Medical Assistant

Medical Assistant

A hands-on role with room to grow. As a Medical Assistant at Hardwick Area Health Center, you'll support clinical procedures, room patients, assist with documentation, and help coordinate carebuilding a strong foundation across both clinical and administrative functions. This role offers meaningful opportunities to expand your skills, learn from experienced providers, and grow your career within a mission-driven healthcare organization that invests in your development.

The Medical Assistant is administratively responsible to the Nurse Manager and works under the daily direction and clinical orders of the provider staff. Medical Assistants provide a wide range of clinical and administrative support to healthcare providers in a community-based setting. They play a crucial role in ensuring efficient and patient-centered care, from patient intake and vital signs to assisting with procedures and maintaining medical records.

This position has no direct supervisory responsibilities.

Essential Job Functions/Responsibilities:

• Clinical Functions
  • Patient care
    • Maintains patient, staff confidentiality according to Northern Counties Health Care policy and state and federal law.
    • Review charts prior to patient's scheduled appointment to assure that all requested lab work and diagnostic procedures have been completed and that reports have been returned and accessible to the provider.
    • Obtains and records patient vital signs, height, weight and reason for visit. Performs vision screening and test for color blindness, includes patient education materials as necessary.
    • Directs patients to exam rooms; assists in preparing patients for examination
    • Assists providers with patient examinations and procedures
    • Interacts with patients regarding clinical complaints for effective and immediate response and resolution. Refers any patient complaint to Nurse Manager/ Practice Manager for resolution.
    • Carries out appointments for patients requiring blood pressure checks, throat cultures as prescribed by the provider
    • Recognizes emergency situations, seeks assistance and intervenes appropriately
    • Documents care actions and patient responses in the electronic medical record,
    • Organizes and prioritizes care with minimal assistance.
    • Maintains patient education literature for distribution.
  • Specimen collection
    • Performs venipuncture following successful training
    • Performs capillary stick, collects urine specimens, performs testing for occult blood in stool. Handles all specimens using Standard Precautions, infection control and hazardous waste removal practices, may perform PT/INR finger stick.
    • Completes lab forms through Computerized Physician Order Entry. Processes laboratory samples and ships to reference labs
  • Diagnostic testing
    • Performs EKGs, pulmonary function tests
• Administrative Functions
  • Participates in quality assurance activities and all training seminars.
  • Orders all medical supplies, verifies shipments, resolves backorders and initiates returns, as appropriate.
  • Ensures adequate supply of clean linens.
  • Perform quality checks on all office clinical machines. Reports equipment malfunction to the Practice Manager.
  • Assists nursing in quality control of medications by checking expired medications.
• Fundamental Procedures
  • Sets up for patient exam, instrument trays for procedures, including sterile procedures.
  • Cleans, wraps and sterilizes instruments. Takes wrapped instruments to sterile processing as appropriate within the practice. Cleans and monitors the sterilization equipment.
  • Keeps nursing area, lab area, medical storage area, patient exam rooms stocked, clean and orderly.
• Performs similar or related duties as requested.

The above statements are intended to be a representative summary of the major duties and responsibilities performed by incumbents of this job. The incumbents may be requested to perform job-related tasks other than those stated in this description.

Position Qualifications:

• High school diploma or equivalent required
• Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers certification required upon employment and must be maintained
• Minimum one-year experience in a community health center, medical office, or similar setting preferred
• Certification from an approved course of medical assistant or nursing assistant study preferred
• Familiarity with public health and community health issues
• Effective verbal and written communication skills appropriate to diverse patient populations
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team setting with staff at all organizational levels
• Skilled in multitasking, handling interruptions, and managing unexpected situations
• Basic medical office lab test competency required
• Computer literacy required, including Microsoft Word, internet/intranet, EMR systems, and keyboarding
• Working knowledge of ICD-9/10 and CPT coding preferred
• Knowledge of and adherence to Standard Precautions
• Ability to maintain confidentiality
• Physically able to lift up to 50 pounds, stand/walk for long periods, and respond to emergency situations
• Exposure to bodily fluids and communicable diseases possible; must be able to work under stress and irregular hours when needed