Why Get Certified

Because Patients and Healthcare Providers Depend on You

Certification in healthcare documentation makes a difference to the patients whose care depends on your precise documentation, to employers who must hire highly qualified and trusted healthcare documentation specialists, and to you for the satisfaction of attaining certification. The four letters that will follow your name will make a powerful statement about the expertise you bring to the table. Ultimately, becoming credentialed will:

• Prepare you for new healthcare documentation positions in the EHR.
• Validate your breadth of knowledge and skills to employers, which may give you access to preferential hiring/employment practices.
• Demonstrate that you are trained and certified in HIPAA compliance.
• Send the message to healthcare delivery that healthcare documentation specialists are an allied health profession with an accountable scope of practice.
• Demonstrate you take initiative and go above the minimum requirements.
• Distinguish you from those without a credential.
• Raise employer’s confidence in you when introducing new technologies or services.
• Keep you marketable in the event of cutbacks or mergers.
• Get your foot in the door as a new graduate.

Read more about why certification is important to health care.

Who Needs to be Certified?

RHDS

The RHDS credential is for healthcare documentation specialists (e.g., medical transcriptionists, medical language specialists, speech recognition editors) who are recent graduates, have fewer than 2 years’ experience in acute care, and/or practitioners who work in a single-specialty environment. The RHDS is a prerequisite for earning the CHDS credential.

CHDS

Healthcare documentation specialists with an RHDS and a minimum of 2 years’ experience in acute-care transcription or multi-specialty equivalent are ready to prepare for and earn the CHDS credential.

CHDP

The CHDP credential is for healthcare documentation professionals and practitioners who are recent graduates or who have been working in the industry documenting patient care in an electronic health system. The CHDP is a prerequisite for earning the Auditor (CHDP-A) and/or the Scribe (CHDP-S) micro-credential(s).