What Medical Assistants Do

• Ask preventive medical history questions and put them in the EHR  e.g. an MA in my clinic (A-Rod) does for his provider (Dr. R) for preventive/establish care visits.
• Enter meds into the EHR. When patient is getting checked in, ask what meds they are taking and add them into the chart.
• Discontinue meds that the patient is no longer taking when checking the patient in.
• Enter common lab orders into the EHR as instructed by provider e.g. CBC, CMP, Lipid panel, TSH, A1C. A-Rod and other MAs do this for their providers.
• Enter common referrals into the EHR as instructed by provider e.g referral to psych, ortho, etc.
• Enter common vaccines into the EHR as instructed by provider
• Enter dx conditions into the chart as instructed by provider
• Refill chronic meds that the physician has prescribed before when certain strict conditions are meds as described by the physician. At a previous job w/ UCR, my MAs did that. As far as I know, MAs in that practice still do that to this day.
• Check and see if a patient who is trying to establish care w/ you  has been seen by another provider in the clinic in the last 12 months. If so, it’s their patient and they need to follow up with them.

MA presentations should include:

• Tell physician the prev history of the patient from the intake above e.g. when they had colonoscopy, last pap smear, mammogram, etc. If they didn’t do it, why?
• If pt is here for f/u DM, say when the last A1C was and what that number was.
• If pt is here for f/u

List from AAFP 2016 article of what MA’s in one practice do
Gradually and only after providing careful training (more on that later), we have delegated the following administrative tasks to our MAs:

• Manage incoming messages with the provider during brief huddles between visits,
• Manage incoming lab and radiology results,
• Track labs for no-shows and cancellations,
• Research refill requests – provide dates of last labs, last visit, and next visit to aid decision making,
• Inform patients of lab results and next steps as directed by provider,
• Arrange urgent appointments and coordinate with care managers,
• Identify pre-op clearance appointments and collect all information needed,
• Identify opportunities for add-on visits for tomorrow’s schedule and inform schedulers,
• Identify ED and hospital discharges, contact patients and offer follow-up as directed, document transitional care.

The MAs perform other tasks in the EHR as well:

• Document chief complaint and vital signs,
• Reconcile medications,
• Review preventive services and provide referrals,
• Set up refills,
• Complete routine screening assessments according to protocol established by the provider,
• After the provider sees the patient, write up referrals and work/school excuses, and provide patient education.

See more here.

Sources to review

Fam Pract Manag. 2016 May-June;23(3):5-7. Maximizing Your Medical Assistant’s Role. https://www.aafp.org/fpm/2016/0500/p5.html.

AAFP 2015. Revamping Medical Assistant Roles May Boost Physician Productivity. https://www.aafp.org/news/practice-professional-issues/20150819clinicaltransformation.html