Turn every hospital visit into accurate, private, usable data. A 2-year diploma (3 years in Quebec), a national exam, and a desk job in health care.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $63,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,000 at the lower end to about $96,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$8,700 to $40,700 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$63,000
Lower end
$46,000
Upper end
$96,000
Job Bank's national median is $30.51 an hour, about $63,000 a year at 40 hours a week, for 2023 to 2024. The low is $22.00 an hour (about $46,000) and the high $46.19 (about $96,000). Job Bank uses one figure for all health information management jobs: coders, technicians, practitioners and supervisors.
$36.73 an hour in Alberta
Job Bank's highest provincial median, for 2024, about $76,000 a year
Job Bank's medians elsewhere: Quebec $33.25 an hour (2024), British Columbia $30.60 and Ontario $29.76 (2023 to 2024). The national median is $30.51.
$33.77 an hour
Average starting wage for health information management jobs in Alberta, about $70,000 a year
From the 2023 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, published by alis, Alberta's career information site. Pay rises most for people who move from coding into analytics, privacy or management.
Roughly, all in
$8,700 to $40,700
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year college diploma at about $4,000 a year plus the national certification exam and a year of association membership. The high end is the four year degree option at $10,000 a year with the same exam and membership fees. Check the current exam fee before you budget, because it moves. This is one of the cheapest routes into a hospital job with a pension, and many programs run online or in hybrid format so you can keep your current job while you study.
One of the cheapest routes into a hospital job with a pension. Many programs are online or hybrid, so you can keep working while you study.
A defined-benefit pension
One that pays a set amount every month for life. HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) covers Ontario hospitals, and other provinces have similar plans.
Extended health and dental
Weekday hours and remote work
Coding from home is now common in many health authorities.
Paid vacation and sick days
Set by the hospital or union contract.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Short, and often possible online.
High school
Grade 12
Grade 12 English, math and biology.
Recognized program
2 to 4 years
A 2-year diploma (SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), George Brown, RRC Polytech (Red River College Polytechnic) in Winnipeg, Nova Scotia Community College) or a degree (Conestoga's Applied Health Information Science, or Toronto Metropolitan University's online Health Administration). Anatomy, disease, coding systems, privacy law, statistics and health data systems, plus two practicums. In Quebec it is the 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies, 411.A0).
Write the national certification exam
After graduation
Run by the CCHIM (Canadian College of Health Information Management). Pass it to use the CHIM (Certified in Health Information Management) credential.
Get hired and keep certified
Ongoing
Hospitals and health authorities ask for the credential. Continuing education keeps it active.
Biology
You need to read a chart and understand what happened.
English
Precise reading of doctors' notes is the job.
Math and data
Statistics and spreadsheets.
Computer studies
Databases and electronic records systems.
No province licenses health information professionals. The standard is certification from the CCHIM (Canadian College of Health Information Management), which also recognizes the programs you can study at. CHIMA (the Canadian Health Information Management Association) is the professional association. Because the credential is national, it travels between provinces. Some employers accept experience without it, but the good jobs ask for it.
In Quebec the training is a 3 year CEGEP (public college) diploma instead of a 2 year college diploma, and the job is called archiviste médical (medical archivist).
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary IV math in the Cultural, Social and Technical option or higher. It is the one course the program asks for.
Archives médicales DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
3 years
Code 411.A0, the medical records program. 3 years at Collège Ahuntsic, Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles, Cégep de Lanaudière à L'Assomption, Collège Laflèche or Collège O'Sullivan. Taught in French.
Internships
Final year
At Gaspésie there are three, ending with two full-time 12 week internships in the last term, in hospitals and CLSCs (local community health centres) anywhere in Quebec.
Get hired as a medical archivist
After graduating
Mostly in hospitals and CLSCs (local community health centres). There is no professional order. The AGISQ (Association des gestionnaires de l'information de la santé du Québec) represents the field.
National credential, if you want it
Optional
Collège Laflèche is the one Quebec program in the CCHIM (Canadian College of Health Information Management) directory, the route to the national CHIM (Certified in Health Information Management) credential.
Inforoute FPT (the Quebec vocational and technical training directory) lists an average of $31.51 an hour for medical records technicians.
Things you don't need, but that help.
CCDIS (Certified Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist)
Working with doctors to make charts complete and accurate.
CCCS (Certified Classification and Coding Specialist)
Advanced coding credential for complex cases.
CTSS (Certified Terminology Standards Specialist)
Data standards work for health systems and software companies.
Privacy training
Every hospital needs a privacy officer. Add a privacy certificate and you are a candidate.
Spreadsheet and database skills
Excel, SQL (structured query language, the language used to pull data from databases) and reporting tools.
A clerk or registration job in a hospital
Shows you understand how records flow.
Attention to detail
One wrong code changes a hospital's funding and a patient's record.
Hospitals, provincial agencies and CIHI (the Canadian Institute for Health Information) hire people who understand both the medical codes and the data. Health information graduates who add analytics skills move into decision-support and quality roles, which often work from home.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
A coder opens a discharged patient's chart, reads the doctors' notes, operative reports and test results, and assigns the standard codes for every diagnosis and procedure. The number of charts a day depends on how complex they are. Those codes drive hospital funding and national statistics. Others on the team handle release-of-information requests, chase incomplete charts, answer privacy questions, and build reports for managers. Mostly quiet, focused screen work, often from home.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
CHIMA (the Canadian Health Information Management Association) dates the profession to 1912 and its work in Canada to 1942. Today it represents more than 5,900 health information members across the country.
Toronto Metropolitan University's recognized degree is taught online, and RRC Polytech (Red River College Polytechnic) in Manitoba runs its diploma as a mix of online and in person. It is one of the few health careers you can train for without moving.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Diagnostics and lab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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