Medical Assistant - Duties and Responsibilities

A medical assistant is a professional who helps other health professionals in various ways. A vocational school is the platform for this field. The course is actually a short one compared to some others connected to it. The individual who is studying to be one should know that he or she will also need to be registered and certified before they can practice. They are different from physician's assistants, who are actually qualified to do other more complex procedures that may involve surgery and therapy among other things.

What They Do

A medical assistant supports doctors and other health professionals. The support that he or she does comes in many forms, primarily that of presenting these professionals with details of the patients that they are there to check up on or visit. The details on these reports may include, but are not limited to, the patients' vital signs, keeping records of data gathered from individuals admitted in the hospitals, giving medicines and administering injections as per the orders of the attending doctors and the collection of the necessary samples from patients that are needed to complete a test or a screening. They may also be allowed to take x-rays and do other more advanced things after they have completed a course or training program pertinent to it.

The medical assistant can take the vital signs of patients regularly to enable close monitoring of their health and well-being. The data from these will help the doctors assess and monitor their patients. These records will be kept for future references. The giving of medicines and the administering of injections can also be part of the duties that is included. In some states, these two tasks can only be done by those who have undergone special training or have taken a special test or screening. Other states also allow them to assist a surgeon or a physician in their routine tasks, such as a bevy of cosmetic treatments and remedies. These may include the administration of tumescent and local anesthesia, supervised incisions, dermal resurfacing using laser and many others.

Other than clinical or surgical duties, the medical assistant may also be tasked by his or her superiors with some administrative responsibilities. These duties may include, but are not limited to, the backup and filing of patients' records, filling up of health insurance paperwork, answering calls through the telephone, scheduling appointments, helping patients with hospital admittance and many others. The actual work that this individual may be expected to do may be dependent on what the agreement is between him or her and the hospital or doctor who hires them.
These are the more basic duties and responsibilities that a medical assistant is expected to do during work. Other responsibilities may be highlighted upon hiring and be discussed extensively and in detail as needed. Salary should also be discussed and clarified before any hiring is to be done to avoid any misunderstandings. This is necessary before any contract or agreement is to be finalized.