Would you want to put your office skills and ability to multitask to use in a medical or health care setting? If yes, then maybe you should consider being a Medical Office Assistant.

Here’s some significant insight into the realm of medical office assistants as well as their future career prospects.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of medical office assistants are divided into three divisions:

1. The Front Office Duties

A Medical Office Assistant is responsible for the busy front office desk or the reception. There, he or she may perform the following duties:

• Dealing with all the internal as external phone calls and transferring them to their required departments
• Scheduling and maintaining patients’ appointment, on the basis of the doctor’s schedule
• Calling and reminding patients about their appointment
• Helping patients fill all the medical forms and checking them for errors
• Dealing with data entry tasks

2. The Administrative Duties

A Medical Office Assistant is in charge of administrative duties such as:

• Collecting all patients’ medical history and other such documents
• Registering, filing and maintaining patients’ records
• Maintaining the entire hospital’s financial records and helping the accounts department
• Initiating and maintaining communication with patients to make them feel at ease
• Explaining hospital admission procedures, rules and regulations to all the visitors
• Processing all medical insurance claims and using the correct coding procedures
• Keeping an up-to- date record of all purchased equipment and other medical supplies for the hospital

3. The Clinical duties

Apart from the administrative work, some of the clinical duties which you will be expected to handle include:

• Drawing blood for blood donations, applying and changing dressings, etc
• Working in medical labs, emergency, and out-patient clinics when required
• Reporting patients’ health to the concerned doctor on a daily basis
• Collecting urine samples and sending them for diagnosis
• Producing and maintaining patients’ health records and keeping them up to date

The Training

After completing high school, you can either pursue a certificate program that lasts for approximately 12 months or opt for a two-year associate’s degree program. This will teach you subjects like medical assisting, office practices, patient relations and medical law and ethics, etc.

It is always wise to get as much experience and exposure as you can during your internship or externship program. Next, you can opt for vocational schools, community colleges or even traditional classrooms as long as they are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools. Remember – your job as a Medical Office Assistant may start out as boring and routine, but over time, you’ll start discovering even bigger opportunities for you.

Career Outlook

Though this is a promising career, you must display determination, leadership, empathy and compassion towards the patients in order to advance within this field. Soon enough, you might end up being a supervisor. Normally you will be required to work approximately 40 hours a week, but if you choose to work in a private clinic, you might have to work extra.

However, with an initial salary of $19,000 per year, being a Medical Office Assistant is definitely a promising career.

Lisa Thomas is your guide to medical careers.

Learn about Medical Office Assistant education, job and salary. Search for health care schools near you and receive free information from Medical Office Assistant schools at http://www.medicalassistantvacancies.com