Medical Assistant Job Description

Medical assistants are key members of any hospitals, clinics and health care foundations. This is because, job description for medical assistants would involve a wide range of tasks including administrative, front office and clinical. Medical assistants are also entitled to provide assistance to the doctor, while performing general check ups and giving necessary information to visitors and patients, regarding the operational procedures of the hospital. There is high demand for medical assistant jobs nowadays, on account of the increase in number of patients and the need for prompt and better medical service. Medical assistants definitely have a busy day and also, the working hours in some hospitals or clinics, are not fixed and therefore, medical assistants may sometimes, have to work for long hours without much rest.

Job Descriptions for Medical Assistants

As said earlier, a medical assistant needs to perform a variety of tasks. Job description for medical assistant with all such variety of tasks is discussed below.

Front Office Medical Assistant: An important part of the medical office assistant's job is to handle the ever busy front desk of the clinic. At the front office or the reception, a medical assistant has to perform duties such as:

• Handling and answering external as well as internal phone calls and transferring calls to the appropriate departments.
• Managing patient's appointments, according to the doctor's schedule.
• Giving registration forms to the patients and getting all the necessary information filled from them.
• Handling data entry tasks.

Administrative Medical Assistant: A certified medical assistant's job also involves a lot of administrative activities. Some of them are mentioned below.

• Registration, filing and maintenance of medical records and documents.
• Maintaining financial records and performing accounting tasks.
• Initiating and maintaining correspondence with patients and insurance companies.
• Explaining hospital admission procedures to the visitors.
• Maintaining records of purchased equipment and other medical supplies.
• Processing medical insurance claims, medical billing and electronic claims, and incorporating correct coding procedures (if the work is done in the office itself, and not outsourced).

Clinical Medical Assistant: Apart from the administrative work, a medical assistant is also responsible for a number of clinical activities such as:

• Drawing blood for the blood donations.
• Applying and changing dressings.
• Working in the medical labs, if required.
• Obtaining daily observations of the patient's health and reporting them to the concerned doctor.
• Maintaining health records of the patient and producing it, whenever necessary.
• Collecting urine samples and sending them for diagnosis.

How to Become a Certified Medical Assistant

Well, to obtain a certification and further to work as a certified medical assistant, it is necessary to have a higher secondary or any equivalent diploma or technical course certificate. However, you will be preferred more by the employers, if you have an Associate of Applied Science degree from any college holding the accreditation of CAAHEP (Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs). The training program for medical assistant includes training on all the important administrative and clinical procedures. Moreover, it also includes training on communication skills and front office grooming.

This was just an overview of the medical assistant job description, as the scope of the task and the activities involved depends upon the type and size of the organization. A medical assistant can further be promoted to the position of an office manager or a supervisor, depending upon his qualifications and performance. To get more information about medical assistant training, you can browse through the Internet or contact the training school in person. Best of luck for your career!