Clinical and laboratory work
What does a Medical Records Specialist do?
Taking the tests, scans and records the rest of healthcare relies on.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- A screen and a keyboard.
- Largely on your own.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- The same shape each day.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $51,140 a year, median
- Medical Records Specialists, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- +8% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing
What is good about it
- You can be earning at it within months rather than after years of training.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Screen work all day
- Codes that change yearly
- Chasing clinicians for detail
Much of this is office work in healthcare clothing; it suits people who like order.
Will machines take this job?
What machines will do to this work. Reading images and samples is being automated fastest; taking them well, and knowing when a result is wrong, is not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Ask a coding team to walk you through one complicated record.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.