What does a senior medical assistant do?
A senior medical assistant performs support tasks for physicians, nurses, and managers in a medical facility to ensure that patients get to receive optimal care and services. In general, they are responsible for handling calls and correspondence, preparing and processing documents, verifying patient information, liaising with external parties such as insurance providers, monitoring the inventory of medical supplies, and performing regular maintenance checks. Moreover, they must assist patients by answering inquiries, helping them in filling out forms, and making them feel comfortable throughout the procedures.
Senior medical assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior medical assistant resumes:
- Demonstrate clinical competency and compassion in providing care, using technology, performing procedures and managing emergencies.
- Demonstrate proficiency in triage, phlebotomy, injections and various diagnostic procedures and ancillary tests.
- Prioritize data entry daily to ensure patients labs and procedure results are immediately available for access.
- Require to deliver daily lecture & clinical, teach CPR, typing, and hands-on lab.
- Post insurance and patient payments, cash applications, and cash posting (EOB & EFT).
- Help implement practice's quality assurance and control program ensuring compliance of HIPAA, CLIA, and OSHA regulations.
- Review patient information and documentation in accordance with HIPAA regulations.
- Screen incoming patients, perform patient examinations, assist in routine medical problems and assist in administering medications.
- Perform phlebotomy procedures and administer immunizations.
- Coordinate hospital emergency logistics preparedness requirements.
- Learned CPT codes, diagnoses, and medical terminology, billing coding for insurances, lab codes and protocols.
- Provide primary care for neurology inpatients.
- Report clinically significant and non-clinically significant findings to IRB.
- Establish new laboratory procedures for genotyping requests and database collections.
- Perform all protocol specific regulatory duties from initial submission to IRB to final study close-out.
Senior medical assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Senior 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 Senior Medical Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 14%
Screened incoming patients, performed patient examinations, assisted in routine medical problems and assisted in administering medications.
- Vital Signs, 8%
Performed vital signs and recorded in electronic medical records.
- Patient Care, 8%
Provided clinical office support to all physicians & surgeons and administrative duties necessary to deliver quality patient care.
- Exam Rooms, 5%
Ensured exam rooms are prepared for patient visits, scheduled laboratory tests and complete necessary forms for physician referrals and hospitalizations.
- CPR, 5%
Required to deliver daily lecture & clinical, teach CPR, typing, and hands-on lab.
- Phlebotomy, 4%
Performed phlebotomy procedures and administered immunizations.
"patients," "vital signs," and "patient care" are among the most common skills that senior medical assistants use at work. You can find even more senior medical assistant responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a senior medical assistant to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what senior medical assistants do because "medical assistants must be able to understand and follow medical charts and diagnoses." Additionally, a senior medical assistant resume shows how senior medical assistants use analytical skills: "performed administration and clerical duties such as data entry, and telephone services. "
Detail oriented. Another essential skill to perform senior medical assistant duties is detail oriented. Senior medical assistants responsibilities require that "medical assistants need to be precise when taking vital signs or recording patient information." Senior medical assistants also use detail oriented in their role according to a real resume snippet: "coordinated daily supervision of five medical assistants oriented and trained new staff. "
Interpersonal skills. senior medical assistants are also known for interpersonal skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to senior medical assistant responsibilities, because "medical assistants need to be able to discuss patient information with other medical personnel, such as physicians." A senior medical assistant resume example shows how interpersonal skills is used in the workplace: "answer & resolve patient billing inquires (interpersonal and via phone). "
Technical skills. senior 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 senior medical assistants do with technical skills on a typical day: "supported duties for diagnostic and technical treatment procedures, such as setting up and operating special medical equipment and apparatus. "
The three companies that hire the most senior medical assistants are:
- Houston Methodist52 senior medical assistants jobs
- HCR ManorCare39 senior medical assistants jobs
- Highmark27 senior medical assistants jobs
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Compare different senior medical assistants
Senior 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.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between senior medical assistants and medical scribe. For instance, senior medical assistant responsibilities require skills such as "exam rooms," "cpr," "phlebotomy," and "customer service." Whereas a medical scribe is skilled in "excellent organizational," "physician assistants," "strong work ethic," and "emergency medicine." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Medical scribes earn the highest salaries when working in the health care industry, with an average yearly salary of $29,968. On the other hand, senior medical assistants are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $39,542.medical scribes tend to reach similar levels of education than senior medical assistants. In fact, medical scribes are 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Senior 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.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior medical assistant resumes. While senior medical assistant responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "medical assistants," "emr," and "venipuncture," medical interns use skills like "powerpoint," "emergency room," "physical exams," and "obstetrics."
Medical interns earn similar levels of education than senior medical assistants in general. They're 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior 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.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior medical assistants are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "medical assistants," "venipuncture," and "data entry." But a doctor assistant is more likely to have skills like "dr," "computer system," "physical therapy," and "insurance forms."
Doctor assistants typically earn similar educational levels compared to senior medical assistants. Specifically, they're 1.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior medical assistant vs. Medical administrator
Updated January 8, 2025
