What are the key responsibilities of medical assistant?

Nowadays, doctors are extremely busy in hospitals or clinics, due to upcoming of increased health issues of people. This is where they need an employee from whom they can get their work done. Consequently, this is where other than nurses, medical assistants come into picture!

Basically, they are an intermediary between doctor and patient. Where a nurse has to only take care of patients and report to the doctor, an aide has to perform variety of tasks. However, to be expert in handling the responsibilities, one needs to undergo medical assistant training program from a certified institute.

Besides certified factor, one must also take into consideration few other factors like skilled lecturers, small class size, hands on training, accredited program, internship and job placement etc.

Following are the duties that an aide has to take on during his or her job in medical center and thus would be taught during the training session. Initially, duties are divided into two parts:

Clinical: This task comprise of working with patients in a clinical context. In other words these duties are related to medical practice. However, it may vary from one state to another, depending on the working conditions. For example, if there are many patients in a hospital then there would be an immense need of assistants, comparatively to the place where only few patients come. Basic duties that are covered under this part are:

• Taking vital signs
• Noting patients medial history
• Prepare metal tests and examinations
• Sterilize instruments
• Removing sutures
• Explaining procedures
• Administrating medications

Administrative: This comprise of duties that are less directly involved with patients, but involves front-office medical practice. In other words this are in context to handling of appointments, billing functions, as well as various other duties that has been mentioned below:

• Answering phone calls
• Greeting patients
• Filling out insurance forms
• Scheduling patient medical procedures
• Following up on patient visits
• Sorting mails
• Updating patient charts
• Ordering lab tests
• Filing patient medical records
• Maintaining confidentiality of patient information
• Managing inventory and ordering supplies
• Billing patients
• Working with insurance companies
• Managing petty cash

Having discussed all the above duties, you must have got an idea that if you aspire to be an aide then you need to thoroughly be aware of these. So, before you opt for medical assistant career make sure that you have basic knowledge about all the necessary things that would be beneficial to you during your training session.

Questions to know to clears MA interview with flying colors

A medical assistant has to complete different types of tasks collectively and hence may sometimes face challenging situations. Their job demands high level of patience and caring attitude and that is why, this job profile is often tiring and challenging.

Since the job is a very serious one, employers always like to select only the most befitting and suitable medical assistant. Knowing how to face the interview and right answer to commonly asked question, would help you get best career opportunity. Some of the questions asked in a medical assistant job interview have been discussed below:

Do you like working with people? Medical and health care field is all about helping people. An MA should be a compassionate and outgoing person. There is no place for grumpy people in this industry. Express your attitude and passion towards genuinely helping people out. An example of past, where you helped out people voluntarily would make your points more authentic and real.

How do MAs and nurses differ? You can be asked this question, particularly if you are a new candidate in the medical industry. People often get confused and think that medical assistants and nurses, perform same types of job. However, that is not so. Your ability to prove your knowledge about the difference between their job profiles would be an indicator of your knowledge and familiarity with the health care and medical industry. So always research to find out a knowledgeable answer to this question.

How would deal with an upset patient? This questions would help employer assess your suitability and see how mentally prepared you are to handle the pressure and challenging situations. Answer this question with honesty, integrity and conviction. To support your answer, mention any incidence in the past where you dealt with an upset patient.

Share your experience of working with physicians in the past. Make use of good and unique details. However, do not stretch the story of your experience extremely long. Share those details that will help employers remember you till the final selection. Mention such details that would help you stand out from the group of other applicants.

How would you document patient's information? Explain your knowledge of both electronic and paper documentation. This question is to assess how proficiently you can deal with both of them. If you lack knowledge in any of the two, emphasize on your ability to learn things quickly.

These were some of the standard questions you may be asked if you are about to give an interview for MA job profile. To know more about other important questions, the candidates should keep visiting online medical assistant forums in order to gain extensive knowledge in this field.