What is a Medical Assistant?

What is a Medical Assistant?assessments or give advice. Although many
Medical Assistants are unlicensed healthcareMedical Assistants may have advanced training in
workers who perform administrative and basiccertain clinical areas it is ultimately the responsibility
supervised clinical tasks to keep the offices ofof the supervising physician or other licensed
physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, and otherhealth care provider to assure that their staff and
health practitioners running smoothly. Many alsoMedical Assistants working in the office are
work in outpatient clinics, hospitals and healthcareperforming duties in compliance with all governing
centers. Medical Assistant careers are gatheringlaws.
demand in the background of a healthcareTherefore the physicians must determine the skill
industry boom worldwide.level and capabilities of each employee they
Doctors' offices are extremely busy places. Theresupervise and take into account liability risk and
are almost constantly patients to see or consultquality control when assigning them their
with on the telephone, medical records andresponsibilities. Physicians should provide initial direct
insurance records to update, tests to run,supervision and periodically assess the quality of
appointments to schedule, billing and bookkeepingtheir work. In practices with nurse managers,
responsibilities to handle, and many other dutiesmedical assistants can receive additional
and needs. Doctors may hardly have time to seesupervision coordinated to maximize workflow in
all of their patients, let alone handle the rest ofa practice. Communicating the employees’
these tasks. This is where medical assistants steproles to other staff and clearly delineating their
in. Medical assistants are basically the doctor's rightresponsibilities is important in maximizing the
hand. They keep the office running smoothly,productivity of the health care team. Although
taking care of any clerical and some clinicallegal requirements addressing the Medical
aspects so that the doctors can focus onAssistant scope of practice vary by state, the
providing direct patient care.Medical Assistant generally works under the
Many doctors have large practices, especiallylicense of their supervising physician or the
those in populous rural areas where there aremanaged care organization that employs them.
fewer doctors per person, and if all responsibilitiesThe formal education of medical assistants often
are left to the doctor, the quality of the patientoccurs in vocational schools, technical institutes,
care can suffer. There is never a typical workdaycommunity colleges, proprietary schools, online
as far as medical assisting is concerned because iteducational programs or junior colleges.
is a very busy and varying occupation. They mayAccording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
focus on reception, records, and billing one daythere are about 800,000 doctors in practice in the
and perform simple lab tests and changeUnited States, with only 500,000 medical
dressings and sutures the next. They may evenassistants working for them. As such, the medical
be needed to assist doctors in procedures or byassistant field is expected to grow substantially
taking x-rays or administering electrocardiograms.within the next ten years, especially as more
Medical assistants also explain medication anddoctors become overloaded with patients. The
procedures to patients, providing them with thejob is challenging, but there are many rewards,
knowledge and understanding they need to betternot in the least the chance to provide patients
care for themselves. The responsibilities andwith the best care available.
challenges, as well as the opportunities, areCopyright : St. Augustine School of Medical
endless.Assistants
Many physicians are unsure of what tasks are(
appropriate to assign to a medical assistant and itYou can reproduce this article as long as you
is important to remember medical assistants areleave this copy right statement and links
not licensed to make independent medicalunchanged.