What Is an Administrative Medical Assistant?
If you’re looking for a job in a field with great long term job prospects and opportunity for growth, healthcare is a great choice. The healthcare sector is a multi-trillion dollar industry and one of the top employers in the U.S.1 Starting as an administrative medical assistant is an excellent way to get your foot in the door of a new healthcare career, with room to grow for your future.
What Does an Administrative Medical Assistant Do?
As an administrative medical assistant, you’d work in places like physicians’ offices, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. You would be an important member of a healthcare team and have lots of direct patient interaction. In fact, you’d probably be the very first person a patient saw as they entered your facility. Administrative medical assistant duties include:
- Maintain patient files and records
- Answer phone and schedule appointments with patients
- Handle billing with patients
- Complete outpatient procedures
- Order office supplies and medical equipment
But do you have what it takes to be a good administrative medical assistant? Here are some of the traits you’ll need:
Qualities Required to be a Successful Administrative Medical Assistant
Pleasant & Polite: Because so much of your job is about dealing with the public, you need to have a welcoming attitude. You’ll be working with a variety of medical professionals and also patients with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Often patients are worried and stressed when they come to a healthcare facility. Your job would be to ease their minds and reassure them that the professionals you work with have their very best interests in mind with everything they do.
Attentiveness: In addition to being attentive to the needs of the patients who walk through your door, you’ll also need to have fine attention to details. Accuracy in medical care is critical and everything you do must be done to ensure that no mistakes are made. Whether you’re entering insurance information into an account or scheduling appointments for medical tests and procedures, what you do can affect the lives of your patients.
“If you enjoy a challenge and like learning new things, a career in the healthcare industry could be perfect for you.”
Professionalism: It’s important that the people who come to your healthcare team for medical care have faith in what you do. That means you need to act and dress in a way that is professional. Everything you say and do reflects on the people who will treat the patients. You want to make certain that you leave a good impression.
Discretion: Confidentiality isn’t just a good idea when dealing with patients and their private information; it’s the law! Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), you must respect the rights of your patients at all times. That means you cannot share information about their medical conditions or treatments with anyone other than authorized personnel and family members. It also means that you have to adhere to strict rules about the way you handle their electronic medical records.
Computer competency: One of your most important roles as an administrative medical assistant will be to enter and maintain electronic medical data. You’ll need to be comfortable working on a computer and all the programs that your office uses, adhering strictly to the policies and procedures of your particular office.
Passion for learning: If you enjoy a challenge and like learning new things, a career in the healthcare industry could be perfect for you. Whether you choose to stay an administrative medical assistant specialist where you’ll always need to be up-to-date on the latest laws, technologies and terminology in the medical field, or whether that job becomes the entry point to a whole new career in the healthcare field, your thirst for knowledge will help you excel.
At American National University, we can train you with the skills you need to work as an administrative medical assistant so you can begin a rewarding career in the healthcare industry. We can also help you continue your education as you advance your career. Learn more about our Administrative Medical Assisting program. Call 833.388.1100 today.
1 http://www.careerinfonet.org/indview3.asp?nodeid=47
