Trends and Changes in the Profession

A little while back, around the late 1990s, or so, the expectations of the medical assistant began to change. The changes were very subtle. They mostly affected how medical assistants were seen and utilized in the medical office. However, as medicine, laws, and technology progressed the doctors changed the way they run their practice and do business.

Today... the vast majority of employers are no longer satisfied with the training level from OJT (on the job), and non-accredited, unrecognized training programs (according to D. Rincon, Head Instructor for medical assisting training and certification, San Francisco City College, 2004).

Doctors have realized the value a medical assistant brings to their practice and the community, and will fill various positions in their practice with well trained, professional medical assisting staff. Soon, there will be at least one, or two medical assistant for every doctor and specialist in the medical field, and eventually even assistants for assistants.

Upcoming Medical Assistants

Although graduation from an accredited program is not always required most upcoming medical assistants want to start off on the right path by starting off from a recognized vocational training program and then getting certified as soon as possible. The right education and training will pay off in such a big way that it is almost impossible to explain it in just a few words.

Changes In The Medical Office

The ever growing need to comply with government regulations, and the rapidly escalating risk of litigation forced medical offices and facilities to implement now procedures into their office management routine. One goal was to make patient records paperless and automate information management.

A modern medical office must also must keep abreast with the newest administrative and technical procedures, and computer skills. Computer programs are used in every kind of healthcare setting for many different tasks, including word processing, financial spreadsheets and databases to handle billing, scheduling, account updating, insurance processing and medical transcription.

What Will The Future Bring?

Medical assistant instructors, supervisors, employers, and state legislators are beginning to advocate more regulation, task specific training, and even licensing of medical assistant professionals in the USA.

Certain US states mandate that medical assistants are certified to perform needle injections; such as for allergy testing, purified protein derivative (PPD) testing, or Mantoux skin tests. Other states require medical assistants to have special training if their job requires them to expose patients to X-rays, and those with blood drawing responsibilities in California, and who perform point of care testing in Georgia are required to be certified.

Medical Assistants and IV Tubing

Medical assistants in Alaska are not permitted to insert urinary catheters, start IV tubing, and administer medications into an IV unless they are specifically trained and certified in their field. More and more medical assistants are embracing these new concepts and trends and voluntarily sit for various certification and credentialing exams as a first step to a new future.

 Discuss: Licensing of Medical Assistants