Duties of medical assistants involve performing some clerical and routine tasks. Their main responsibility is to maintain the efficiency of the medical unit they work in. Usually these professionals are found in the offices of chiropractors, podiatrists, physicians, etc. The nature of their job differs from that of a physician's assistant. The job of the latter involves, treating, diagnosing and examining the patients under the guidelines of the physician they are working for.
The factors affecting medical assistant career and the nature of their job responsibility are several. Chief among them is the office setting, size of medical care provided and the area of specialty of the physician they work for. If the area of practice is small, a medical assistant would be referred to as ‘generalist’ performing administrative and medical duties.
In a small office, their reporting authority is the physician or the office manager. In case of big hospital where the area of practice is large, they may specialize in a particular medical field and are supervised by the administrators of the department. Some of the administrative duties these medical professionals may have to perform can be answering the phone calls, greeting the patients, updating medical records, making appointments, completing the insurance forms and associated formalities, managing bills, and setting up the laboratory settings, etc.
As part of their addition responsibilities, they may have to organize, maintain and buy medical materials such as equipment, etc. They may also have to clean the examining and waiting rooms.
Those assistant who specialize in certain area of medical practice perform a wider range of tasks. For example an ophthalmic medical assistant would help out opthalmologists in providing eye care. They conduct tests to document the vision and functioning of eye muscles for diagnosing the vision problems. They may be required to help out patients in proper removal, insertion and taking basic care of contact lenses.
Similarly an opthalmic medical assistant would perform surgery assistance, x-ray development, cast making, etc. A specialized assistant may provide medication to their patients as directed by the senior physician.
After successfully completing the medical assistance training, a candidate can work in a number of medical areas. Majority of them work under physician and doctor's offices. While others work in both in and outpatient department of private and public hospitals! Around ten percent of these professionals work in a specialty care department and offices under physicians like podiatrists and chiropractors. The remaining ones administer their knowledge in outpatient care facilities or under the state government agencies.
The factors affecting medical assistant career and the nature of their job responsibility are several. Chief among them is the office setting, size of medical care provided and the area of specialty of the physician they work for. If the area of practice is small, a medical assistant would be referred to as ‘generalist’ performing administrative and medical duties.
In a small office, their reporting authority is the physician or the office manager. In case of big hospital where the area of practice is large, they may specialize in a particular medical field and are supervised by the administrators of the department. Some of the administrative duties these medical professionals may have to perform can be answering the phone calls, greeting the patients, updating medical records, making appointments, completing the insurance forms and associated formalities, managing bills, and setting up the laboratory settings, etc.
As part of their addition responsibilities, they may have to organize, maintain and buy medical materials such as equipment, etc. They may also have to clean the examining and waiting rooms.
Those assistant who specialize in certain area of medical practice perform a wider range of tasks. For example an ophthalmic medical assistant would help out opthalmologists in providing eye care. They conduct tests to document the vision and functioning of eye muscles for diagnosing the vision problems. They may be required to help out patients in proper removal, insertion and taking basic care of contact lenses.
Similarly an opthalmic medical assistant would perform surgery assistance, x-ray development, cast making, etc. A specialized assistant may provide medication to their patients as directed by the senior physician.
After successfully completing the medical assistance training, a candidate can work in a number of medical areas. Majority of them work under physician and doctor's offices. While others work in both in and outpatient department of private and public hospitals! Around ten percent of these professionals work in a specialty care department and offices under physicians like podiatrists and chiropractors. The remaining ones administer their knowledge in outpatient care facilities or under the state government agencies.
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