Table of Contents
It is common for people to ask what are medical assistant duties in hospitals?
After all, many MAs work in hospitals, so it makes sense they want to know what they will be doing there.
Medical assistants will be given a variety of duties in hospitals.
Different hospitals will assign different duties to medical assistants and this means that some will have clerical duties while others will have clinical jobs.
However, some hospitals will assign MAs to both clinical and clerical duties.
Let’s jump right in and start with clinical medical assistant responsibilities.
Clinical Medical Assistant Duties in Hospitals
When an MA works in a hospital they will be assigned clinical duties that are based on what the patient needs on the floor they have been admitted to.
In most cases, medical assistants are hired to work in specific units of the hospital and are therefore assigned to that unit.
This gives the MA a chance to focus and specialize in one kind of care for their patients put on that ward and for other healthcare providers.
It will sometimes require additional training in order to specialize. This training will often be provided on the job by some hospitals when an MA works in a particular unit.
In other cases, they may be sent to training programs that take place off-site called externships or clinical practicums. To learn more about this read our guide to medical assistant programs.
Lots of patients are commonly admitted for multiple days of treatment and for this reason the medical assistant will be responsible for helping the patient with their daily living activities.
This includes:
- Getting in and out of bed
- Transporting around hospital (in wheelchair usually)
- Going to the toilet
- Bathing
- Grooming
- Serving meals
- Feeding (if the patient is unable to feed themselves)
In some cases, they will help with physical therapy and help them to do exercises that have been recommended.
It is sometimes the responsibility of the MA to transport patients from one place to another within the hospital.
Some patients will need to be repositioned in bed and others will need help getting from the bed to the wheelchair and then back to the bed again.
If they need transporting to another location in the hospital the MA will do so using a wheelchair or the hospital bed.
This will be when they need to go from their room to have tests done or they may need to go to the radiology department.
Depending on the hospital you may be given the responsibility of performing certain treatments, administering medication and other procedures. You may also need to take blood pressure.
Clerical Medical Assistant Duties in Hospitals
Clerical medical assistant duties in hospitals will include collecting patient information, answering phones, and even taking care of patient billing and charts.
In some hospitals, the MA may be hired to do primarily clerical duties. Other situations require that they do a combination of clinical and clerical duties.
MAs will greet patients when they come in and they will get some initial information from them including their phone number, address, demographics, as well as getting their insurance information.
They make sure that all the paperwork is done correctly. Billing duties may be part of the responsibilities an MA has at some hospitals.
This means they will need to get with insurance providers to determine what type of allowances and coverage the patient has. The medical assistant might be in charge of billing codes and keeping patient files to help the hospital keep up with billing and reimbursement.
9 Common Medical Assistant Duties in Hospitals
Below is a list of 9 of the most common clerical Medical Assistant duties in hospitals.
- Manage Electronic Health Records
- Schedule Appointments For The Patient
- Getting And Giving Information Needed For Other Providers
- Insurance Claim Assistance
- Mail Handling
- Schedule Appointments
- Work With The Billing Department
- Communicate With Families And With The Patients
- Manage Inventory And Supplies
Clerical medical assistants working in hospitals will very likely be responsible for these duties.
General Tasks for MAs in Hospitals
The different tasks that will be giving to an MA will be in direct response to the needs of their unit.
These different duties will vary across different settings and are generally specific to each individual hospital.
The range of duties will also vary between states. However, there are certain clinical tasks considered off-limits to medical assistants almost everywhere.
Some examples of this include giving anesthesia, making a diagnosis, or providing medication intravenously (IV).
The above tasks will not be performed by a medical assistant, although medical assistants can give some injections.
- Giving a patient a bath or helping them go to the toilet and taking their vital signs are some of the common tasks.
- It’s equally common for an MA to give oral medications, help the nurses with different responsibilities, and help occupational and physical therapists.
- An MA will also often call pharmacies with a prescription and will interview patients to get their medical histories.
The above tasks will be performed by nearly all medical assistants working in hospitals. Whether they are clinical, clerical, or a combination of the two.
The above list contains very common medical assistant duties in hospitals.
Over to you
So, that makes up our list of medical assistant duties in hospitals.
We started out with the clinical duties and then we shared the clerical duties followed by general tasks that both types of MAs will do.
If you are considering working in a hospital, you may also want to check out these 20 places where MAs work.
As always, leave a comment below sharing some of your medical assistant duties in a hospital.
