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Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

$38.5K Median Salary 75.2K Job Openings (Annual Projection) 10.6% Job Growth

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About This Career

Perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures. Duties may include scheduling appointments, billing patients, and compiling and recording medical charts, reports, and correspondence.

Reported Job Titles

Clinic Office Assistant, Front Desk Receptionist, Medical Office Specialist, Medical Receptionist, Medical Secretary, Physician Office Specialist, Secretary, Unit Clerk, Unit Support Representative, Ward Clerk

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Skills You'll Need

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Abilities

Oral Comprehension

Oral Expression

Written Comprehension

Speech Clarity

Speech Recognition

Near Vision

Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

Information Ordering

Written Expression

Category Flexibility

Problem Sensitivity

Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service

English Language

Administrative

Medicine and Dentistry

Computers and Electronics

Personnel and Human Resources

Administration and Management

Economics and Accounting

Skills

Speaking

Active Listening

Service Orientation

Reading Comprehension

Complex Problem Solving

Coordination

Critical Thinking

Time Management

Writing

Monitoring

Social Perceptiveness

Technology Skills

Medical software

Word processing software

Accounting software

Data base user interface and query software

Electronic mail software

Office suite software

Internet browser software

Calendar and scheduling software

Spreadsheet software

Point of sale POS software

Graphics or photo imaging software

Desktop publishing software

Cloud-based data access and sharing software

Operating system software

Presentation software

Tools

Photocopiers

Magnetic stripe readers and encoders

Hospital intercom systems

Notebook computers

Premise branch exchange PBX systems

Dictation machines

Special purpose telephones

Laser fax machine

Scanners

Laser printers

Desktop computers

Personal computers

Abilities

Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.

Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
English Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Administrative: Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Medicine and Dentistry: Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Computers and Electronics: Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Personnel and Human Resources: Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Administration and Management: Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Economics and Accounting: Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.

Skills

Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Time Management: Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Writing: Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Technology Skills

Medical software: Henry Schein Dentrix; Medical condition coding software; Medical procedure coding software; MEDITECH software
Word processing software: 3M Post-it App; Evernote; Google Docs; Microsoft Word
Accounting software: Billing software; Bookkeeping software; Intuit QuickBooks; Sage 50 Accounting
Data base user interface and query software: Blackboard software; Database software; Microsoft Access; Yardi software
Electronic mail software: IBM Notes; Microsoft Exchange; Microsoft Outlook
Office suite software: Microsoft Office software
Internet browser software: Web browser software
Calendar and scheduling software: Appointment scheduling software
Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel
Point of sale POS software: Smart card management software
Graphics or photo imaging software: SmugMug Flickr
Desktop publishing software: Adobe Systems Adobe InDesign; Microsoft Publisher
Cloud-based data access and sharing software: Dropbox; Google Drive; Microsoft SharePoint
Operating system software: Microsoft Windows
Presentation software: Microsoft PowerPoint