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What does a hospital medical assistant do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read

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.

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Hospital medical assistant responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real hospital medical assistant resumes:

  • 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.
  • Serve as operating room technician for general and specialize surgery.
  • Check insurance eligibility of patients to ensure specimens are processed and send to the appropriate laboratory depending on insurance provider.
  • Serve as an executive member on departmental teams providing regulatory guidance and technical assistance on HIPAA privacy and security rules.
  • Room patients, record vitals, administer prescribed medications, answer patient questions, authorize prior authorizations for medications and procedures.
  • Skil in use of health insurance billing forms; ICD-9 / CPT-4 coding, and explanation of benefits documents.
  • Perform routine laboratory procedures and diagnostic testing including ECG lead placement.

Hospital medical assistant skills and personality traits

We calculated that 23% of Hospital Medical Assistants are proficient in Patients, Vital Signs, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Detail oriented, and Interpersonal skills.

We break down the percentage of Hospital Medical Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Patients, 23%

    Roomed patients, recorded vitals, administered prescribed medications, answered patient questions, authorized prior authorizations for medications and procedures.

  • Vital Signs, 9%

    Assist Pediatrician in patient care; takes vital signs, vision and hearing screenings; administer immunizations and antibiotic shots.

  • Customer Service, 8%

    Prioritized job responsibilities to ensure that guests were given excellent customer service and daily operations ran smoothly.

  • CPR, 8%

    maintained CPR certification and continuing education for position.

  • Medical Terminology, 5%

    Developed an advanced medical terminology vocabulary.

  • Phlebotomy, 5%

    Functioned as a Phlebotomy Technician.

Common skills that a hospital medical assistant uses to do their job include "patients," "vital signs," and "customer service." You can find details on the most important hospital medical assistant responsibilities below.

Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a hospital medical assistant to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "medical assistants must be able to understand and follow medical charts and diagnoses." Additionally, a hospital medical assistant resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "performed clerical duties, such as word processing, data entry, answering phones and filing. "

Detail oriented. Many hospital medical assistant duties rely on detail oriented. "medical assistants need to be precise when taking vital signs or recording patient information," so a hospital medical assistant will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways hospital medical assistant responsibilities rely on detail oriented: "cleaned hood vents and machine wells daily * detailed floors and buff daily* provided exception customer service daily"

Interpersonal skills. hospital medical assistants are also known for interpersonal skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to hospital medical assistant responsibilities, because "medical assistants need to be able to discuss patient information with other medical personnel, such as physicians." A hospital medical assistant resume example shows how interpersonal skills is used in the workplace: "demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills with other specialties in admitting and treating in- house patients. "

Technical skills. A big part of what hospital medical assistants do relies on "technical skills." You can see how essential it is to hospital medical assistant responsibilities because "medical assistants should be able to use basic clinical instruments so they can take a patient’s vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical hospital medical assistant tasks: "assisted professional nursing and technical personnel in the care and treatment of patients in the hospital. "

Most common hospital medical assistant skills

The three companies that hire the most hospital medical assistants are:

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Compare different hospital medical assistants

Hospital medical assistant vs. Doctor assistant

A 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. They may also develop training programs for new and current employees, coordinating with experts in the medical field. Furthermore, as a medical administrator, it is essential to lead the workforce while implementing the hospital's policies and regulations.

If we compare the average hospital medical assistant annual salary with that of a doctor assistant, we find that doctor assistants typically earn a $678 lower salary than hospital medical assistants make annually.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between hospital medical assistants and doctor assistants are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like patients, vital signs, and cpr.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a hospital medical assistant are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "patient flow," "rehabilitation," and "direct patient care." On the other hand, a job as a doctor assistant requires skills like "patient care," "lab results," "triage," and "insurance verification." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

On average, doctor assistants reach similar levels of education than hospital medical assistants. Doctor assistants are 0.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Hospital medical assistant vs. Medical administrator

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.

A career as a medical administrator brings a higher average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a hospital medical assistant. In fact, medical administrators salary is $168 higher than the salary of hospital medical assistants per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Hospital medical assistants and medical administrators both require similar skills like "patients," "vital signs," and "cpr" to carry out their responsibilities.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that hospital medical assistant responsibilities requires skills like "customer service," "phlebotomy," "patient flow," and "rehabilitation." But a medical administrator might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "patient care," "cpt," "icd-10," and "medicaid."

On average, medical administrators earn a higher salary than hospital medical assistants. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, medical administrators earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $42,427. Whereas hospital medical assistants have higher pay in the education industry, with an average salary of $39,309.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Medical administrators tend to reach similar levels of education than hospital medical assistants. In fact, they're 3.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Hospital medical assistant vs. Unit assistant

Medical assistants/phlebotomists are medical personnel who execute administrative and clinical tasks in healthcare facilities or units. They are responsible for providing healthcare to patients such as immunization administration, orthopedic supplies, and wound care. It is part of their job to take the blood of patients for blood testing. They also take charge of handling other medical tests for the upkeep of patients' health. These professionals should exhibit compatibility, initiative, and cohesiveness within the team.

On average scale, unit assistants bring in lower salaries than hospital medical assistants. In fact, they earn a $1,743 lower salary per year.hospital medical assistants and unit assistants both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "patients," "vital signs," and "customer service," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, hospital medical assistants are more likely to have skills like "phlebotomy," "patient flow," "patient appointments," and "wine." But a unit assistant is more likely to have skills like "physician orders," "patient safety," "clerical support," and "taking care."

Unit assistants earn the best pay in the non profits industry, where they command an average salary of $34,283. Hospital medical assistants earn the highest pay from the education industry, with an average salary of $39,309.Most unit assistants achieve a similar degree level compared to hospital medical assistants. For example, they're 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Hospital medical assistant vs. Medical assistant/phlebotomist

Medical assistant/phlebotomists tend to earn a lower pay than hospital medical assistants by an average of $1,871 per year.While their salaries may vary, hospital medical assistants and medical assistant/phlebotomists both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "patients," "vital signs," and "customer service. "While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "medical terminology," "phlebotomy," "ekg," and "rehabilitation" are skills that commonly show up on hospital medical assistant resumes. On the other hand, medical assistant/phlebotomists use skills like office procedures, venipuncture, phlebotomy procedures, and perform ekg on their resumes.The finance industry tends to pay the highest salaries for medical assistant/phlebotomists, with average annual pay of $35,745. Comparatively, the highest hospital medical assistant annual salary comes from the education industry.In general, medical assistant/phlebotomists hold similar degree levels compared to hospital medical assistants. Medical assistant/phlebotomists are 1.7% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of hospital medical assistant

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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