Medical Assistant work in various healthcare facilities namely the Hospitals, Clinics, Multi-provider Clinics, Urgent Care Centers, and many more areas in healthcare. The duties of Medical Assistant may vary with specialty, and size of the practice. Medical assistants mainly perform administrative and clinical tasks in medical offices, clinics, hospitals of healthcare providers such as the physician and/or nurses and other healthcare professionals. Medical assistants may also be an intermediary between the patient and the physician.

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The duties of Medical Assistant vary from facility to facility; however, the general duties include clinical tasks such as Applying standard precautions and infection control, performing sterilization, Performing Vital Signs (Temperature, Pulse Rate, Respiratory Rate, and Blood Pressure), obtaining patients height and weight, performing other techniques and procedures like transfer techniques, patient positioning and preparing examination room to be ready for the physician to examine the patient, performing blood draws via venipuncture and/or dermal puncture, collecting specimens, processing specimens, performing lab tests, performing electrocardiograms of various types, administering medication, responding to emergencies and performing patient screenings, where as on the other hand the administrative duties include tasks such as managing the front office with medical reception, handling phone calls, scheduling appointments, scheduling follow-ups, assisting managing office finances, handling patient medical records by creating, storing, updating them, obtaining pre-authorization from insurance companies, using codes for billing the insurance companies, maintaining and ordering medical supplies, maintaining equipment logs, patient checking and check outs and other administrative duties as assigned by the facility.

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Medical Assistant have direct interaction with the patients and therefore must understand the concept of infection control, standard precautions, communication, basic medical terminologies, legal issues, patient privacy. They must also be able to explain the procedure to the patient. In addition to explaining the procedure the Medical Assistant must also prepare the patient for the procedure.