What Do Medical Assistants Do?

The medical assistant is an important link between the patient and the healthcare delivery system and provides essential support in the areas of patient care, medical and lab procedures, records management and office administration.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, medical assistants held about 387,000 jobs in 2004. It is the medical assistant's responsibility to keep the office's work flow going in all areas of the medical office and provide services and support that contributes to the total care and well-being of the healthcare provider's patients.

Job training and career development programs prepare medical assistant students to work in a wide variety of healthcare environments including medical offices, clinics, laboratories, blood banks, state health facilities, and many more places where licensed healthcare practitioners need a helping hand.

Who's In Charge?

Typically the physician is the leading capacity in the medical office and therefore is the one in charge of the medical assistant, this includes ophthalmologists, audiologists, podiatrists, etc, but also nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who own and run their own medical practices to provide healthcare services to the community and hire medical assistants.

   Medical Assistants Can: