Medical assistants are key team members of clinics, health care centers and hospitals.
This is because medical assisting involves a wide range of duties and responsibilities which include administrative, clinical and front office.
And as the title suggests, a medical assistant is there to provide assistance to the physician while performing checkups and providing vital information to patients and visitors.
Medical Assisting – The Front Office Job Description
The medical assistant needs to perform various tasks and one of his jobs is to focus on clerical work. The front desk is a busy part of the clinic.
It doesn’t just need to be manned but the person who entertains visitors, would-be patients and existing patients, should be competent enough to handle the following tasks –
- Handle and answer internal and external phone calls. You must have ample knowledge in the use of office phones, being able to transfer the needed calls to the right departments.
- Have the capacity to manage patients’ appointments in accordance to the physician’s schedule.
- Provide registration forms to patients and be able to get the needed information from them.
- You must also have basic knowledge in data entry.
The Administrative Aspect of Medical Assisting
Certified medical assistants are often tasked to do administrative activities as well.
Some of these tasks are the following –
- Handle patient registration, record filing and maintenance of medical documents and records
- Maintain financial records and perform basic accounting tasks
- Initiate and maintain correspondence with insurance companies and patients
- Detail the hospital admission procedures to patients and the visitors
- Keep records of purchase orders of supplies and equipment
- Process medical insurance claims
- Process medical billings
The Clinical Aspect of Medical Assisting
Apart from front office and administrative tasks, a medical assistant is also the one that’s responsible for –
- Drawing blood from persons that participate in blood donations
- Applying and changing patient’s dressings
- Working in medical labs if necessary
- Obtaining day to day observations of patient’s health and then reporting them to the assigned doctor
- Maintaining patient records
- Collecting urine and other lab samples for diagnosis and testing
Get Certified
In order to be authorized to do the above tasks, you are encouraged to obtain medical assistant certification.
This is a good way to jump up to the ranks and to be noticed by a lot of employers.
You also need to take your formal medical assisting training from any institution that has been accredited by the CAAHEP or the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.
