One hospital's solution to the shortage of coders.

The program described enabled St. Mary's Hospital to recruit individuals with pre-requisite knowledge in anatomy, pathophysiology and medical terminology and then have them receive comprehensive training in ICD-9-CM coding which addressed the unique demands imposed by the medical record department and the PRO. In this way, the department's immediate and future needs for coders appears to have been satisfied. An evaluation on the success of this training program will be assessed in three months and reported upon at that time.