AHDI Focuses on the Next Generation

Recruitment campaign encourages everyone to get involved.

By Trudi Griffith, BSBM, CMT, AHDI-F

Several factors have impacted the next generation of MTs and as a result, work force development and recruitment methods of the past may no longer be effective. The Board of Directors (BOD) for the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) is taking the transitory state of the industry to the forefront during National Medical Transcription Week, May 18-24.

The largest sector of the U.S. population includes retiring baby boomers. This fact affects not only an aging MT work force, but an ever-expanding health care crisis that is overloading the health care system. Skyrocketing medical costs have turned the transcription industry into a commodity, or a service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and dimin-ishes the importance of factors other than price. The high volume of health care documentation delivery demands alternate remedies, which include technological evolution into the industry, addressing the second factor affecting this industry�technology. Out of necessity, the AHDI BOD is focusing on the next generation with a campaign titled "Connecting to our Next Generation Work Force" or "NextGen."

"NextGen" addresses the technology-driven documentation picture of the very near future that will require a different kind of knowledge worker. As a result, the work-at-home moms may no longer be the ideal candidates to fill these roles. The evolving needs of the industry are demanding that industry stake-holders step away from outdated recruitment and retention models and face the dilemma of promoting the career to a new generation worker—one whose career needs and expectations may be significantly different than generations before them and one who may be more technologically equipped to step into the new roles emerging in data capture. More...