Medical assistants perform a combination of clinical and administrative tasks in healthcare settings. Common clinical duties include taking vital signs, assisting doctors with minor procedures, performing EKGs and preparing patients for exams. On the administrative side, a medical assistant schedules appointments, maintains patient records, submits insurance claims and performs other clerical tasks. But not all medical assisting jobs are the same. In fact, the profession offers a number of different ways to specialize. In this article, you’ll learn more medical assistant specialties and how you can begin a medical assisting career with Healthcare Career College.
Medical Assisting Careers: Can You Specialize?
Medical assistants can be found in almost any medical setting, but not all medical assistants do the same thing. One of the most basic distinctions is between clinical and administrative job responsibilities. While many medical assistants do handle both clinical and administrative tasks, others focus on one or the other.
Clinical MAs focus on patient care, so they draw blood, assist with procedures, take vital signs and perform other clinical tasks. Medical administrative assistants focus on performing office duties, such as scheduling appointments, updating records, collecting copayments and responding to patient requests.
It’s also possible to specialize in working for a specific type of medical practice. Family medicine MAs work in family practices, which tend to the general medical needs of adults and children. This is also known as primary care. Duties of a family medicine MA include:
- Creating patient records
- Helping with prescription refill requests
- Drawing blood
- Collecting urine and school samples
- Giving vaccines
Geriatrics medical assistants perform many of the same duties, but they work exclusively with older adults. To succeed in this role, it’s important to understand Medicare billing and coding requirements.
If you’re interested in specialty care, you can focus on medical assisting careers in cardiology, endocrinology or another medical specialty. Cardiology MAs often perform EKGs and make providers aware of the results. Because endocrinologists help patients with glandular disorders and hormone problems, endocrinology MAs frequently draw blood and give injections.
Another option is to pursue a career as a chiropractic MA or an aesthetics MA. A chiropractic medical assistant performs standard clinical and administrative duties, but they also prepare equipment used for adjustments and other chiropractic services. Aesthetics MAs work for providers who offer nonsurgical treatments to improve each patient’s appearance, including chemical peels, Botox and laser skin treatments.
The Importance of Completing Medical Assisting School
If you’re interested in this career, you must complete medical assisting school before you start applying for jobs. The Healthcare Career College medical assisting program takes less than 1 year to complete. Students learn how to draw blood, take vital signs, perform EKGs and prepare exam rooms. HCC also coordinates externships, giving students a valuable opportunity to apply their new knowledge and skills.
Once you complete medical assisting school, you can start applying for jobs. After you’ve gained experience, you might start to get an idea of the area where you would like to focus as a specialty.
Start your medical assisting career by applying to HCC today or contact us for more information.