What does a medical assistant do?
Medical assistants provide support to medical practitioners in both administrative and clerical tasks. They keep and update the patient's medical records, administer medicines under the supervision of a physician, assist during medical examinations, prepare medical samples for laboratory testing, manage the schedule of appointments, and assist the patients with their bills and in filling out needed forms, such as insurance-related documents. Medical assistants should have good communication skills and analytical skills, be organized, and be flexible. They should also have knowledge of how to operate some medical equipment such as x-ray machines.
Medical assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real medical assistant resumes:
- Create and maintain confidential patient files; implement EHR systems to automate patient records management for the purposes of meaningful use.
- Adhere to OSHA guidelines while performing instrument sterilization in addition to managing medical inventory.
- Participate in emergency surgical intervention in obstetrics and gynecology patients.
- Demonstrate proficiency in taking patient history and vitals, venipuncture, injections, urinalysis and preparing examination trays.
- Attend to new out patients in gynecology clinic, make clinical diagnosis and follow up.
- Provide RMA support to physician, and patients, including but not limit to vitals and patient history.
- Help assist Dr in taking back patients, getting vitals, getting patient prepare before Dr come in.
- Back office duties - vital signs, blood draw, EKG, vaccination, TB test, and urinalysis etc.
- Perform test such as EKG's, urinalysis, rapid strep test, glucose, influenza, and peak flow testing.
- Direct patient care regarding cast/splint application and modifications, patient education, post operative care, wind care, suture removal.
- Assist in reconstructive surgery and perform basic medical and surgical procedures.
- Perform triage of newly register patients and interview patients to obtain medical information and record in electronic medical records.
- Assist medical staff in billing, updating medical records, and adhering to HIPAA requirements-complete while maintaining exceptional customer service.
- Provide patient education, contraceptive and STI counseling, obtain patient histories, venipuncture and laboratory testing, medical records and billing
- Wet bench research with multiple assays and PCR.
Medical assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Medical Assistants are proficient in Patients, Vital Signs, and Patient Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Detail oriented, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Medical Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 20%
Prepared samples for laboratory analysis and filed laboratory reports, communicated laboratory results to patients.
- Vital Signs, 10%
Demonstrated proficiency in taking patient medical histories and vital signs while preparing patients for examinations and treatments.
- Patient Care, 9%
Worked under direct supervision of the podiatrist providing excellent patient care and customer service following clinical policies and procedures.
- Phlebotomy, 4%
Advised and counseled families, assisted in medical and laboratory procedures, including phlebotomy, injections and circumcision.
- CPR, 4%
Completed continuing education courses to maintain CPR certification while continually improving skills.
- EKG, 4%
Filed results of lab tests, x-rays, EKG's, and other information about the patient into their medical records.
Common skills that a medical assistant uses to do their job include "patients," "vital signs," and "patient care." You can find details on the most important medical assistant responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a 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 medical assistant resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "assist with clerical activities related to appointment scheduling and patient intake, data verification, office communication and updating patient records. "
Detail oriented. Many medical assistant duties rely on detail oriented. "medical assistants need to be precise when taking vital signs or recording patient information," so a medical assistant will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways medical assistant responsibilities rely on detail oriented: "back office medical assisting, poc testing, detailed medication authorizations, appointment scheduling, patient phone calls. "
Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for medical assistants to perform their duties. For an example of how medical assistant responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "medical assistants need to be able to discuss patient information with other medical personnel, such as physicians." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a medical assistant: "helped with interpersonalskills and grow compassion for patient. ".
Technical skills. medical assistant responsibilities often require "technical skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "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." This resume example shows what medical assistants do with technical skills on a typical day: "support duties for diagnostic and technical treatment procedures, such as setting up special medical equipment and apparatus. "
The three companies that hire the most medical assistants are:
- Kaiser Group Inc591 medical assistants jobs
- UnitedHealth Group588 medical assistants jobs
- Women's Care425 medical assistants jobs
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Compare different medical assistants
Medical assistant vs. Certified medical assistant/certified nurse assistant
A certified medical assistant (CMA) or certified nurse assistant (CNA) is a healthcare professional who performs clinical and administrative duties in clinics or medical facilities. Certified medical assistants provide excellent customer service to patients arriving and departing from the medical facility and administer injections or medications to their patients. In administrative duties, certified medical assistants are tasked to help clients submit insurance claims and encode medical records to the computer system. They also can work with specialized physicians such as ophthalmologists and podiatrists.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between medical assistants and certified medical assistant/certified nurse assistant. For instance, medical assistant responsibilities require skills such as "patient care," "phlebotomy," "office procedures," and "patient flow." Whereas a certified medical assistant/certified nurse assistant is skilled in "rehabilitation," "quality care," "direct patient care," and "infection control." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Certified medical assistants/certified nurse assistants earn the highest salaries when working in the health care industry, with an average yearly salary of $34,559. On the other hand, medical assistants are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $34,502.On average, certified medical assistants/certified nurse assistants reach similar levels of education than medical assistants. Certified medical assistants/certified nurse assistants are 0.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Medical assistant vs. Medical internship
When it comes to a medical internship, one of the primary duties is to attend to the patients' needs while under a more experienced physician's supervision. During this period, the medical interns must rotate in various fields of specialties or departments for exposure. Aside from learning and observing, there are also instances when medical interns are required to produce necessary reports and documentation, communicate with patients and families, and take part in more challenging cases.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that medical assistant responsibilities requires skills like "customer service," "office procedures," "patient flow," and "treatment rooms." But a medical internship might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "surgery," "powerpoint," "pediatrics," and "emergency room."
In general, medical interns achieve similar levels of education than medical assistants. They're 3.8% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for medical assistants in the next 3-5 years?
Michael Williams Ph.D.
Director and Associate Professor, Eastern Michigan University
The electronic health record (EHR) integration continues to build in decision aids and artificial intelligence for making better decisions. The EHR has made accessing patient information more available to other practitioners and patients themselves. Another technology that will continue to expand in use is a point of care testing (POC). POC allows for greater flexibility to meet the patient wherever they are, and will see continued expansion. And perhaps, the technology that has indeed expanded, out of necessity during the pandemic, is telehealth.
While telehealth has been available for many years, particularly in rural areas, it wasn't nearly as common in high population areas--patients were expected to go to the provider. Telehealth can eliminate many unnecessary "non-emergency" visits to emergency rooms and can be available, quite easily, in off-hours.
Medical assistant vs. Medical scribe
As a medical scribe, their main responsibility is to follow a physician's daily work and do charting of patient encounters in real-time by accessing their medical electronic health record (EHR). It is their duty to make sure the patient schedules are followed, generate referral letters for physicians and manage and sort medical documents within the EHR. Medical scribes can be held as data custodians, medical assistants, and nurses to focus on patient in-take and care throughout clinic hours. In addition, they manage patient flow through the clinic and increase productivity to cater to more patients.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, medical assistants are more likely to have skills like "phlebotomy," "cpr," "customer service," and "exam rooms." But a medical scribe is more likely to have skills like "excellent organizational," "physician assistants," "strong work ethic," and "emergency medicine."
Medical scribes earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $29,968. Medical assistants earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $34,502.When it comes to education, medical scribes tend to earn similar degree levels compared to medical assistants. In fact, they're 2.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Medical assistant vs. Student medical assistant-externship
Student Medical Assistant Externship is a broad term for catering students for short, reliable, and practical work experience. Once you graduate, you can get a chance to meet contacts that may be useful for your career. You can have a better chance to work in a clinic, hospital, and any medical platform after going through this kind of externship.
Types of medical assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
