The medical field will be around for as long as people are around. Since there is no end in sight to medical practice—thankfully—it’s a career path that will always be in demand. The current COVID-19 crisis has put into perspective how crucial and heroic medical professionals are, and doctors aren’t the only vital healthcare providers.
If you want to get into the medical field but don’t want to become a doctor, then there are plenty of options available to you. Medical professionals need to attract potential patients, make sure people get the proper meds, and handle medical coding and billing. Continue reading to learn how to get into the medical field without becoming a doctor.
Become a Marketer
The medical field is pretty competitive. A medical practice’s search engine ranking is one of the most critical factors in that practice’s visibility and brand recognition. Just like other services, healthcare is a service people trust based on brand recognition and reputation. Outside of providing excellent service, digital marketing is the key to building a good reputation in your community and abroad.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of best practices that aim to improve a company’s ranking in Google search queries. The higher a medical practice ranks in search results, then the more traffic that medical website will draw.
Medical SEO can be applied in a multitude of ways—the key to SEO is meeting potential patients where they are. Whether it be on their mobile devices or social media, people are always online these days, and that’s where medical practices need to be to attract new patients.
Another part of SEO that is crucial to digital marketing is keyword use. When you use words that are specific to a company’s industry or practice, then you will attract potential clients that are searching for those keywords. Keywords also improve your chances of landing on the first page of Google search results.
Digital seems to be the future of everything—marketing and the healthcare industry included. In this new age, it isn’t the companies that spend the most advertising dollars which will have the most successful marketing campaigns. It will be the medical practices that show up at the top of organic search results.
Medical Billing and Coding
Due to the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, medical coders are a premium nowadays. The Accountability Act changed the way sensitive information is shared and protected in the healthcare industry.
Getting your HIPAA certification opens up a world of opportunities for you. Medical coders are in high demand because medical practices cannot afford a data breach. Companies can receive sanctions of over $1 million for mishandling sensitive medical information.
As a medical coder, you’ll be responsible for making sure that treatment and billing information is correct. You use specific codes to detail conditions and treatments so that prying eyes can’t steal and misuse private health information (PHI). There are even HIPAA printing PHI standards to prevent the leakage of sensitive information. Following those standards keeps billing statements and referrals from becoming bad intel in the wrong hands.
Pharmacy Technician
The novel Coronavirus has dramatically impacted the healthcare industry. As a result, there’s been a steady stream of new patients, increased health insurance claim numbers, and more medicine prescribed. After sitting in a doctor’s office for hours, the last thing people want to wait on is their prescription. That’s why the pharmacy technician is one of the most in-demand positions in the healthcare industry.
Pharmacy technicians work directly under pharmacists to help fill prescriptions for patients. Their job is to make sure that the correct medication gets to the intended recipient and aid pharmacists in directing patients to the right over-the-counter meds.
Pharmacy technicians, digital marketers, and medical coders are just a few of the many high-demand jobs in the healthcare industry. In the face of this pandemic, the medical field needs all of these frontline warriors.