| Course | HI305 Management of Health Information |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Job description |
| Length | About 860 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Information Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HI305 Unit 2
Duties Someone Could Be Measured Against: A Unit 2 Job Description for a Document Imaging Specialist, With a Standard, a Frequency and a Check for Every Task
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HI305: Management of Health Information
Unit 2 Job Description
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospital, the role and the standards are composite; the regulations and sources cited are real.
Position Summary
Title: Document Imaging Specialist. Department: Health Information Management. Reports to: Document Imaging Supervisor. Status: full time, nonexempt, day or evening shift. Purpose of the role: to make every page of paper created during a patient's stay part of the electronic health record, filed to the right patient and encounter, within two business days of its arrival in the department. Every duty below follows the same pattern, a verb, a standard and a check, because a duty that cannot be checked cannot be coached or evaluated fairly. Research on job design has long found that clear task identity and feedback from the work itself are linked to motivation and performance (Hackman & Oldham, 1976).
Essential Duties
Document preparation, about 30 percent of time. The specialist removes staples and clips, repairs torn pages, flattens folded forms and sorts each discharged record's loose paper by encounter. Standard: every page from one batch is prepared on the day the batch arrives. Check: the supervisor's daily queue report shows no batch older than one day in preparation. Scanning, about 25 percent of time. The specialist scans prepared documents at the resolution set by department policy and confirms the page count on screen matches the paper. Standard: page count matches on every batch. Check: weekly sample of ten batches compared with the paper before it is held for destruction. Indexing, about 30 percent of time. The specialist assigns each scanned document to the correct patient, encounter and document type, using the barcode on the cover sheet where one exists and three identifiers, the name, birth date and record number, when no barcode is present. Standard: at least 99.5 percent of documents indexed to the right patient and encounter. Check: a quality analyst reviews a random 2 percent of the specialist's indexed documents each week. Quality and correction, about 10 percent of time. The specialist reviews documents flagged as unreadable or incomplete, rescans them and moves misfiled documents to the correct record following the department procedure. Standard: every flagged document resolved within three business days. Check: the flag report. Retention and destruction, about 5 percent of time. The specialist holds scanned paper for the department's verification period and then places it in locked containers for destruction by the contracted vendor. Standard: no paper destroyed before the verification period ends. Check: the destruction log, signed by the specialist and countersigned by the supervisor. The 99.5 percent standard for indexing is the heart of the job. A page scanned late can be found and filed. A page filed to the wrong patient may never be found, and someone else's information now sits in a stranger's record.
Decisions Reserved to the Supervisor
The specialist does not decide whether a document belongs in the legal record when its status is unclear, such as a nurse's personal worksheet or a page from another facility with no patient name. Those go to the supervisor with a flag. The specialist also does not destroy any paper that has not passed the verification period, even when storage is full, and does not correct a document indexed by another specialist without logging the correction. These limits protect the specialist as much as the record: each one is a point where a quick decision by one person could remove information the hospital is required to keep.
Qualifications
Required: high school diploma or equivalent; one year of office or clerical experience; ability to type 40 words per minute with accuracy; attention to detail shown in a skills test of indexing ten sample documents. Preferred: one year in a health information department or a certificate in health information technology; familiarity with medical terminology.
Working Conditions
The role involves standing and sitting for long periods, lifting boxes of up to 25 pounds and repetitive hand motion. Workstations are adjustable, and the department rotates tasks during each shift to reduce strain. The specialist works with protected health information and must follow the hospital's privacy and security policies, including the HIPAA Security Rule's workstation and device requirements (45 C.F.R. § 164.310).
Why the Old Description Was Rewritten
The description it replaces listed five duties: scan documents, index documents, maintain quality, assist with other duties and perform other tasks as assigned. None had a standard, so annual reviews relied on the supervisor's impression, and two specialists with very different error rates received the same rating. The new description gives each duty a measure the specialist can see during the year, not only at review time. It also separates preparation from scanning, because the department's own count showed preparation took more time than scanning, and the old description did not mention it at all. A good job description in health information management serves hiring, training and evaluation at once, which is only possible when its duties can be measured (Oachs & Watters, 2020).
References
45 C.F.R. § 164.310 (2024).
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7
Oachs, P. K., & Watters, A. L. (Eds.). (2020). Health information management: Concepts, principles, and practice (6th ed.). AHIMA Press.
What the HI305 Unit 2 assignment asks for
Unit 2 usually asks you to write a job description for one position in an HIM department. Include a summary of the role, essential duties, qualifications and working conditions, and many instructors want each duty to be measurable. Strong submissions state what is done, how often, to what standard and how the supervisor will know. Expect to address privacy and security responsibilities, since every HIM role handles protected information. Some prompts also ask for reporting lines, employment status and a brief rationale for your choices. Cite a management text or a regulation where a duty depends on one. The usual length is two to three pages. Descriptions that end with a catch-all such as other duties as assigned, and little else, tend to lose points in this course.
How the HI 305 Unit 2 example is put together
The description begins with a position summary and a one-sentence purpose. A paragraph explains the verb, standard and check pattern and cites job design research. Five essential duties follow with their share of time: preparation, scanning, indexing, quality and correction, and retention and destruction. A highlighted line explains why the indexing standard is the core of the role. A section lists decisions the specialist does not make alone, such as destroying paper early or classifying unclear documents. Required and preferred qualifications include a skills test. Working conditions name lifting, repetition and the privacy rules for workstations. The closing section compares the new description with the old one and explains how measurable duties fix uneven reviews and reveal preparation work the old version never mentioned.
Where the points sit in the HI305 Unit 2 rubric
Job descriptions here are generally graded on completeness, measurability and fit. Completeness points cover the standard sections: summary, duties, qualifications and working conditions. Measurability carries the largest share in many sections, because duties without standards cannot support hiring, training or evaluation. Fit points reward duties that match the actual work of the department rather than generic office tasks. Instructors also look for privacy and security responsibilities stated plainly. A rationale that explains choices, such as why one standard is stricter than another, earns additional credit. Formatting that a human resources office could use, along with APA citations for any regulation or text referenced, completes the rubric. Descriptions copied from online templates are easy to recognize and usually score poorly.
HI305 Unit 2 help: mistakes that cost points
The most frequent problem is duties written as activities, such as scans documents, with no standard attached. Another is leaving out the work that takes the most time, often preparation in imaging roles. Students also forget limits on authority, which matter where errors can affect privacy. Qualifications sometimes ask for credentials the role does not need, or ignore skills it does. Working conditions are often missing entirely. Rationales that only restate the duties add nothing. We can write a job description for the HIM role in your assignment with a standard and check for each duty and a short rationale. Send the role, the department setting and any template from your instructor, and mention whether your course wants a specific format such as a human resources form.
Get an HI305 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Name the role the Unit 2 prompt hands you, coder, release of information specialist or another, and send the instructions and rubric with any productivity figures the course provides. You receive a description with every duty tied to a measure, in 24-48h, and the first sample is free. Remote or on-site conditions follow the scenario. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HI305 papers and BS in Health Information Management samples
- HI305 Unit 1: Discussion Post
- HI305 Unit 3: Workload Analysis
- HI305 Unit 4: Productivity Standard Proposal
- HI305 Unit 5: Staffing Schedule
- HI305 Unit 6: Orientation Plan
- HI305 Unit 7: Department Procedure
- HI305 Unit 8: Budget Worksheet
- HI305 Unit 9: Seminar Reflection
- HI305 Unit 10: Operations Improvement Plan
- HI300 Unit 2: Requirements List
- HI255 Unit 2: Operative Report Analysis
- HI135 Unit 2: Authorization Review
- HI253 Unit 2: Index and Tabular Exercise
HI305 Unit 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HI305 Unit 2 sample paper?
This page has the complete Unit 2 job description for a document imaging specialist, with a share of time, a standard and a check for every duty.
What makes a job duty measurable?
It names the task, how often it is done, the standard expected and how the supervisor will check it, such as 99.5 percent indexing accuracy from a weekly sample.
Should a job description include privacy duties?
Yes for any HIM role. The sample ties workstation and paper handling to the HIPAA Security Rule's physical safeguards.
Why list decisions reserved to the supervisor?
Some choices, like destroying paper or classifying unclear documents, could remove required information. Naming them protects the record and the specialist.
Is other duties as assigned acceptable?
It can appear, but it should not replace measurable duties. The sample's old description relied on it and could not support fair evaluations.