Clinical coders’ work engagement under China’s healthcare payment reform: A cross-sectional study
Yicong Xu, Jingya Zhou, Zhenghua Liu, Naishi Li, Dong Cai, Shengdong PanBackground:
The accuracy of clinical coding, which is essential for supporting managerial and policy decisions such as funding formulas, is closely tied to the work engagement of clinical coders.
Objective:
This paper aimed to evaluate the level of work engagement and associated factors among clinical coders through a nationwide survey in China.
Method:
Thirty-one tertiary public hospitals in China were selected via convenience sampling, and 354 clinical coders were surveyed with Question-star software. Work engagement was measured using the 17-item Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), with each item rated from 0 to 6. Twenty-two potentially related variables were collected. Descriptive statistics and one-sample
Results:
The mean work engagement score among clinical coders was significantly lower than the UWES-17 norm (3.26 vs 3.82;
Conclusion:
Clinical coders in China demonstrated moderate-to-low work engagement, shaped primarily by objective career development conditions, along with their perceived software support and organizational support.
Implications for health information management practice:
Enhancing work engagement requires managerial focus on continuing education, software usability, and perceived leadership support.