Systematic review and meta-analysis of workload among medical records coders in China.

Importance: The homepage of medical records holds significant importance for national performance assessments, DIP settlement lists, and DRG payments. Coders, as auditors of the codes, wield a crucial influence on the quality of the medical records' homepage.

Objective: To analyze the general situation of the allocation of medical record full-time coders in China.

Data source: CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, PubMed and other databases were searched from database inception to November 31, 2023.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was the allocation of medical records to full-time coders, with the workload of the coders being the primary focus. Secondary outcomes encompassed the professional background of the coders, including their academic qualifications, professional titles, possession of medical coding certificates, and years of experience in coding.

Results: Eleven studies, comprising data from 1783 hospitals and 4448 coders, were analyzed. Among the coders, 61% had a medical-related professional background, 62% held a bachelor's degree or higher, 54% possessed an intermediate title or higher, 61% had coding certificates, and 51% had less than 5 years of work experience. The summary findings regarding the number of coders and coded medical records in secondary and tertiary hospitals indicated an average discharge rate of 22,704.0 per hospital in China. The number of coded cases averaged around 11,300. Specifically, coders in tertiary hospitals coded approximately 12,049 medical records on average, while those in secondary hospitals coded around 7,399 medical records.

Conclusion and relevance: Our study highlights the shortage of medical record coding personnel in the majority of hospitals, coupled with a significant coding workload, low educational qualifications among staff, short working hours, and an imbalanced title structure. Given these findings, hospitals and relevant management authorities should prioritize the recruitment of highly educated professionals, streamline the assessment process for professional titles, alleviate the coding workload, and enhance coding quality.