Animal hospital clerk vs office specialist

The differences between animal hospital clerks and office specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an animal hospital clerk and an office specialist. Additionally, an animal hospital clerk has an average salary of $45,287, which is higher than the $33,477 average annual salary of an office specialist.

The top three skills for an animal hospital clerk include PET, appointment scheduling and front desk. The most important skills for an office specialist are customer service, data entry, and patients.

Animal hospital clerk vs office specialist overview

	Animal Hospital Clerk	Office Specialist
Yearly salary	$45,287	$33,477
Hourly rate	$21.77	$16.09
Growth rate	-5%	-5%
Number of jobs	70,481	98,760
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	2

What does an animal hospital clerk do?

An animal hospital clerk serves as the pet owners' primary point of contact when visiting animal hospitals. Mostly performing clerical tasks, their responsibilities revolve around greeting clients and gathering information about their pets, including their medical history, assisting in filling out admission forms, and performing brief interviews to identify the pets' needs. It is also their responsibility to determine and process the payment fees, discuss pet conditions to clients, and complete discharge procedures. Furthermore, an animal hospital clerk must maintain case records of all patients, answer calls and inquiries, and coordinate with veterinarians for an efficient workflow.

What does an office specialist do?

An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.

Animal hospital clerk vs office specialist salary

Animal hospital clerks and office specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Animal Hospital Clerk	Office Specialist
Average salary	$45,287	$33,477
Salary range	Between $31,000 And $66,000	Between $25,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	-	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	-	Massachusetts
Best paying company	-	Brookhaven National Laboratory
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between animal hospital clerk and office specialist education

There are a few differences between an animal hospital clerk and an office specialist in terms of educational background:

	Animal Hospital Clerk	Office Specialist
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 33%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Most common major	Medical Assisting Services	Business
Most common college	Monroe College	Western Carolina University

Animal hospital clerk vs office specialist demographics

Here are the differences between animal hospital clerks' and office specialists' demographics:

	Animal Hospital Clerk	Office Specialist
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 23.0% Female, 77.0%	Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 18.9% Asian, 6.6% White, 58.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%	Black or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between animal hospital clerk and office specialist duties and responsibilities

Animal hospital clerk example responsibilities.

Manage front office check-in, insurance verification and certifications from doctors.
Maintain cleanliness of the company warehouse, operate warehouse machinery and organize the warehouse to ensure proper product placement.
Make appropriate notations in Meditech system.

Office specialist example responsibilities.

Provide support for enrolling patients into health coverage programs and manage sensitive patient information to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.
Manage and maintain patients' medical records by utilizing computer applications management database processing system to ensure county compliance.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Provide assistance to office staff including preparing and proofreading memos and grants, transcribing meeting minutes for staff and answering phones.
Perform multiple bookkeeping duties including departmental payroll, print financial reports and other financial material as needed.
Communicate HIPAA compliance to staff, field and outside agencies.

Animal hospital clerk vs office specialist skills

Common animal hospital clerk skills

PET, 66%
Appointment Scheduling, 17%
Front Desk, 6%
Surgical Procedures, 4%
Body Fluids, 4%
Blood Samples, 4%

Common office specialist skills

Customer Service, 18%
Data Entry, 10%
Patients, 9%
Office Equipment, 6%
Phone Calls, 6%
Word Processing, 4%

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Animal Hospital Clerk
Animal Hospital Clerk vs Office Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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