Medical Assistant Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of Medical assistants are performed in clinics, hospitals, medical centers, and other healthcare facilities, where they provide support and assistance to nurses, physicians, surgeons, and other healthcare providers to enable them to deliver quality service to patients.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for Medical Assistants is likely to increase by 31 percent from 2010 to 2020. This is because a lot of physicians are hiring more medical assistants to help them with certain administrative and clinical duties so that they can have more time to see more patients.

If you are thinking of becoming a medical assistant, or are about getting your first medical assisting job, here are some tasks you will be expected to perform.

Duties and Responsibilities of Medical Assistants

• Perform patient care responsibilities, including handling patients’ schedules and organizing their flow; provide support to patients in walking, dressing, transferring, and movement to examination or procedure room.
• Take and process specimens; prepare patients for examination; and perform point of care testing. Provide support to physicians by performing various procedures. Take vital signs and other relevant information, such as weight, height, drug allergies, current medications and recurring problem; send instructions to patients and or families from physician; take calls and provide important and relevant information.
• Perform clerical duties, including sending and receiving patient medical records; receiving hospital notes, x-ray/lab reports, and referral information. Make requisitions and complete forms as required.
• Responsible for managing charts to ensure information is accurate and documented correctly. The medical assistant may perform these tasks by employing the electronic medical record (EMR) system or by manually means.
• Make orders using the electronic medical record (EMR) system. He/She can also generate prescription refill requests on behalf of the physician which the ordering physician will review and approve.
• Responsible for performing inventories, ordering, and stocking of medical items as necessary.
• Follow established sterilization techniques and infection control policy of the hospital in treating and handling instruments, as well as in setting up of examination room.
• Responsible for maintaining logging system as needed for refrigeration of medications, point of care testing, sterilization process, crash cart, or others as needed.
• Find out the expiration dates on all medications and medical items, and follow hospital policy in disposing them.
• Ensure to maintain at all times a healthy, safe, and secured work environment by adhering to hospital’s environmental and safety policy; Abide by state and national regulations.
• Ensure to follow all hospital established rules regarding the use of personal protective equipment that protect healthcare providers against exposure to potentially harmful substances, including body fluids, chemical disinfectants, and radiation.
• Responsible for maintaining medical charts, such as Op Reports, filing, test results, home care forms.
• Perform scheduling of surgeries and other procedures solely, or work with Surgical Coordinator to confirm dates with patients. Produce charts, pre-admissions and consent forms as required.
• The Medical Assistant will be responsible for performing phlebotomy duties
• Schedule appointments for patients and perform registration for them; update patients’ insurance and demographic records.
• Perform maintenance, adjustment and confirmation of patient office schedule.
• Confirm and update patients’ insurance information using hospital developed software or through other means on the Internet.
• Perform and confirm pre-certification for procedures as necessary.
• Perform other duties that may be assigned.

Notice that the duties Medical Assistants are expected to perform vary with the size of the healthcare facility, location, and specialty. You may therefore not be required to perform all the tasks above.

See complete Medical Assistant Job Description Example

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