Cooper Health Careers Initiative at HopeWorks

Cooper Health Careers Initiative (CHCI) is a new program in partnership with several local organizations that was designed to help Camden residents interested in health care to learn valuable skills as a medical coders. CHCI will provide participants with access to pre-training support and coaching to complete a certification program in medical coding offered by Camden County College.

Hopeworks will be providing key portions of the program including the pre-career preparation and life skills training, academic support, and ongoing supportive employment while participants complete their coding certificate.  As Rosemary Irizarry, one of the GIS Interns taking advantage of this opportunity shared, “I love the fact that it'll give me the chance to learn more about the medical field while also mixing with my experience in data entry. It'll also give me the opportunity to expand my knowledge in the medical field to further prep me for any time it might be needed.”

The program is setup to be completed over the course of three semesters with the third consisting of an internship at Cooper Hospital. Upon completion of the medical coding program students will be eligible to be hired for full-time, entry level medical coding positions at Cooper. Nyree Oliver, a trainee at Hopeworks is looking forward to the potential employment at Cooper stating, “I'm looking forward to studying Medical Terminology as well as learning coding for different medical reasons. I'm also looking forward to being apart of such an excellent team and working for such a wonderful hospital such as Cooper.”