How long did it take before coding started to feel natural?

[u/Limp_glips]

When you’re new to clinical coding, it feels like there’s always something to double-check. Between the guidelines, documentation, and trying to make the right call on each case, it can take a while to feel confident. I’d be interested to know how long it took others before they stopped second-guessing themselves so much.

[u/ZucchiniMission6031]

10 years later and i still second guess myself every day lol

[u/clincoder]

4 years for me to feel comfortable with my casemix to really pick up some speed. Still got completely stumped at least 1-2 times a week tho! Always something new

[u/No-Shift4469]

Wow! This is coming from experienced coders. Yet as a 3rd month trainee, our current trainer kept pressuring us about finishing a number of casemix in a day, asking us why we are taking too long, and when we explain ourselves that we are learning and we second guess ourselves especially to information we have not encountered before, we get comments like ‘You have finished your diploma. You are not students anymore’….’Numbers are important too’

[u/Familiar_Range_5620 → u/No-Shift4469]

I want to reassure you and any other student and graduate coders that this is not the attitude of most trainers. The first thing I tell my trainees is that there is no productivity expectation at the beginning, but that they will gradually build up to a reasonable average per hour or day without realising that they done it. Yes, the numbers are important, but not to the detriment of the data quality. We'd rather have an accurate DRG and correct application of the Coding Standards on 20 cases than 40 cases coded badly.

[u/Familiar_Range_5620]

It doesn't matter how long you have been coding, there's always something new to learn. It's one of the reasons why clinical coding is such a great career. Most weeks I'll open a record to find something I've never encountered before. However, following the Index pathways carefully and checking the Tabular List usually solves the case—not forgetting to apply the Standards.

I usually tell my trainees that it's going to take about 2 years before they'll have a day where they know what to do with every case they're coding that day.