Jobs You Can Get with a Medical Office Assistant Diploma
If you want to get your foot in the healthcare field, you might be considering a job as a medical office assistant. Some people may have a desire towards working in healthcare, but are not necessarily inclined towards caregiving or dealing with the complexities that may come with giving a diagnosis.
If you’re organized, analytical, and like to converse with patients and give them information, then this could be the ideal career path for you. While the title of medical office assistant might seem like a linear or stagnant path, it’s actually the opposite: there’s many different directions for you to go and job changes to make if you choose.
With multiple types of jobs available, you can explore different areas of clerical jobs in the medical field and find the one that’s right for you. While the scope of all the jobs are similar, they still have some key differences which make them distinct from each other. This can include the type of environment the job will have, the essential duties, the different work hours at each job, and what the key goals of the job are.
In this blog, we’ll go over important information that you’ll need to know about medical office assistant programs, followed by what kinds of career paths you can take to make the best of your education.
Choosing a medical office assistant program
To become a medical office assistant, most employers require at least one year of post-secondary education in a related program. There’s many things that a medical office assistant certificate program or diploma can offer.
The program should give students a broad perspective on administrative and clinical practices. This includes knowledge of medical terminology and business communication, software such as Microsoft Office, clinical skills, medical billing, and some knowledge of clinical procedures. As well, learning the right communication skills is very important, as the majority of the time it’s a direct client facing role.
ABM College’s Medical Office Assistant and Unit Clerk program offers additional classes and skill development to increase and enhance the amount of jobs their graduates can take. The practical aspect is very important when searching for the right program to enroll in to start your career in this field. As well, Career services at the college you attend should be helping you find the work experience you need.
Career paths you can take after graduation
There’s many jobs available once you’ve graduated from a medical office assistant program. The following list will give you a good idea of the types of jobs you can do, but is not exhaustive:
Hospital Unit Clerk
Working in a hospital ward or unit, hospital unit clerks perform clerical and administrative tasks at the ward desk. Unit clerks that work in the hospital often need to have a flexible schedule, and be able to work full-time and part time shifts at various hours of the day, including early morning and night shifts and might also have to work on weekends and holidays.
The environment that hospital unit clerks work in is very team-oriented, as they’re working with other unit clerks and engaging with all the hospital staff, and they tend to have minimal supervision from their superiors. The tasks they perform can vary from a day to day basis, based on how many patients there are, what they might need and what the doctors might order. The tasks are very similar across all hospitals.
Specific tasks can include maintaining files and logs, making copies and faxing documents, dealing with patients and visitors including answering their questions, and stocking supplies such as IV trays, linens and other necessities for the unit. They may also transcribe orders from other medical staff and input it into the digital system, and schedule appointments for patients including X-rays, blood work, and other medical tests.
Medical Clinic Office Assistant
Medical office assistants are key to making sure that the medical office they’re working at runs smoothly. They’re the ones performing most or all of the office duties and making sure that they can deal with patients and clerical work in an efficient manner. Some duties include transcribing patient records and information, contacting insurance companies to file claims, scheduling appointments and dealing with other various documents, which may even include legal letters from time to time.
People in this role deal a lot with patients as they’re the main point of contact for any general questions and getting relevant paperwork that they might need. They need to balance answering the phone, talking to in-person patients, and organizing records for lab tests and other reports. Other duties may include attending to medical supplies and making sure there’s enough inventory, doing general accounting or billing services when needed, and assisting doctors or nurses when necessary.
Medical Transcriptionist
An evolving job in the medical field, a transcriptionist will transcribe doctors notes from voice recordings and other mediums and create written reports for the information. Other tasks include editing medical documents that already exist, interpreting and translating medical jargon, abbreviations, and terminology, and compiling summaries.
Typed doctors notes have become a requirement for some insurance companies. The field of medical transcription is growing because of the increasing volume of healthcare services now needed. Transcription is the way that physicians can communicate accurately with each other, which results in better continuing care for the patients, from the lab to the general physician or from the family doctor to the specialist. Transcriptionists will need to take the utmost care to ensure that all the information they receive and transcribe is confidential.
Laboratory Clerk
Laboratory clerks have the job of completing administrative tasks involving receiving, reporting, processing and delivering results and additional reports as they come in. Lab clerks may take orders from doctors over the phone for patient specimens that need to be collected and more information about their tests and what they need to get tested for.
The job requires data entry, filing the lab copies of reports, answering patient questions and making sure the test requirements are there so that the patients get accurate results of their test. They also report any and all hazards to superiors, making sure the lab that they’re in is safe for everybody.
Other duties include ordering lab supplies when needed, maintaining proper inventory in a sanitary manner, and arranging transportation for special batch test samples. The duties of this job can vary depending on what kind of lab you’re working in and the types of services that they offer. Depending on the tests they run or the patients that are in on that day, the responsibilities will adjust accordingly.
Physician’s Assistant
Physician’s Assistants can exercise tasks to help the doctor be more efficient with patients, especially if there’s many appointments and walk-ins throughout the day. To speed up the process, they may ask the patients preliminary questions so the doctor can come to a diagnosis faster. They may also schedule tests for the patients when needed, and to a limited extent can discuss suggestions they have to potentially cure the patient’s condition, including over the counter drugs and lifestyle changes.
They also offer administrative support when needed, helping to maintain patient records and keep documentation for insurance. Knowing medical terms is essential to all the jobs mentioned, but this one in particular as you might need to ask the patient follow-up questions and other related discussions. Out of all the jobs mentioned, this is the one where you can get more involved in the actual clinical process of having a conversation with patients and reporting that to the doctor for diagnosis and results.
Your Future Career
According to ALIS, medical office assistants and related jobs have a very high demand. The job is expected to have an annual growth of 3.4 per cent from 2019 to 2023, which is above the average.
As a medical office assistant, there’s something available for every type of personality. For example, working in a hospital might be a lot more fast-paced and demanding than working as a medical receptionist. While most of the jobs are patient-facing, there are positions where you’ll mostly be working individually, such as the transcriptionist.
As well, working in these jobs will also allow you to advance to higher positions later on in your career, whether you work your way up or decide you want to get more education.
For more information about being a medical office assistant, you can read reasons to become a medical office assistant or explore other fields in the industry such as health care aide.