Medical Assistant

Job Summary

The Medical Assistant is administratively responsible to the Nurse Manager and works under the daily direction and clinical orders of the provider staff. This role provides a wide range of clinical and administrative support to healthcare providers in a community-based setting, playing a crucial role in ensuring efficient and patient-centered care.

Essential Job Functions/Responsibilities

• Patient care
• Maintains patient, staff confidentiality according to Northern Counties Health Care policy and state and federal law.
• Reviews charts prior to patient’s scheduled appointment to ensure all requested lab work and diagnostic procedures have been completed and reports have been returned and accessible to the provider.
• Obtains and records patient vital signs, height, weight, and reason for visit.
• Performs vision screening and test for color blindness, includes patient education materials as necessary.
• Directs patients to exam rooms; assists in preparing patients for examination.
• Affixes to providers with patient examinations and procedures.
• Interacts with patients regarding clinical complaints for effective and immediate response and resolution.
• Refers any patient complaint to Nurse Manager/Practice Manager for resolution.
• Carrries out appointments for patients requiring blood pressure checks, throat cultures as prescribed by the provider.
• Documents care actions and patient responses in the electronic medical record.
• Organizes and prioritizes care with minimal assistance.
• Maintains patient education literature for distribution.
• Specimen collection
• Performs venipuncture following successful training.
• Carries out capillary stick, collects urine specimens, performs testing for occult blood in stool.
• Handles all specimens using Standard Precautions, infection control and hazardous waste removal practices, may perform PT/INR finger stick.
• Completes lab forms through Computerized Physician Order Entry.
• Processes laboratory samples and ships to reference labs.
• Diagnostic testing
• Performs EKGs, pulmonary function tests.
• Administrative Functions
• Participates in quality assurance activities and all training seminars.
• Orders all medical supplies, verifies shipments, resolves backorders and initiates returns, as appropriate.
• Ensures adequate supply of clean linens.
• Performs quality checks on all office clinical machines.
• Reports equipment malfunction to the Practice Manager.
• Aids nursing in quality control of medications by checking expired medications.
• Fundamental Procedures
• Sets up for patient exam, instrument trays for procedures, including sterile procedures.
• Cleans, wraps and sterilizes instruments.
• Takes wrapped instruments to sterile processing as appropriate within the practice.
• Cleans and monitors the sterilization equipment.
• Keeps nursing area, lab area, medical storage area, patient exam rooms stocked, clean and orderly.
• Performs similar or related duties as requested.

Position Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers certification required upon employment and must be maintained.
• Minimum one-year experience in a community health center, medical office, or similar setting preferred.
• Certification from an approved course of medical assistant or nursing assistant study preferred.
• Familiarity with public health and community health issues.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills appropriate to diverse patient populations.
• Skilled in multitasking, handling interruptions, and managing unexpected situations.
• Basic medical office lab test competency required.
• Computer literacy required, including Microsoft Word, internet/intranet, EMR systems, and keyboarding.
• Working knowledge of ICD-9/10 and CPT coding preferred.
• Knowledge of and adherence to Standard Precautions.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Physically able to lift up to 50 pounds, stand/walk for long periods, and respond to emergency situations.
• Exposure to bodily fluids and communicable diseases possible; must be able to work under stress and irregular hours when needed.