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The differences between patient care assistants and patient services assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-3 months to become both a patient care assistant and a patient services assistant. Additionally, a patient services assistant has an average salary of $33,879, which is higher than the $32,799 average annual salary of a patient care assistant.
The top three skills for a patient care assistant include patients, vital signs and PCA. The most important skills for a patient services assistant are patients, customer service, and patient care.
| Patient Care Assistant | Patient Services Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $32,799 | $33,879 |
| Hourly rate | $15.77 | $16.29 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 261,345 | 273,881 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Bachelor's Degree, 26% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 3 | 3 |
A patient care assistant is responsible for attending patients' needs with the supervision of a health care professional. Duties of a patient care assistant also include performing basic medical tasks such as taking patients' temperature, monitoring food intake, preparing medicines, recording health conditions, assisting on lab tests and other medical procedures, and providing information and important updates to the patient's family. A patient care assistant must have excellent time-management and multi-tasking skills to perform duties efficiently and accurately.
A patient services assistant is responsible for handling initial patients' assessments by scheduling appointments. They also are responsible for processing patients' referrals to the appropriate medical professional and admission payments, validating health insurance details, recording patient's information on the database, and assessing medical history and related health information. A patient services assistant also responds to the patients' inquiries and concerns, provides health services recommendations, and processes medical procedures. A patient services assistant must have excellent communication and time-management skills and the ability to perform administrative and clerical tasks as needed.
Patient care assistants and patient services assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Patient Care Assistant | Patient Services Assistant | |
| Average salary | $32,799 | $33,879 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $45,000 | Between $24,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Diego, CA | San Mateo, CA |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | California |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Adobe |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Government |
There are a few differences between a patient care assistant and a patient services assistant in terms of educational background:
| Patient Care Assistant | Patient Services Assistant | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Bachelor's Degree, 26% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between patient care assistants' and patient services assistants' demographics:
| Patient Care Assistant | Patient Services Assistant | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% | Male, 18.2% Female, 81.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 15.3% Asian, 7.3% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% | Black or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 17.9% Asian, 7.1% White, 58.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |