school. These facilities will hire you out of high school and teach you what they need you to do.

There are some medical facilities that require you have additional training after high school. They look for somebody with medical record administration technician training or health record clerk training. A typical training may take up to 3 to 6 months. In any of the training, you will learn things like:

a. Medical Terminology
b. Legal Issues in Healthcare
c. Medical Records System
d. Typing
e. Computer Skills
f. Recordkeeping Procedures
g. Data Processing
h. Etc.

There is no required registration or certification. Some clerks decide on their own to become Certified Medical Assistants (CMA) or Registered Health Information Technicians (RHIT)

Admitting and Discharge Clerk Salary:
These clerks make decent salary. According search on Indeed.com, the average salary is $25,000 per year. We have seen salary as high as $29,000 per year. This depends on your location, education, and level of responsibility. This is not bad for a career that doesn’t require formal training or training that last for 3 to 6 months.

Admitting and Discharge Clerk School:
Getting training will give you a better chance than somebody with just a high school diploma. There are vocational schools or community colleges that will give you this training. You can pick one that’s local or online. Just fill out the form and get more information. We don’t see the reason for you to wait. Just click this link to find the school in your area or online.

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