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Medical Records Clerk Interview Questions

Edited by Indeed Employer Content Team
Last updated April 20, 2025
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Indeed’s Employer Resource Library helps businesses grow and manage their workforce. With over 15,000 articles in 6 languages, we offer tactical advice, how-tos and best practices to help businesses hire and retain great employees.

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Whether you are preparing to interview a candidate or applying for a job, review our list of top Medical Records Clerk interview questions and answers.

  1. How do you handle duplicate patient information? See answer
  2. Have you ever participated in an audit of the medical records department? If so, what responsibilities did you have for the audit? See answer
  3. What do you deem as the most critical aspect of working as a 224811169medical records4.13file clerk3.14medical receptionist2.23clerical1.9office clerk1.91715093239918.2018.7533.50HOURLY398224612025-10-012025-10-312025-09-012025-09-302025-11-05medical records clerk? See answer
  4. What is your favorite EMR system and why? See answer
  5. As a medical records clerk, one of your main roles is to help patients fill out initial paperwork for their visit and process the forms. How would you improve our current admissions and intake process? See answer
  6. 1, What experience do you have in maintaining accuracy when entering data into a medical record system?
  7. What would you do if you never received the discharge paperwork for a patient?
  8. What steps should you take when a patient submits a request for their medical records?
  9. Explain the critical information you need before sending a patient to see a doctor.
  10. How do you go about collecting billing and personal details from emergency patients who were unable to fill out initial intake paperwork?
  11. How do you stay organized when multiple patients bring their paperwork back to your desk at the same time?
  12. Medical records clerks may have to update physical records, digital files and databases. Describe the process for replacing outdated or incorrect information in all of a patient’s files.
  13. Errors in a patient’s medical records could seriously impact their health and safety. How do you make sure that your data entry and transcriptions are perfect whenever you enter new information?
  14. What types of documents do you save when preparing patient files?
  15. Do you have experience interacting with insurance companies and sending confidential information to other medical and insurance providers?
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Hire your next Medical Records Clerk today.

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Hire your next Medical Records Clerk today.

Post a job
Our mission

Indeed’s Employer Resource Library helps businesses grow and manage their workforce. With over 15,000 articles in 6 languages, we offer tactical advice, how-tos and best practices to help businesses hire and retain great employees.

Read our editorial guidelines
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6 Medical Records Clerk Interview Questions and Answers

What experience do you have in maintaining accuracy when entering data into a medical record system?

Ensuring that data is accurate is essential for keeping medical records that are correct and informative. Entering in new data and transmitting existing data are tasks that are equally important. Applicants should be able to relate their methods of maintaining data accuracy, and their answers will help you understand if they follow consistent processes. This is also a helpful question to determine if the applicant takes accuracy seriously.

What to look for in an answer:

  • Previous experience with data entry
  • Understanding of the importance of personal health data accuracy
  • Ability to follow consistent data entry processes

Example:

“At a past job, I compared the external data to valid sources. I checked for validity of the data itself. Finally, I compared the data to existing internal data.”

How do you handle duplicate patient information?

Duplicate entries are a common problem with keeping any type of data and not just with medical data. Duplication can be more of an issue with medical records, though, because retrievals may miss important health facts if they are obscured by conflicting entries. Applicants should have methods for checking duplicate and redundant information. Duplication can also make it more difficult to retrieve data via electronic searches within the application.

What to look for in an answer:

  • Knowledge of what duplication of data entails
  • Understanding that duplicates can be a problem with data retrieval
  • Experience with keeping data redundancies to a minimum

Example:

“The EMR systems I have used automatically check for duplicate data. In case the system misses some redundancies, I always check myself after each entry.”

Have you ever participated in an audit of the medical records department? If so, what responsibilities did you have for the audit?

Auditing is one way to assess the accuracy of records. Medical departments will often run periodic audits of their various records and record-keeping systems. This process requires that the record-keeping personnel be prepared to send reports of their data to the officers running the audits. The applicant will be able to relate their previous experience with audits, if any, and also give some indication of how they may prepare for one. As the applicant answers this question, asses how methodical and prepared they were during a past audit, which will give you an indication of how they might perform at your organization.

What to look for in an answer:

  • Previous experience with audits
  • Method for preparing for an audit
  • List of aspects they were responsible for

Example:

“Yes, I have cooperated with audit requests before. I was responsible for running a report of all the medical tests that our facility had conducted for the past 10 years.”

What do you deem as the most critical aspect of working as a 224811169medical records4.13file clerk3.14medical receptionist2.23clerical1.9office clerk1.91715093239918.2018.7533.50HOURLY398224612025-10-012025-10-312025-09-012025-09-302025-11-05medical records clerk?

While there are many important issues involving working with medical records, confidentiality is unarguably one of the most critical. Patients depend on their personal health data and other personal data being kept private. Accurate data is another critical component of keeping data with integrity. The applicant should be able to offer concrete opinions on what they deem as the most important part of their job. This can give you insight into the applicant’s personality.

What to look for in an answer:

  • Informed opinions on important aspects of medical records
  • Commitment to confidentiality and accuracy
  • Professionalism

Example:

“I would have to say that keeping the patient’s health data confidential is the most important aspect of maintaining medical records.”

What is your favorite EMR system and why?

There are many different EMR systems available for use. It is more important to know whether the applicant has had experience with any EMR system rather than if they had experience with a particular one. The right candidate will be able to pick up a new system quickly if they have previous experience with EMR systems. You will want to know what features these systems offered and what the applicant’s opinion of the importance of these features is.

  • Previous experience working with an EMR system
  • A list of what types of record-keeping features the applicant likes
  • Preference for working with a certain system and why

Example:

“I have worked with X system. I liked the intuitive data entry features and the redundancy checks.”

As a 224811169medical records4.13file clerk3.14medical receptionist2.23clerical1.9office clerk1.91715093239918.2018.7533.50HOURLY398224612025-10-012025-10-312025-09-012025-09-302025-11-05medical records clerk, one of your main roles is to help patients fill out initial paperwork for their visit and process the forms. How would you improve our current admissions and intake process?

224811169medical records4.13file clerk3.14medical receptionist2.23clerical1.9office clerk1.91715093239918.2018.7533.50HOURLY398224612025-10-012025-10-312025-09-012025-09-302025-11-05Medical records clerks should be able to not only maintain current recordkeeping processes but improve them to save time for both their employer and the patient. 224811169medical records4.13file clerk3.14medical receptionist2.23clerical1.9office clerk1.91715093239918.2018.7533.50HOURLY398224612025-10-012025-10-312025-09-012025-09-302025-11-05Medical records clerks are organized and focused on efficiency, making it natural for them to look for ways to reduce wasted time or resources. This question lets interviewers see a candidate's analytical thinking skills and their familiarity with industry best practices by asking candidates to make suggestions related to the actual work environment.

Some of the commonalities you will find in successful answers are:

  • Understanding of current intake systems
  • Example organization strategies
  • Focus on patient experience

Example:

"I'd start by setting up designated places to return forms. When I was waiting for my interview, I noticed that patients spent a significant amount of time waiting in line at the reception desk just to turn in forms, and I think that having a simple place to drop them off would help me separate records-related inquiries from other front desk interactions. I also find batching records by the initial of their last name helps me file records easier later on."

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