Karen A.

Bollin
HCMT 1005C 003
Coding Staff Developing Plan
Group Project

Development Plan for Coders

A clear thought out plan will help your employees have an opportunity to
increase and enhance their skills and advance their careers. Giving our
coders advanced training enhances their opportunity to grow as coders and
will improve job performance.

1. Consider your business goals and develop change.

The manager will need to line up the coders development with the
organizations standards and needs. The plan will need to bridge the gap
between current employee skill sets and needed skill sets. This would be of
great value to bring on more training for our coders to enhance their skills. It
would be a great advantage if we had our coders more proficient in their
knowledge of new ICD-10 codes. Even creating a position that would oversee
some of the more common codes that cause confusion.
2. Talk to your employees
Next the manager will need to sit down with the coders to see what
challenges theyre having in their current position. Ask the coders do a selfassessment of their work. Ask them what areas do they struggle the most?
Would they benefit from additional training or mentoring? Ask if they would
like to be updated through regular meetings regarding work development and
training on new methods and procedures.
Ask if they have a career path in mind. Often, employees do not know how to
begin the process of developing their careers. Talking to them can help each
of them figure out what role they will play in this plan as well as what
opportunities are available to them? A good department manager develops
their employees and enhances their skills and responsibilities to advance
their career.
3. Decide what skills your employees need to develop to obtain their
career goals.
After I look at each of my coders abilities and experience, as well as the
organizations needs, I will need to decide exactly what skills each person
needs to attain to accomplish their goal of enhancing career development as
well as providing a proficient and efficient well-oiled coding department to
generate revenue for the organization.

Karen A. Bollin
HCMT 1005C 003
Coding Staff Developing Plan
Group Project
The manager should make sure the coders goals are specific and timely.
Knowing their specific goals will measure and encourage the employees
progress in the right direction
4. Create an action plan.
Now that the manager knows their employees objectives, the next step is to
figure out how the coders can achieving them.
The manager needs to consider what needs to be done to put your
employees plan into action. Is there any prep work that needs to be done? Is
anyone else involved? Will employees need to take time away from work? Will
someone else need cover for them while theyre training?
After all the details are sorted out, a schedule or time frame that can be
developed and used to help employees keep moving forward and continue to
pursue their goals.
5. Apply the new skills in the workplace.
Since it takes time and money to help the coders improve their skills, now its
time to get a return on the investment. The coders will need to be able to put
those new skills to work for the organization. Setting up some opportunities
where your employees can quickly apply the new skills to the job and get
feedback. This will help strengthen and improve their new skills. If they dont
use the new knowledge when its fresh, they may lose it.
In summary, creating a development plan not only helps your current staff
become more efficient and knowledgeable, but it also improves employee
satisfaction. When your employees are happy they are more productive.
Which is a win, win for the organization, the department and the employee.

Karen A. Bollin
HCMT 1005C 003
Coding Staff Developing Plan
Group Project

Budget for Coders Development Plan

EXPENSES (SUM OF ALL
COSTS)
Travel

Monthl
y

Annually

Total
Budget/Year

$333.3$

$4000

$4000

$125.00

$1500

$1500

$72.92

$875

$875

AHIMA E- coding
webinars
AHIMA E
Assessment
Proficiency in Coding
AHIMA Code Check
Subscription
Continuing Education (as
needed)

$120.00

$288 ($72
quarterly)
$450 ($225 biannually)

$1,440

$125

$1500

$1500

$50

$600

$600

Total:

$2,582

$7,713

$12,165

Workshop/Conference
Meals/Mileage
Memberships/Credential
ing
AHIMA Membership
($175 in good standing)
Training Materials

$187.50

$2,250

Budget numbers are from the AHIMA product catalog and store for training
materials. The budget is also based on 5 employees.

Source:
Sayles, Nanette (2014) Health Information Management Technology: An Applied
Approached: Fourth Addition