Medical Secretary Job Description Example

By | August 31, 2023
Medical Secretary job description, duties, tasks, and responsibilities
Medical Secretaries perform various administrative duties that ensure a medical facility runs smoothly. Image source: cmgtraining.com

Medical Secretary Job Description Example

What Does a Medical Secretary Do?

A medical secretary is a front desk staff who performs administrative duties by handling documents, correspondence, and visits in a medical facility.

The medical secretary job description usually entails preparing paper works related to patients, stakeholders, and relevant authorities dealing with his/her clinic.

The medical secretary will represent the doctor as the first contact patients have with the clinic, receiving them with a friendly demeanor and attending to their needs.

Medical secretaries’ responsibilities also include sorting mails, sending replies to mails, and forwarding special calls to the doctor and other hospital staff.

The image a clinic projects to the public can be affected to a large extent by the composure and mannerism of the secretary, therefore, he/she must be properly dressed all the time, wearing decent and well fitting corporate outfits that give them a professional look.

The secretary should dress for comfort, to be able to move around freely in carrying out their duties.

The role of the medical secretary also involves handling of human flow in the clinic.

He/she is responsible for scheduling clients’ appointments with the doctor, and will keep record of daily visits to the clinic.

Medical secretaries usually interact with clients and patients, and with their wealth of experience and knowledge of human relations they are able to make visitors comfortable.

Their training ensures they treat clients with utmost respect and politeness; talk to clients with the right tone even in addressing complicated issues, ensuring that they are sorted out amicably to the satisfaction of clients.

Medical Secretary Job Description Example

Secretaries working in medical establishments perform various duties, tasks, and responsibilities, which are important for the smooth operations of such facilities.

Here is an example of the medical secretary job description, detailing the various functions they may perform for their clinics.

  • Create smooth work flow for the doctor by properly arranging their calendars and schedules, making out time for the doctor’s consultations, appointments, meetings, professional trips, and conferences; putting everything in place to avoid clashes
  • Answer telephone calls, providing accurate information about services and procedures in the clinic; provide further assistance to satisfy patients’ inquiries, maintaining open communication with clients, and attending to patients’ current needs
  • Prepare medical reports, summaries, briefings, manuscripts, and other important documents for record keeping and future reference
  • Collect patients’ demographics and create clinic files containing their medical histories and records, making such files available to the doctor upon patients visit for consultation; and administer treatment with consideration to past health challenges and treatments
  • Accrue revenue by collecting and procuring direct and third party payments; monitor account receivables and facilitate collection calls and reminders where applicable
  • Abide by clinic standard of confidentiality by treating patients information with discreetness, making use of such information for official purposes only. All patients’ files are kept safely and are only accessible to authorized individuals
  • Keep patients’ files updated by periodically checking with them to take note of changes in their demographics and effect such changes in their files to ensure that all information are useful and not outdated
  • Abide by hospital procedures in discharging assigned duties, and put patients through accordingly without jumping the gun as this could lead to casualties
  • Cooperate with legal authorities in completing documents for clinic operation as required, to avoid sanctions
  • Work with insurance bodies to provide patients accurate medical records to facilitate claims and reimbursements

Medical Secretary Resume Preparation

To prepare a good resume for seeking the job of medical secretary, relevant information can be obtained from the sample job description above in creating the work experience section of the resume.

Requirements – The knowledge, Skills, and Abilities – for the job of Medical Secretary

The major skills required to excel working as a secretary in a medical outfit are given in the following list:

  • Customer service skills: Applicants for this job must possess the professional skills to handle customer care needs in accordance with industry standards
  • Organizational skills: It is important for secretaries to be able to get things done in a coordinated manner so as to maintain orderliness in the office
  • Decision making skills: Individuals in this position must have the ability to make good decisions to protect the interest of the organization
  • Communication skills: Medical secretaries must have excellent verbal and oral communication skills to interact with people, understanding their needs and passing across information to them effectively
  • Computer skills: They must have the ability to enter information, create charts, and schedule appointments using the computer system