#HiringHealthCare

Sumner College is growing and we are now recruiting for a Medical Assistant Instructor. As a Medical Assisting Instructor you will teach classes for the medical assisting program, assist in developing curriculum, grading examinations, answering student questions and training students to be the best in their career. Through support and coaching, the instructor will promote and direct successful student learning. While complying with all state and federal laws. Interested candidates, contact Human Resources at 503.972-6230.

Phlebotomy Trends

Nearly all healthcare organizations now require certification.

Hospitals, laboratories and other employers have an increasing demand for phlebotomists, especially those who are certified. 93% encourage or require certification for phlebotomy technicians (CPT), and 80% report that their technicians are certified.

If you’re on the fence about certification, here’s something to consider: 63% of institutions increase pay when an employee earns a professional certification.

It’s easy to see why certification is so valuable. It helps prove you have the knowledge and skills demanded in this profession. In addition to drawing blood for tests, transfusions, donations, medical procedures, and research, some phlebotomy technicians also perform point of care testing, such as blood glucose levels.

Phlebotomy is a promising career with a median pay of $33,670. As stated previously, certification can improve your chances of being higher on that pay range. If you’re on the job search, or preparing for a career in phlebotomy, it’s important to know what employers are looking for. Some of the top screening criteria include certification, completion of an accredited phlebotomy training, years of experience, and a high school diploma or equivalent.

Average Medical Assistant Pay vs. Other Best Jobs

According to a US News and World Salary Report

Salary Range for Medical Assisting

According to the NHA, Medical Assistants earn a median salary of $32,480 .

Source: Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Professionalism, verbal communication, and critical thinking are the most important soft skills desired by employers of Medical Assistants

Free up to 3 hours of doctors’ time daily with smart use of MAs

What would you do with three more hours each day? Trained medical assistants (MAs) integrated into your medical practice can free up to three hours of physicians’ time daily—if they take on the right tasks.

Medical assistants are under-utilized in most medical practices, according to Marie Brown, MD, director of practice redesign at the AMA. Dr. Brown is a professor emeritus at Rush University and a practicing physician in internal medicine. She presented tips on recruitment and retention of medical assistants during a recent session that is part of the AMA STEPS Forward™ webinar series that focuses on physician well-being, practice redesign, and implementing telehealth during COVID-19.

The series also provides various toolkits that off real-world solutions, success stories and downloadable resources that address common practice challenges.

Dr. Brown said many of the daily practice tasks that physicians perform do not require a physician’s level of expertise, such as record keeping, medication review, pending routine orders and identifying care gaps. These can be performed by another member of the medical team, such as a medical assistant.

Properly assigned medical assistants can free up to three hours a day from a physician’s schedule by taking some of the administrative and clinical tasks and allow a physician to focus more time on direct interaction with patients, she said.

However, making best use of medical assistants can pose some challenges. Staffing can be difficult, she noted. “There’s just not enough of them. The ideal staffing ratio may be two MAs to every one physician or clinician. But what I hear from around the country is there are not enough assistants to hire.”

Dr. Brown said in order to recruit and retain MAs, practice managers need to understand the various ways employees can become MAs, determine the best role for MAs in a certain practice, make a good business case for MAs in a practice, and then develop a plan to onboard and retain trained MAs.

While MAs generally do not need to be licensed or certified by law, their scope of work and state regulatory requirements vary from state to state and practice to practice. Types of certification include the certified medical assistant (CMA), registered medical assistant (RMA), and certified clinical medical assistant (CCMA).

Medical assistants can qualify in several ways to sit for a certifying exam.

• Apprenticeship, usually lasting five years (High school graduate with on-the-job training, with the physician attesting to their role).
• Formal MA training programs that take nine months to two years.
• Military training.
• Experience as an MA instructor.

MAs can be involved in pre-appointment agenda setting, documenting the chief complaint and history of present illness, reviewing medications and helping physicians in the exam room. Many MAs around the country—following protocols—help identify care gaps such as a need for a screening mammogram, routine blood tests such as hemoglobin A1c, and pend these orders.

It is important to match individual MA skills to tasks, because training and background varies so widely. Case studies indicate that practices using MAs saw time to provide care go down and patient and physician satisfaction go up—along with revenue, Dr. Brown said.

When you have recruited, trained and integrated an MA into your practice, it is important to develop a plan for continuous professional development and a career progression ladder with different titles, levels and skill sets, she added.

Return on investment increases as MAs progress along a defined career development and job title path, she said. Titles can be simple stages such as MA I, II and III or more descriptive, such as team care coordinator and lead MA.

Pursue your next career as a MA by enrolling today at Sumner College’s Medical Assisting program. Classes start soon.