How to Get Medical Assistant Certification at Colleges the Right Way

Medical Assistant Job Description

Knowing what the Medical Assistant job description is can be of extreme importance before pursuing a career in medical assisting.  Let’s look at some of the basic duties you will be expected to do as a medical assistant.

Medical Assistant Job Description – What Does a Medical Assistant Do?

Medical Assistant Job DescriptionOn a daily basis, what you do as a medical assistant will vary. That is the very nature of the job, which is great if you like to have a bit of variety in your daily tasks.  Your job description will also vary depending on what position you hold within the office, as well as what type of medical office you are working in.

At its most basic level, you will be charged with direct medical assisting of the healthcare professionals in your office.  These tasks will include:

  • Rooming the patients
  • Taking vital signs such as weight, height, pulse, blood pressure, temperature and respiration
  • Taking the patients complaints, symptoms and reason for their visit
  • Running tests such as urinalysis and EKGs
  • Administering injections
  • Drawing blood

Depending on the office, you may have additional tasks such as writing prescriptions for the doctor to sign or writing referrals to specialists or for further testing.

Another part of the medical assistant job description will consist of explaining procedures to patients, going over special dietary needs, as well as explaining how to administer their medications correctly.

Medical Assistant Job Description – Administrative Medical Assistant Duties

While most of your focus as a CMA will consist of dealing with patients and procedures, you will also have many administrative duties to perform.

The smaller the number of staff in an office, the more tasks each individual staff member will be expected to cover.

You may be expected to perform basic filing duties if the office that you work in has not yet changed over to electronic filing systems. This sort of filing will mainly deal with putting patient charts back in their appropriate (alphebitized) places.

You may also be responsible for such things as filling out insurance authorizations for referrals that the doctor has recommended.

Other administrative medical assistant duties may include authorizing or calling in prescription refills, or notifying patients of test results.

Further Related In-Depth Articles:

While most of your focus as a CMA will consist of

dealing with patients and procedures, you will also

have many administrative duties to perform.

The smaller the number of staff in an office, the

more tasks each individual staff member will be

expected to cover.

You may be expected to perform basic filing duties if the office that you work in has not yet changed over to electronic filing systems. This sort of filing will mainly deal with putting patient charts back in their appropriate (alphebitized) places.

You may also be responsible for such things as filling out insurance authorizations for referrals that the doctor has recommended.

Other administrative medical assistant duties may include authorizing or calling in prescription refills, or notifying patients of test results.