Healthcare terminology provides a standardized “language of medicine” that gives providers and healthcare professionals the ability to document and understand patient care with sufficient clinical specificity. This language helps medical staff communicate more efficiently and streamlines documentation.
Recording and deciphering information through medical terminology is essential to every role in the healthcare field, from medical biller to registered nurse. Medical staff in both clinical and nonclinical settings use medical terminology every day to understand what is being read, written, or billed, and to communicate effectively during day-to-day job duties.
Streamlined Patient-Centered Care
In today’s healthcare industry, a shift towards a patient-centered approach to providing care is increasingly present. Recent government amendments to the Affordable Care Act, such as the creation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) support and reinforce this shift. ACOs represent a new care delivery model where a group of healthcare providers comes together to coordinate medical care. ACOs are focused on streamlining and optimizing the quality of care to reduce duplication of medical services, close gaps in care, and coordinate services across providers and settings.
Essential to patient-centered care is having access to dependable data to make sound decisions. Fundamental to documenting reliable and accurate information is ensuring that medical professionals are able to record critical information, including patients’ medical histories, medications, and treatment plans through medical terminologies. eSkill’s medical and dental terminology tests make evaluating candidates’ ability to record and understand the “language of medicine” fast and effective.
More Efficient Care
Medical staff often see dozens of patients every day. To provide efficient care, healthcare professionals must write common abbreviations found in medical terminology. These abbreviations save time and the provide the ability to cover numerous medically related concepts with minimal space while writing in patients’ medical records. All members of the care team must be able to understand the abbreviations used to deliver the best care possible. However, many studies have found that this often is not the case.
One study looked at abbreviations from hospital inpatient admissions and asked different members of a multidisciplinary care team to decipher them. They found that while the average correct response rate of doctors was 57%, other members of the care team scored much lower, most notably, dieticians who responded correctly only 20% of the time. Similarly, abbreviations most commonly used by nurses had an average correct response rate of 75% amongst the nursing staff; yet, these abbreviations were not easily understood by other members of the care team.
If the entire medical team does not understand the abbreviations used, it can complicate what should be a simple communication process. eSkill’s medical terminology test allows hiring teams to identify candidates who understand abbreviations commonly used in the medical field. The results of eSkill’s medical terminology test can also be leveraged to provide tailored training that teaches and reinforces medical terms and abbreviations unknown to new-hires and existing employees alike.
Improved Patient Safety
In the healthcare industry, one small mistake can make a big difference. If someone records terminology incorrectly such as recording the wrong condition or medication dosage on a chart, the results could be devastating. Accurate and reliable communication among all members of a healthcare team improves patient safety by reducing the number of preventable errors. For instance, if a nurse knows a patient’s condition and treatment plan, including medication and dosage, it helps that nurse provide safe, effective treatment for the patient.
When healthcare workers understand medical terminology, they can also help patients learn the meaning of terms relevant to their care. Understanding medical terminology allows patients to become more active members of their care team, leading to improved satisfaction and increased accountability. Administering eSkill’s medical terminology test allows employers to hire confidently.
Medical Billing and Coding
In today’s digitalized landscape, medical terminology must be readable by both humans and computers. Medical coding—the art of converting the information contained in medical records into a succession of alphanumeric codes—is essential to uniform information sharing between medical facilities and amongst insurance companies. Medical billers and medical coders need to master both the specialized language of medical code and medical terminology, in order to apply the correct codes to describe services delivered to patients.
Hiring candidates who understand medical terminology prevents coding or billing mistakes that may result in a loss of revenue. With eSkill’s Medical Coding skills test, employers can quickly identify candidates who understand medical terminology and are able to translate it into medical code accurately.
Optimize Your Hiring Practices
With eSkill’s user-friendly platform, administering a medical terminology test online is efficient and effective. Empower hiring managers with skills tests that are tailored to the job being filled.
eSkill’s library of healthcare assessments includes job-specific tests that cover required skills, including medical terminology.
- Certified Medication Aide Skills Test
- Certified Nursing Assistant Skills Test
- Medical Assistant Skills Test
- Medical Biller Skills Test
- Medical Records Clerk Skills Test
- Medical Transcriptionist Skills Test
- Outpatient Scheduler Skills Test
- Patient Access Associate Skills Test
- Patient Care Assistant Skills Test
- Personal Care Aide Skills Test
- Pharmacist Skills Test
- Physical Therapist Skills Test
- Physician Assistant Skills Test
- Registered Nurse Skills Test
Additionally, eSkill offers in-depth single subject tests, including medical terminology, dental terminology, pharmaceutical terminology, medical billing, medical coding, and medical transcription.
Benefits of using eSkill’s medical terminology tests:
- Customize tests. Any of eSkill’s job-specific or single subject skills tests can be combined, or edited. With the largest selection of pre-employment tests in the industry, eSkill has a test to meet your hiring needs.
- Compare top candidates quickly. Once a candidate completes a medical terminology test online, the scores are automatically available on the hiring team’s dashboard.
- Develop onboarding and development guides. Turn new-hires into top performers fast by creating personalized training based on test scores.
- Dedicated Customer Success Coaches. eSkill’s expert staff is available to assist your hiring team and test-takers 24/7.
- Legally defensible. eSkill boasts a nearly 20-year record of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission compliance by creating reliable and valid assessments.
In the healthcare field, a firm grasp of medical terminology is vital to job performance, whether an employee spends every day at a patient’s side or never steps foot into a medical clinic. Utilizing eSkill’s suite of medical terminology tests allows employers to optimize the hiring process and select candidates who will succeed.
Sign up for our newsletter
