Do medical assistants need to have any administrative skills?

 When a person visits a physician’s office, the first person they interact with is usually a medical assistant. Medical assistants are part of the healthcare support staff who often assist doctors, CNAs, RNs. They perform cross-functional duties, including providing patient care, completing clinical and administrative tasks. Thus, they play an important role in ensuring everything is running smoothly.

What duties do they perform?

Medical assistants perform a range of tasks, including:
Communicating with patients at the front desk.
Answering phone calls at the hospital or physician’s office.
Scheduling appointments of patients.
Operating different medical software for updating health records of existing patients and adding details of new patients in the hospital’s database.
Collecting information regarding the patient’s health history.
Processing medical insurance documents for payment.
Drawing blood samples, sending them to the lab, and sending patient’s test results to the right doctors in the healthcare facility.
Taking vital signs of patients and administering the right medications as per the physician’s instructions.
Managing and reordering office inventory supplies.

And much more. Thus, medical assistants need to have a combination of administrative and clinical skills to perform their job responsibilities efficiently.

What are the administrative skills that medical assistants need to have?

The following are the top administrative skills you will need to become a professional administrative medical assistant:

Handling medical insurance documents
 Medical assistants may sometimes be required to process medical insurance payments. Thus, they must be knowledgeable about how medical insurance works, insurance documents processing procedures, and communicating with insurance companies to get the insurance claim.

Managing check-ins and inquiries
Medical assistants also handle the front desk operations at times. Thus, when a patient checks in for treatment, they need to be proactive in arranging the patient appointment, filling and organizing admission forms, and other administrative formalities for the treatment. They also need to be well-versed in handling the medical inquiries of patients.

Operating the EMR system
Every hospital and healthcare facility operates using an EMR system to keep accurate patient records. Thus, Medical assistants need to be well-trained in different types of Electronic Medical Recordkeeping (EMR) systems to efficiently update and access patient records as and when required.

Inventory management
As medical assistants are also responsible for ensuring proper stock of medical supplies, they should be skilled at inventory management. For this, they may need both organizational and technical skills to operate if the hospital uses an advanced technology inventory management system.

Communication skills
And, of course, since medical assistants need to interact with visitors to schedule appointments, collect patient history, and answer calls and patient inquiries, they need effective communication skills. They must be adept at giving prompt replies, communicating with physicians, and coordinating with different departments.

Medical Coding
Medical Assistants may also need to be well-knowledgeable about medical terminologies and relevant codes to comprehend and analyze clinical statements and assign standard codes as required.

As the demand for medical assistants seems to grow exponentially in the coming few years, medical assistant training schools in Manhattan, NY, are welcoming fresh high school graduates to start a successful career in healthcare. So, if you are interested in getting started with a healthcare career, now is the best time to enroll in Certified Medical Assistant Training Programs in NY. If you have any questions, please contact us!