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Clinical Coder resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what clinical coders actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most clinical coders should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Clinical Coder with a solid grounding in health records and a careful eye for documentation that does not quite add up. Codes inpatient, day surgery and specialist caseloads using ICD-10-AM and the Australian Coding Standards, and works directly with clinicians to resolve unclear entries before a record is abstracted. Comfortable with the data quality checks and activity based funding reporting that sit behind coded data.
Key skills
- ICD-10-AM diagnosis and procedure coding
- Application of the Australian Coding Standards
- Clinical documentation review and analysis
- Clinician query writing and follow-up
- Casemix and activity based funding data
- Medical terminology and anatomy
- Patient administration system data entry
- Regulatory and privacy compliance in health records
- 3M Codefinder
- TurboCoder
- iPM
- Cerner PowerChart
- Microsoft Excel
Experience: example bullet points
- Code an average of 45 inpatient and day surgery episodes a week across medical, surgical and specialist areas, maintaining an audit accuracy rate above the team benchmark.
- Query clinicians directly when documentation is ambiguous, resolving most clarifications before the record is abstracted rather than after it is returned for rework.
- Built a quick-reference sheet covering the Australian Coding Standards changes affecting our main specialties, which cut the volume of coding queries escalated to the coding manager during the update period.
- Enter and reconcile coded data in iPM against discharge lists each week, picking up uncoded records before they affect the monthly submission.
- Trained two new coders on the 3M Codefinder workflow and our internal query escalation steps, bringing both to an independent caseload within their first three months.
- Reviewed de-identified records as part of internal audit cycles and documented the coding rationale so feedback could be shared with the wider team.
Education
Certificate IV in Clinical Coding, or a health information management degree, with many coders entering from a health administration, nursing or medical records background and continuing professional development through HIMAA.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- clinical coding
- ICD-10-AM
- Australian Coding Standards
- AR-DRG
- casemix
- activity based funding
- clinical documentation improvement
- medical terminology
- health information management
- HIMAA
- patient administration system
- data quality
- clinician query
- Cerner PowerChart
- iPM
- 3M Codefinder
- TurboCoder
- health records
- privacy and confidentiality
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.