Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between hospital medical assistants and unit assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a hospital medical assistant and a unit assistant. Additionally, a hospital medical assistant has an average salary of $35,545, which is higher than the $33,802 average annual salary of a unit assistant.
The top three skills for a hospital medical assistant include patients, vital signs and customer service. The most important skills for a unit assistant are patients, customer service, and HIPAA.
| Hospital Medical Assistant | Unit Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $35,545 | $33,802 |
| Hourly rate | $17.09 | $16.25 |
| Growth rate | 16% | 16% |
| Number of jobs | 164,640 | 174,425 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 45% | Bachelor's Degree, 39% |
| Average age | 37 | 37 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
Hospital Medical Assistants offer a variety of services like clerical, technical, and patient care as long as they work under nurses or medical practitioners' supervision. While their specific tasks vary depending on the hospital, practice, or medical facility, they generally support medical practitioners and members of the health care team by recording vital patient information and occasionally assisting with minor, office-based procedures. Working as a hospital medical assistant requires skills like organizational skills, professionalism, confidentiality, and people skills to reach top performance levels for the role.
A unit assistant is responsible for performing administrative duties within a department of a health care institution, ensuring that the patients receive the highest quality care services for their concerns and needs. Unit assistants assist the patients and the visitors, confirm their appointments, and direct them to the correct personnel or medical department. They also manage the adequacy of medical supplies and report defective equipment and machine to the maintenance for immediate repairs or replacements. A unit assistant must be highly organizational, especially on storing medical records and updating patients' information on the database.
Hospital medical assistants and unit assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Hospital Medical Assistant | Unit Assistant | |
| Average salary | $35,545 | $33,802 |
| Salary range | Between $27,000 And $45,000 | Between $25,000 And $44,000 |
| Highest paying City | Woburn, MA | Westfield, MA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Student Conservation Association | UC Santa Barbara |
| Best paying industry | Education | Non Profits |
There are a few differences between a hospital medical assistant and a unit assistant in terms of educational background:
| Hospital Medical Assistant | Unit Assistant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 45% | Bachelor's Degree, 39% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between hospital medical assistants' and unit assistants' demographics:
| Hospital Medical Assistant | Unit Assistant | |
| Average age | 37 | 37 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 31.9% Female, 68.1% | Male, 30.0% Female, 70.0% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 22.7% Asian, 9.5% White, 51.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | Black or African American, 10.0% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 19.1% Asian, 9.5% White, 55.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |