Medical Office Assistants are very important in any given medical set up. How many of you even know about these professionals? And for those who know them, how many of you give them the credit for a well operational health facility? Many do not do this at all. This is because the role they play is neither known nor appreciated by those not in the medical field. Only those who directly interact with them on a day to day basis know their pivotal importance.
One of the key roles that the Medical Office Assistants do play is the administrative role. There is a lot of paper work that needs to be done in a hospital or any health set up. Some of these include registration of new patients and compiling them. Sourcing for the medical records of patients is yet another role that the Medical Office Assistants will help in together with preparation of medical bills. It is the Medical Office Assistant that will receive phone calls at the reception as well as giving direction to patients. In case there are any refunds to be done, or an insurance issue to be followed up, this is the role of a medical office assistant. A Medical Office Assistant is the one responsible for replying general hospital emails, faxes and other forms of mails. Let all the other technical members of staff concentrate on medical service delivery as the Medical Office Assistants do the administrative work.
The doctor, nurse, laboratory assistant, pharmacists… need someone to link them. The doctor will waste a lot of valuable time if he is the one to prepare the medical records of a patient. The nurse needs to concentrate on nursing patients rather than spending some minutes to forward the documents for medical examination from the doctor to the lab and the vice versa. In likewise manner, the laboratory technician will lose concentration if he is made to do this work. For everybody to concentrate in their work, medical office assistants play the link’s role.
Physicians, medical facilities, nursing homes and hospitals among other like manner institutions are the ones that employ these professionals. They come in to help in the transcription of treatment notes, updating of the medical histories, overseeing office inventories together with medical supplies, arrange for the hospitalization and transfer of patients among others. When there is need for some appointments to be scheduled, this is the responsibility of the Medical Office Assistants because they understand the program of the physician.
During their training, some of the things Medical Office Assistants are taught include, office accounting, medical transcription, healthcare coding, application software of medical office procedures, medical law & ethics, medical terminology, interpersonal & communication skills, basic anatomy and physiology… Medical Office Assistants can therefore fit in almost all the roles in a health facility.