Patient service coordinator vs patient care assistant

The differences between patient service coordinators and patient care assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a patient service coordinator, becoming a patient care assistant takes usually requires 1-3 months. Additionally, a patient service coordinator has an average salary of $34,754, which is higher than the $32,799 average annual salary of a patient care assistant.

The top three skills for a patient service coordinator include patients, customer service and patient care. The most important skills for a patient care assistant are patients, vital signs, and PCA.

Patient service coordinator vs patient care assistant overview

	Patient Service Coordinator	Patient Care Assistant
Yearly salary	$34,754	$32,799
Hourly rate	$16.71	$15.77
Growth rate	-4%	9%
Number of jobs	100,708	261,345
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 43%	High School Diploma, 26%
Average age	40	42
Years of experience	4	3

What does a patient service coordinator do?

Patient services coordinators act as a liaison between a healthcare organization and patients. Their primary job is to provide quality service to patients. Their duties and responsibilities include fielding telephone calls from patients, assessing patients' issues, and interacting with team members, medical personnel, and employees from other departments. Also, they are responsible for ensuring compliance with regulatory and hospital requirements and maintaining quality service. Patient services coordinators must also ensure to maintain their technical knowledge by participating in personal networks, attending educational workshops, and reviewing professional publications.

What does a patient care assistant do?

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.

Patient service coordinator vs patient care assistant salary

Patient service coordinators and patient care assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Patient Service Coordinator	Patient Care Assistant
Average salary	$34,754	$32,799
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $43,000	Between $23,000 And $45,000
Highest paying City	Tacoma, WA	San Diego, CA
Highest paying state	California	Hawaii
Best paying company	County of Riverside	Microsoft
Best paying industry	Health Care	Health Care

Differences between patient service coordinator and patient care assistant education

There are a few differences between a patient service coordinator and a patient care assistant in terms of educational background:

	Patient Service Coordinator	Patient Care Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 43%	High School Diploma, 26%
Most common major	Business	Nursing
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Patient service coordinator vs patient care assistant demographics

Here are the differences between patient service coordinators' and patient care assistants' demographics:

	Patient Service Coordinator	Patient Care Assistant
Average age	40	42
Gender ratio	Male, 13.4% Female, 86.6%	Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 13.5% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 22.7% Asian, 7.1% White, 50.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	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%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between patient service coordinator and patient care assistant duties and responsibilities

Patient service coordinator example responsibilities.

Register patients for diagnostic testing, surgery, direct admissions from physician offices and new patient admissions for newborns.
Process release of information requests for patients and third party groups including outside providers, rehabilitation facilities, and law offices.
Schedule patients using state-of-the-art EMR, oversee physician calendar, correspondence, and communicate with referring physician offices.
Welcome patients as they arrive and perform check-in responsibilities: verifying, collecting and confirming insurance and demographic information.
Collect information from incoming patients regarding services need, verify insurance eligibility and determine patient financial liability, or financial status.
Perform interviews to gather necessary information for registration, admission and accurate prioritization of patients to assist medical staff with triage.

Patient care assistant example responsibilities.

Conduct and facilitate PCA lead group activities as scheduled
Assist patients in achieving independence and increase functional ability.
Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
Answer call lights, vital signs, EKG'S, transporting patients to other areas, keep rooms clean and orderly.
Provide high quality patient care as an in-demand per-diem RCA within, home-healthcare, nursing home settings and memory support care.
Work extensively with Alzheimer and dementia patients.

Patient service coordinator vs patient care assistant skills

Common patient service coordinator skills

Patients, 22%
Customer Service, 9%
Patient Care, 7%
Medical Terminology, 5%
Front Desk, 5%
Patient Flow, 4%

Common patient care assistant skills

Patients, 23%
Vital Signs, 9%
PCA, 8%
CPR, 7%
Home Health, 6%
Customer Service, 5%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Patient Service Coordinator
Patient Service Coordinator vs Patient Care Assistant

Updated January 8, 2025

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