Healthcare and the Professional Medical Assistant - Comprehensive Study Notes

Introduction

  • Medical assistant (MA): A multi-skilled healthcare professional with
    • High ethical standards
    • Integrity
    • The ability to complete work accurately and in a timely manner
  • Professionalism: Maintenance of courtesy, conscientiousness, and respect
    • Toward patients and coworkers

Customer Service

  • Customers in healthcare
    • Internal customers: coworkers
    • External customers: patients
  • Customer service: What we do for our customers to improve their experiences
  • Customer satisfaction: The goal of customer service; customers’ sense of contentment and needs being met

Patient-Centered Care

  • Partnering with the patient and the patient’s family
    • Respecting unique needs, values, preferences, and right to make decisions about own care
  • Adherence: The act of sticking to something; improved with a patient-centered care approach

Medical Assistant’s Role

  • MA is cross-trained in administrative and clinical duties
    • May focus solely on administrative or clinical duties
  • Common administrative duties (examples include): scheduling, medical records management, billing, patient communication, front desk duties, documentation, coordination
  • Common medical duties (examples include): assisting clinicians, rooming patients, vitals, specimen collection, basic procedures
  • Most work in ambulatory care settings

Growing Trends in Healthcare

  • Care coordination (team-based approach)
    • Care coordinator role: communication, follow-up
    • Patient navigator role: guides chronically ill patients through the healthcare system
  • Home visits: MA duties commonly include tasks performed during visits at patients' homes
  • Scribes: enter dictated information into the EHR during the visit
  • Telemedicine: MA duties in telehealth environments (preparation, remote support, documentation, tech checks)

Delegation

  • Delegation involves provider-specified tasks for the MA
  • Scope of practice: delineation of procedures, actions, and processes that individuals in specific occupations are permitted to perform
    • Often dictated by state law

Characteristics of Professional Medical Assistants

  • Key attributes:
    • Courtesy
    • Respect
    • Dignity
    • Empathy
    • Compassion
    • Tact
    • Diplomacy
    • Respect for individual diversity
    • Honesty
    • Dependability
    • Reliability

Professional Appearance

  • Typical dress code for MAs: scrubs; facility name tag and photo
  • Adequate coverage at neckline, abdomen, and below the waist during movement
  • Distinctions: business attire vs casual attire

Characteristics of Professional Team Members

  • Strong work ethic
  • Punctuality
  • Initiative
  • Reliability
  • Cooperation and willingness to help
  • Ability to prioritize
  • Time management skills
  • Ability to receive and respond to criticism appropriately
  • Ability to solve problems with others
  • Knowledge of the chain of command

Continuing Education

  • Education beyond the MA degree
  • Often required for renewal of credentials
  • Opportunities: on-the-job and offsite conferences; reading professional journals; professional organization membership

Achieving a Credential

  • Credentialing options
  • May be required by some employers
  • Benefits of credentialing:
    • Demonstration of knowledge
    • Increased pay

Barriers to Professionalism

  • Bringing personal problems to work
  • Gossiping
  • Engaging in personal communication during work (email, text, phone, social media)
  • Being online for non-work-related activity

Healthcare System

  • An organized plan of healthcare services for the public
  • Provided in different locations and types of settings throughout the community

Types of Care Settings

  • Acute care: hospital, inpatient surgery, emergency department
  • Ambulatory care: outpatient settings such as medical offices, clinics, urgent cares, ambulatory surgical centers, hospital outpatient departments, dialysis centers
  • Providers: physician, physician assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs)
  • Primary care: pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology (ob/gyn)
  • Different healthcare delivery models

Patient-Centered Medical Home

  • Used in many ambulatory care settings
  • Primary care provider coordinates patient’s treatment and care
  • Goals: improved care, reduced costs
  • Team members: primary care provider, MA, RN, pharmacist, behavioral health specialist, receptionist

Patient-Aligned Care Team (PACT)

  • Designed and used by the Veterans’ Administration (VA)
  • Healthcare team works with patient over time for life-long health, wellness, and disease prevention
  • Key components: (not detailed in the transcript provided)

Extended Care

  • Care delivered in a non-hospital setting
  • Services include:
    • Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs)
    • Home healthcare
    • Hospice care
    • Respite care

Population Health

  • Focus: improving health outcomes of a population while controlling costs
  • Core activities:
    • Health promotion and disease prevention
    • Chronic disease management
    • Screening and early detection
  • Roles of medical assistants:
    • Health record reviews
    • Care coordination
    • Coaching

Types of Practices (1 of 2)

  • Solo: owner owns and manages the practice
  • Group: two or more providers practice together
    • Single specialty (e.g., pediatrics group practice)
    • Multi-specialty
  • Association: legal agreement among providers regarding shared expenses; no shared income or legal risks
  • Partnership: two or more providers own the practice; share income and legal risks

Types of Practices (2 of 2)

  • Employed provider: provider is an employee
    • Hospital-owned practice
    • Integrated delivery systems
    • Healthcare corporations

Alternative and Complementary Providers

  • Complementary: non-conventional healthcare practices used in conjunction with conventional healthcare practices
  • Alternative: non-conventional healthcare practices used in place of conventional healthcare practices
  • Some types of providers include:
    • Acupressurists
    • Acupuncturists
    • Chiropractors
    • Massage therapists

G.I.V.E. (Patient Interaction Framework)

  • Greet the patient: identify yourself by name and position
  • Verify the patient’s identity: ask for name and date of birth (DOB)
  • Explain what you’ll be doing: communicate in understandable language

Questions?

  • End of provided content, with courtesy to ask questions