Duties In
The Clinical Areas (Back Office)
 The clinical medical
assistant assures that treatment and
examination rooms are clean, well organized, and
supplies well stocked. They make sure that patients
waiting to see the doctor are comfortably seated, and well
prepared for their exam.
The Clinical
Medical Assistant's Daily Tasks
Examination Room:
If the patient needs
to change into an examination gown or needs to be draped, the
clinical medical assistant will help. Before leaving the exam
room the clinical medical assistant will glance through the
patient's medical chart to assure it is complete. When the next
patient is seated, they place the patient's medical chart
into the holder outside the door. This is the "universal sign"
that the patient is ready for the doctor.
Instruments and Supplies:
Medical assistants bring in needed instruments and
equipment and if needed, drape the patient for the examination,
or treatment procedure. If special diagnostic or minor
surgical procedures are ordered they assist the physician
during those procedures.
Blood and Other Specimen Collections:
If the physician orders a blood sample or other specimen
collections, such as urine, throat and vaginal specimens, the
clinical medical assistant will obtain these specimens and
either properly package then to send them to the appropriate
reference laboratory, or will do simple diagnostic screening
tests in a small lab area somewhere in the back area of the
medical office, while the patient waits.
Chaperone:
Male physicians, who perform physical and breast exams on
female patients like to have a female medical assistant with
them in the exam room to be present in the examination room.
She stays with the physician as a chaperone during the exam to
avert any misunderstandings or claims of abuse. It also helps
to make a patient more comfortable during the
exam.
Point of Care Screening Tests:
In-house quick diagnostic tests on specimens are done using
simple automated equipment or "quick tests", while the patient
waits in the examination room, or treatment area. These
so-called point of care screening tests may include blood
typing, urinalysis, vaginal smears viewed under a microscope,
anemia hemoglobin testing, rapid mono and strep tests,
influenza testing from a nasal swab and various other simple
tests. See examples of point-of-care tests!
Additional Responsibilities:
Between seating patients and assisting the physician the
clinical medical assistant is responsible for the office's
on-hand supply of medications. The medical assistant must be
sure that medication closets are properly maintained, no
medications have expired and low supplies are restocked. It
also is the clinical medical assistant's responsibility to
maintain a clean, tidy and safe work environment and make sure
that all surgical instruments are properly cleaned, wrapped and
sterilized; also that all automated office and diagnostic
equipment is clean, calibrated and well maintained.
Specimen Collection:
These preliminary test results are to be done STAT and results
are immediately reported back to the ordering physician so the
appropriate treatment can be determined. For example, if a
rapid strep test comes back positive, the patient can be put on
antibiotics without delay. It is, however, very important that
a portion, or additional samples of the specimen that was
collected is forwarded to a clinical or diagnostic reference
laboratory for cultures or more sophisticated testing, so that
these initial results can be confirmed as soon as possible!
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