Due to the growth of population and to the increase of life expectancy, as well as to the fact that there are more and more people suffering from common diseases, such as obesity and diabetics, doctors and physicians need more time to attend these people, therefore they need more assistance in their daily work routine. Thus, the jobs for medical assistants seem to grow very fast in the present and in the years to come. Among the jobs medical assistants can expect to have, according to the education and degrees they get, there are jobs in administration and in clinical or ophthalmologic field of medical assistance, in nursing or other health care areas; However, the most common job to get in the field of medical assisting is that of medical office assistant, who is responsible for the health care facility’s good functioning.
Administrative Medical Assistants Careers
A medical administrative assistant has little to do with the actual care of the patients, meaning that they do not deal with medication, surgeries or stitches. Nevertheless, they need to take a medical assistant certification test in order to be able to get the job they want. Medical assistants should be able to identify the medical items used by doctors, should know how to deal with medical equipment and also should be able to deal with medication. Therefore, their curricula include subjects about all these issues, while for the administrative medical assistant, bookkeeping courses are further required. However, a medical assistant will have courses in anatomy and physiology, professional issues, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, basic medical coding, medical assisting, including administrative and clinical assisting, phlebotomy essentials, medical terminology, basic EKG interpretation, clinical laboratory procedures, and some courses in pharmacology and clinical medical assisting application.
Administrative Medical Assistant Duties Description
The administrative medical assistant’s duties are more technical, as they need to complete, update and file patients’ records, arrange for hospital admissions and laboratory services, answer phones and handle correspondence, greet patients and handle appointments and they can also perform activities related to bookkeeping. Because they deal with patients as well, especially over the phone, they need to be well-mannered, calm and very organized, as their files are further to be used by doctors. As medical assistants, even if at the desk in administration, they deal with doctors and patients as well, so they all need knowledge in all fields of medical assistance, knowledge that they can acquire through medical assisting training before they can actually be employed.
Administrative Medical Assistant Jobs Information
The jobs related to medical assisting are usually those of medical assistant, administrative medical assistant or ophthalmic medical assistant. Ophthalmic medical assistants usually help ophthalmologists in providing eye care, conducting diagnosis tests, measuring and recording vision, testing eye muscle function. They can also administer eye medication, under the direct careful direction of the physician. Another one of their duties is to maintain the necessary instruments and to assist in ophthalmologic surgeries. The payment for these categories of jobs are however the same as those in the health care department, an administrative medical assistant pay rising up to $50,000 average per year, depending on the studies they have.