Tons of jobs require many interactions with other people, clients, patients, customers, etc. Introverts have limited social energy and thrive when they have time to work alone and not get interrupted by others constantly. Let me introduce you to medical coding!
I consider myself an introvert and found constant patient interaction very draining. What I did love, however, were nice chats with some of my coworkers. It’s not because you are an introvert, that you don’t want to have any contact at all, we are still humans and that makes us social beings.
Depending on where you place yourself on the introverted spectrum, you would like more or less social contact during your workday. Keep reading if you want no direct client/patient/customer contact.
Maybe you worked in healthcare as well, and are experiencing compassion fatigue, you are thinking about changing jobs because you are so burned out but don’t want to leave the medical field. Consider becoming a medical coder if this is the case!
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What is Medical Coding?
When you choose a career in medical coding, you are becoming a medical coder. Your main job is to read medical documentation written by doctors and to filter out the right diagnosis and procedures during a patient’s hospitalization.
When you find all the diagnoses and procedures from the documentation, you have to transform them into code using coding software.
You might have to reach out to doctors to ask for more detailed information regarding the medical documentation, but this is mostly done through email. (Which is great for introverts!)
The medical code is used by hospitals and the government to determine the funding of the hospital. The information is also used for epidemiological reasons and to determine health policies. It’s all important information that influences decision-making in the healthcare field so it’s an important job.
The work requires medical knowledge and great attention to detail. You must also want to work on a computer all day and read a lot.
6 Reasons Why Medical Coding is a Perfect Career for Introverts
1. No direct contact with patients
Introverts are known for having a social battery that runs out pretty quickly. When you have to meet new people every day multiple times a day, it can be very draining for you. You will have to learn how to recharge your battery but with some jobs, it’s almost impossible during the day.
Having no direct contact with patients, customers, or clients who complain and whom you have to make small talk with is included in the medical coding field, which is a good thing for introverts!
When you work in medical coding, you only have to look at the patient files and read everything thoroughly so you can find the right diagnosis and procedures to transform into code. No direct patient contact whatsoever!
2. No phone calls
Plenty of office jobs require you to make tons of phone calls every single day, medical coding isn’t one of them. It is one of the few desk jobs where you don’t have to talk to clients and that isn’t an IT job.
We all know that introverts hate making phone calls, right? Especially incoming phone calls where you don’t know what the person on the other side of the phone wants from you. My phone is in non-disturbing mode all the time to avoid those incoming calls (and for many more reasons).
Not having to answer the phone is a great privilege for introverts and should be found in more jobs, but this is one of the advantages of medical coding. Don’t confuse medical coding with medical billing, as with medical billing, there might be phone calls to make to patients or insurance companies.
3. Reading all day long
You get to read more as a medical coder than a librarian for sure! If you like to read and don’t like to talk, listen, write, etc, medical coding might be for you!
Reading patient documentation, digging into their healthcare problems, and finding the right diagnosis and procedures used on the patient, is like reading non-fiction. You will read stories of how patients got into their problems and you might want to grab your popcorn for some of the documentation.
It’s not as relaxing as reading a book in your free time but it will activate your brain and use your critical thinking skills. You will probably learn something new every day.
And reading means no talking! You can ask your colleagues a question now and then or chat with them during breaks but most of the time, you get to spend your time reading in silence.
4. Work-from-home options
A big pro for introverts is the work-from-home possibilities. I don’t think any medical coder works in the office 5 days a week.
Because medical coding is a job in healthcare that doesn’t require any patient interaction, it is even possible to work fully remotely! Depending on the hospital or where you work, it might also be a hybrid position where you get to spend a few days a week in the office and a few days working from home. Which is still nice.
When you can work from home, especially as an introvert, this comes with a lot of perks and little disadvantages. You don’t have to spend your break having small talk with colleagues you don’t like, you get to talk for a walk or watch an episode of your favorite TV show in the middle of the day.
Working from home also means no commute, and we all know commuting sucks, so it’s a big time saver to be able to work from home. You also get to do some chores throughout the day which you couldn’t do when you have to work in an office.
5. Medicine is fascinating
I hope I am not the only one who thinks this, but medicine and the human body are fascinating subjects! I know every person has other interests, but I found medicine a lot easier to study than let’s say economics, IT, accounting, etc.
You will learn something new about it every single day because the world of medicine is always developing and innovating. If you love learning more about the human body and getting profound knowledge of all diseases without having to deal with all the stress nurses and doctors have, medical coding might be a great fit for you.
You don’t have to make life or death decisions in medical coding, you are just helping the hospital and the government get the right information, correctly delivered by you to help change the health care policy. You are still helping out in this profession!
6. Your colleagues are probably introverts as well
People who are attracted to a career in medical coding are most likely introverts. Extroverted people want to have customer relations and help people more directly than introverts.
The good thing about having fellow introverts as colleagues is that they understand the needs of an introvert. They won’t invite you to a party every evening and are not so fond of after-work drinks either.
Because you are all introverts, doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun conversation. You can get to know your colleagues on a deeper level and enjoy your breaks with them.
Medical coding supplies
You will need a few things for your job as a medical coder. Normally when you work in an office, you get to work with the supplies from your employer. But when you work from home, you might have to get them yourself, with or without reimbursement for your expenses.
It’s important to note that you are working before a computer screen all day long and sitting at a desk, so it’s not amazing for your body. That’s why you need to take care of your posture and think about ergonomics. And move your body as well after hours or when you have a break!
You can’t do anything without a good laptop and ideally also a monitor. I am not going to tell you which laptop to get, but I would recommend getting a big enough screen and the monitor will come in handy, this way you can open the medical documents on one screen and use the other one for research or coding.
For ergonomic purposes, you should get yourself an ergonomic mouse with an ergonomic mouse pad. This will protect your wrist and hand and try to prevent pain. It will feel so much better than working with a regular mouse or even a trackpad.
Another good thing to buy is a pair of blue light-blocking glasses and maybe a laptop stand to relieve neck pain from looking down at your laptop screen all day long.
When you are working with your laptop lifted in the air to meet your eye level, you will also need a keyboard, the choice is yours if you want an ergonomic design or just want a keyboard that is easy to type with.
Alternatives to medical coding
There are a few careers in the healthcare field that are quite similar to medical coding. If you want an administrative job in healthcare that doesn’t require you to treat patients you can also consider medical billing or medical transcription jobs.
With medical billing, you can get patient or insurance company interactions and might have to make phone calls, so this isn’t the most ideal job for introverts but overall you will still have much alone time.
Medical transcription might allow you to skip the phone calls because you are listening to audio files and writing down every word the doctor is dictating, and don’t need to have any patient contact. The only person you might need to connect with is the doctor if something is not clear.
I hope you might be inspired to try a career in the medical coding field after reading this post. Please share your experience down below and let me know your opinion. Good luck!