There are a few types of medical assistants, including ‘clinical’. On this page, we answer “what is a clinical medical assistant?”.
A clinical medical assistant focuses on patient care and the clinical aspects of the healthcare practice they work in. Whereas, an administrative medical assistant is more focused on business processes such as medical coding billing, insurance claims, medical records, and scheduling appointments.
Clinical Medical Assistant Duties
The following duties are common for clinical medical assistants:
- Perform patient exams and assessments
- Administer minor treatments
- Take medical histories
- Record vital signs
- Provide medication and home care instructions to patients
You may also want to see this more detailed list of clinical medical assistant duties.
In a nutshell, when answering “what is a clinical medical assistant”, we must compare to an administrative medical assistant and/or a specialized MA.
- Clinical medical assistants work with patients and have duties related to patient care.
- Administrative medical assistants work on the business and administrative side of the clinic making sure processes such as accounting and insurance are properly handled.
- Specialized medical assistants work in a specific niche and can perform both clinical and administrative tasks depending on their specialization and work setting.
Other Types of Medical Assistants
In addition to clinical medical assistants, there are 2 other types of medical assistants. They are Administrative and Specialized medical assistants and you can learn more about them below. You may also want to learn more in general about what a medical assistant is and 20 places a medical assistant can work.
In order to become one of these 3 types of medical assistants you’ll want to explore medical assistant programs.
More Questions Like What is a Clinical Medical Assistant?
If you have any other questions about the duties, responsibilities, day-to-day tasks, etc. for clinical medical assistants, then ask our community in the comments below.
