DSHS BHTC Health Records Technician 2

State of Washington•Pierce County – Lakewood, WA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

This position serves as the health information management expert for resident and patient records. It coordinates the delivery, access, maintenance, retention, review, and authorized disclosure of health and medical records. The position provides consultation on complex medical-record matters, supports regulatory and legal requests, conducts record-quality reviews, develops training and procedures, and works with clinical, legal, privacy, quality, and program leadership to protect confidentiality and maintain complete and reliable health records.

Requirements

Apply health information management principles, medical terminology, confidentiality requirements, and records-retention requirements to daily work.
Review complex health-record requests and identify when Privacy, Legal, clinical, or leadership consultation is required.
Maintain accurate tracking for access, disclosure, retention, audit, and corrective-action activities.
Communicate professionally with residents, requestors, attorneys, courts, management, clinical staff, and agency partners.
Protect confidential information and use approved systems and secure transmission methods.
Train and advise technical, professional, and management staff on health-record requirements and processes.
Bachelor’s Degree in health information management, business administration, or related field; AND Three years of experience in a Health Information Management (medical records) office, office management, healthcare privacy office, compliance office or closely related area; OR Associate's degree in health information management, business administration or related field; AND Five years of experience in a Health Information Management (medical records) office, office management, healthcare privacy office, compliance office or closely related area.
Current and ongoing accreditation through the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) as a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT).

Responsibilities

Receive and coordinate medically related public records requests, subpoenas, and litigation discovery. Assist requestors with scope; verify authority and consent; identify responsive records; review privacy and disclosure requirements; coordinate permitted redactions; provide records through approved secure methods; and retain the request record under the applicable schedule.
Conduct concurrent and retrospective reviews of health records for completeness, accessibility, documentation integrity, and compliance with state, federal, and agency requirements. Gather information for required reporting; document findings and trends; validate corrective actions; and coordinate questions involving clinical practice with clinical leadership.
Coordinate the day-to-day delivery, filing, access, maintenance, and retention of manual and electronic health records. Develop, review, and update health-record retention and essential-record schedules; support transfer, migration, archival storage, and authorized disposition; and ensure legal or records holds are honored.
Advise management on complex health-information issues, including confidentiality, medical-record access, disclosure, health-related financial records, regulated reporting, and unusual or precedent-setting requests. Analyze problems, document recommendations, and coordinate with Privacy, Legal, clinical leadership, and other subject-matter experts.
Identify training needs using audit findings, trends, and performance measures. Develop and deliver training on health-record practices, privacy, retention, quality review, and request processing. Draft or revise procedures, audit tools, job aids, and workflow improvements.
Perform other duties consistent with the classification and organizational need. During emergencies, perform temporarily assigned duties under the applicable emergency-management plan.