Medical assistant jobs in Houston are on the rise as the demand for healthcare and the number of patients an office serves increases. Medical assistant jobs typically involve various day-to-day operations within a healthcare facility, including organizing administrative duties, handling various workflow tasks and generally keeping the office running smoothly. In Houston and elsewhere, the most successful and sought-after medical assistants are poised and flexible, especially in the event of an emergency or other high-stress situation, follow strict policies and guidelines to the letter, and can develop a good rapport with patients and patient families.
While the duties of a medical assistant are varied, they generally involve tasks within a physician’s office or a hospital. A medical assistant is generally responsible for clerical work, such as maintaining patient records, setting appointments, answering the office phone, managing insurance forms, and scheduling tests to be administered. A medical assistant is not the same as a physician’s assistant. A physician’s assistant is a degreed medical health provider who is licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of a doctor. However, in some cases, a medical assistant may be trained by a physician or nurse to perform basic clinical duties, including patient care, blood work, injections, and vital signs.
Medical assistant jobs in Houston are prolific and people qualified to perform such work are highly sought after in the healthcare profession. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least 60 percent of medical assistants work in physicians’ offices, and the rest work at hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient facilities, as well as residential care facilities.
An excellent way to prepare for a career as a medical assistant in Houston is to enroll in a community college or technical school that offers a Medical Assistant training program. Most courses may include curriculum that covers medical terminology, anatomy, lab techniques, clinical procedures, typing, accounting, and insurance processing. In the past, many medical assistants received primarily on-the-job training, as opposed to attending classes in a school setting. This has become more uncommon as educational avenues increased in number, and now there are accredited medical assistant programs that require a professional internship prior to graduation. In some cases, medical assistants may be allowed to conduct highly advanced clinical work after receiving specialized training from an accredited program, as well as completion of an exam.
The number of Medical assistant jobs in Houston is constantly growing, and these trained professionals are in high demand in the healthcare industry. Medical assistants, especially those qualified to perform clinical duties, are valuable assets to hospitals and clinics, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted that opportunities for medical assistants will grow by 35 percent by the end of 2016.
