Medical Assistant Schools

Medical assistants perform routine clerical and clinical duties in order to maintain efficiency in offices of physicians, chiropractors, podiatrists, and others. Medical assistants are different than physicians' assistants. A physician assistant’s job requires examining, diagnosing, and treating patients under the direction of a physician.Many factors affect the duties of medical assistants including location and size of the practice as well as the physician's area of specialty. Where practices are small, medical assistants are termed "generalists" with medical and administrative duties. They report directly to an office manager or physician. On the other hand, those in larger practices usually specialize in a certain area and remain supervised by department administrators. Some administrative responsibilities include: greeting patients, answering the phone, keeping medical records, completing insurance forms, handling correspondence, making appointments, setting up hospital admission and laboratory services, and managing billing.State laws cause medical assistants to have differing clinical duties. These duties include: retrieving patient history, taking vital signs, informing patients about treatments, assisting patients and physicians with examinations, conducting general laboratory tests, preparing laboratory specimens on the jobsite, disposing of used materials, and sanitizing medical supplies. Medical assistant educate the patients about treatments such as medication or eating habits, prepare and give medications, permit refills under physician supervision, submit prescriptions to the pharmacist, take blood, perform electrocardiograms, prepare patients for x-rays, take out sutures, and adjust dressings.Additional tasks require medical assistants to organize, maintain, and purchase instruments and materials for examining rooms. They also clean waiting and examining rooms.Specialized assistants perform more duties. For example, podiatric medical assistants' duties include: surgery assistance, x ray exposure and developments, and cast making. Ophthalmic medical assistants aid ophthalmologists in giving eye care. They perform eye tests to diagnose, measure and document vision and muscle function of eyes. They also assist patients with their contacts ensuring proper insertion, removal, and basic contact care. As directed by the doctor, these specialized assistants may also give medications for eyes. Further duties are to help in surgical procedures, to ensure maintenance of optical materials and devices, and to administer eye dressings. Medical assistant schools can work in a variety of areas. Nearly 60 percent of medical assistants have worked in doctor's offices and approximately 14 percent in both inpatient and outpatients departments of public and private hospitals. Additionally, 10 percent worked in specialized health care offices with physicians, such as chiropractors and podiatrists. The remaining assistants administered their skills in facilities for outpatient care, in public and private education, in state and local government agencies, in nursing centers, and in employment services.