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How to hire a hospital medical assistant

Hospital medical assistant hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring hospital medical assistants in the United States:

  • HR departments typically spend 15% of their expenses on recruitment.
  • It usually takes about 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
  • It typically takes 36-42 days to fill a job opening.
  • The median cost to hire a hospital medical assistant is $1,633.
  • Small businesses spend an average of $1,105 per hospital medical assistant on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
  • There are currently 493,138 hospital medical assistants in the US and 164,640 job openings.
  • New York, NY, has the highest demand for hospital medical assistants, with 6 job openings.
  • Huntsville, AL has the highest concentration of hospital medical assistants.

How to hire a hospital medical assistant, step by step

To hire a hospital medical assistant, you need to identify the specific skills and experience you want in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and advertise the job opening to attract potential candidates. To hire a hospital medical assistant, you should follow these steps:

Here's a step-by-step hospital medical assistant hiring guide:

  • Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Write a hospital medical assistant job description
  • Step 5: Post your job
  • Step 6: Interview candidates
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new hospital medical assistant
  • Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a hospital medical assistant do?

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.

Learn more about the specifics of what a hospital medical assistant does
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    First, determine the employments status of the hospital medical assistant you need to hire. Certain hospital medical assistant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    A hospital medical assistant's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, hospital medical assistants from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

    The following list breaks down different types of hospital medical assistants and their corresponding salaries.

    Type of Hospital Medical AssistantDescriptionHourly rate
    Hospital Medical AssistantMedical assistants complete administrative and clinical tasks in the offices of physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities. Their duties vary with the location, specialty, and size of the practice.$12-21
    Medical AdministratorA medical administrator is in charge of overseeing a medical facility's daily operations, ensuring the efficiency of all services and processes. Among their responsibilities include setting goals and guidelines, studying the feedback of different parties, gathering and analyzing data to identify areas needing improvement, planning and organizing new services and projects, managing the medical staff, and developing strategies to optimize operations... Show more$13-21
    Medical Assisting ExternA medical assisting extern is responsible for supporting the medical team in ensuring that the patients are offered the best care services by providing treatments and medications. Medical assisting externs' duties include practicing their medical skills by shadowing on medical professionals' activities, assisting patients with their inquiries and concerns, facilitating medical procedures with the doctor's supervision, and learning to operate medical tools and equipment as needed... Show more$12-23
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Patients
    • Vital Signs
    • Customer Service
    • CPR
    • Medical Terminology
    • Phlebotomy
    • EKG
    • Patient Flow
    • Patient Appointments
    • Rehabilitation
    • Blood Pressure
    • Direct Patient Care
    • Medical Equipment
    • Surgery
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Manage medical/isolation stalls and surgery treatment facility and assist in post surgery care.
    • Promote patient wellness and conduct patient education and ensure adherence to all OSHA and HIPAA regulations.
    • Accredit training for OSHA, JACHO for safety practices and procedures.
    • Administer EKG, range of motion, treatments, and physical assessment tests.
    • Write incoming, outgoing calls from patient, family member or PCP in their charts (EMR).
    • Maintain CPR certification and continuing education for position.
    More hospital medical assistant duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in the hospital medical assistant job description is a good way to get more applicants. A hospital medical assistant salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

    For example, the average salary for a hospital medical assistant in Arkansas may be lower than in Massachusetts, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level hospital medical assistant. Additionally, a hospital medical assistant with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

    Average hospital medical assistant salary

    $35,545yearly

    $17.09 hourly rate

    Entry-level hospital medical assistant salary
    $27,000 yearly salary
    Updated December 24, 2025

    Average hospital medical assistant salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1Massachusetts$48,059$23
    2California$43,243$21
    3Washington$42,510$20
    4New York$40,641$20
    5Connecticut$39,562$19
    6Wisconsin$35,001$17
    7Iowa$34,902$17
    8Utah$34,480$17
    9Colorado$34,386$17
    10Texas$32,913$16
    11Florida$30,555$15
    12Georgia$29,246$14
    13Indiana$28,779$14
    14Missouri$27,802$13
    15Alabama$25,632$12

    Average hospital medical assistant salary by company

  4. Writing a hospital medical assistant job description

    A hospital medical assistant job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a hospital medical assistant job description:

    Hospital medical assistant job description example

    Urgent Team is looking for an experienced Medical Assistant / X-Ray Tech to join our team in Madison, AL. The ideal candidate will have at least one year of experience with medical assisting duties/taking X-Rays. Twelve hour shifts and rotating weekends are required for the full-time position. In return, Urgent Team offers a comprehensive benefits package and competitive hourly wages to all full-time team members. PRN opportunities are also available.

    The Medical Assistant is responsible for providing basic clinical care to patients in alignment with their medical education.
    ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
    The following duties and responsibilities generally reflect the expectations of this position but are not intended to be all inclusive. Other duties may be assigned.
    • Promptly greets patients when entering waiting area, exam room, and laboratory or x-ray room
    • Consistently communicates with patients on wait times; provides direction to the next step in the treatment process
    • Provides solutions to patient problems and recognizes and seeks help in emergent/hazardous situations
    • Executes follow-up calls with a sense of urgency
    • Assist front desk personnel with patient check in/out procedures when necessary
    • Obtains and accurately documents patient vital signs and weight, takes brief history, past medical, family and social history current medications, allergies and other pertinent historical information as appropriate
    • Assists with patient transfers
    • Assists with procedures directly supervised by the provider
    • Follows documentation procedures and completes required documentation related to patient visit. EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
    • High school diploma or equivalent required
    • Minimum 1 year of experience as a Medical Assistant
    • Medical Assistant Certificate or equivalent experience CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS
    • Medical Assistant Certificate is preferred; ARRT is desirable
    • BLS Certification required Candidates may be contacted via email about this position. Please make is added to your safe senders list; otherwise, emails may go to spam.
  5. Post your job

    To find the right hospital medical assistant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

    • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
    • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with hospital medical assistants they would recommend.
    • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit hospital medical assistants who meet your education requirements.
    • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.
    To find hospital medical assistant candidates, you can consider the following options:
    • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
    • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as healthcarejobsite, health jobs nationwide, hospitalcareers, medreps.com.
    • Post your job on free job posting websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    To successfully recruit hospital medical assistants, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

    You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new hospital medical assistant

    Once you've selected the best hospital medical assistant candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

    It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

    Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new hospital medical assistant. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

  8. Go through the hiring process checklist

    • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
    • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
    • Define job responsibilities and requirements
    • Establish budget and timeline
    • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
    • Write job description
    • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
    • Promote the job internally
    • Process applications through applicant tracking system
    • Review resumes and cover letters
    • Shortlist candidates for screening
    • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
    • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
    • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
    • Conduct background checks on top candidates
    • Check references of top candidates
    • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
    • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
    • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
    • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
    • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
    • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a hospital medical assistant?

Before you start to hire hospital medical assistants, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire hospital medical assistants pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

You can expect to pay around $35,545 per year for a hospital medical assistant, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for hospital medical assistants in the US typically range between $12 and $21 an hour.

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