Tag Archives: Medical Receptionist

What Topics Are Covered In A Medical Terminology Course?

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If you’re planning to take a medical terminology course online, you can benefit from a little preparation. If you come to class with a bit of basic background in the subject matter, then you will get much more out of the lectures. This article will give you some idea of what you can expect from such a course so that you can get a head-start towards an A-grade. Study resources are also provided at the end of the article.

ANATOMY

A large part of medical terminology revolves around describing the human body. In fact, there is even a set of terms within anatomical terminology used just for describing the position of structures within the human body, called anatomedical terminology. You could take an entire course on anatomy though, so any anatomy that’s covered in your medical terminology course online will be pretty basic.

MEDICATIONS

There are thousands upon thousands of different medications in use around the world. Lucky for you, they are named according to certain traditions with prefixes and suffixes that describe what they’re used for. That makes learning to recognize, understand, and remember complex medicines much easier. For example, if a medication has the affix -adol-, -butazone, -fenine, -eridine, or –fentanil, you know that it’s an analgesic.

EQUIPMENT

There are a lot of different kinds of medical equipment out there. If a doctor asks you to hand him a speculum, will you know what it is? Even equipment that you’ll never use yourself, like MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines, will need to be familiar to you, so that you can understand what procedures a patient has undergone or is scheduled for.

PROCEDURES

If you tell a patient that they will have to undergo a procedure, they will likely ask what it involves, and will expect you to have at least some general idea. Words for medical procedures include terms like “laproscopic surgery” (abdominal surgery through a very small incision), and “dialysis” (the mechanical cleansing of the blood). These words, like all medical words, can be broken down into their component parts for ease of memorization. For example, Lapra is Greek for the soft area of the body between the ribs and hips, and “scope” comes from the Greek “scopein”, which means to examine.

STUDY RESOURCES

Before you get your class materials, you can study online by using free resources like Wikipedia. There are hundreds of medical articles on Wikipedia. I recommend you start with the medical terminology article, and move on from there. Another important resource is the U.S. National Library of Medicine online. If you would like to see pictures of medical equipment, use Google’s image search feature. Also look up the websites of various medical authorities and controlling bodies online. An example is the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS).

Now that you know how a medical terminology online course is broken down, and you have some online resources to explore, you’ll be able to get ahead of the game. Focus on getting a broad overview. Don’t get bogged down in the details, just make sure you understand all of the main concepts, and the main concepts within the main concepts. Study hard, and enjoy your career training.

Courses like Medical Terminology are great for a number of healthcare fields. If you are interested in advancing your career, consider an online healthcare management degree and get started today.

Eight Medical Secretary Courses You Should Take

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If you can’t afford to spend two years completing a comprehensive medical secretary program, then you’re going to need a way to choose those courses that will do you the most good. So, what training courses are the most relevant to a medical secretary? Here is a list of the top eight.

1. MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

Even if you already have some skills as a secretary, working as a medical secretary requires that you be able to understand medical language. In a doctor’s office, patients will tell you what’s wrong with them, and you will need to be able to understand what they’re saying so that you can pass the information on to the doctor.

2. ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES

A course in administrative procedures is important since you will obviously be doing quite a bit of administrative work, such as organizing medical records, booking appointments, and processing insurance papers. This will represent the bulk of your responsibilities as a medical secretary.

3. PHARMACOLOGY

It is useful to understand the words for a variety of medications. This is similar to the medical terminology course. Doctors will give you information about patient prescription to pass on to patients, and you will need to know how to pronounce the words, or your phone messages will be incomprehensible.

4. ANATOMY

More and more vocabulary. As a medical secretary, you need to know the words for a great many structures in the human body. Medical secretaries are expected to be able to read and understand patient charts, which are guaranteed to be littered with anatomical terms.

5. RECORD KEEPING

This course is all about how to keep files organized. Have you ever seen the huge wall of files behind the desk of the average medical secretary? Ever wonder how a medical receptionist is able to pull your file down from that mountain in just a few seconds? It’s all about organization. A well-run office must be very well organized.

6. TRANSCRIPTION

Some doctors record their voice instead of writing down notes, in which case you may be called upon to transcribe those recordings into digital form. If it turns out that you have a special talent for medical transcription, you could even turn it into an alternate career path, increasing your financial security.

7. ACCOUNTING

You may be responsible for tracking expenditures and income for a small clinic. An accounting course will give you the skills and confidence you need to make sure not a penny goes missing.

8. INSURANCE PROCESSING

Even countries that have universal healthcare have insurance plans, and getting money out of an insurance company is rarely easy. You will need to know what procedures to follow to make a claim, and how to appeal the inevitable claim rejections. This is another one of those skills that can be made into a career all its own. Having a variety of marketable skills will allow you to feel safer and more secure in the job market.

With these medical secretary courses under your belt, you will go far in your career.

How to Write a Medical Receptionist Resume?

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If you’ve never worked as a medical receptionist before, you may wonder what the difference is between being a medical receptionist and being a regular office receptionist. What will hospital and nursing homes be looking for in you, a potential medical receptionist?

A typical receptionist in an office environment acts as a mediator between members of a business and their clientele. As a medical receptionist, you’ll be doing pretty much the same thing, except that the members of the business are the doctors, and the clientele are the patients. Doctors will give you information to hold or pass on to clients, and patients will give you information to hold or pass on to doctors. It will be your job to receive that information efficiently and politely, organize it effectively, and pass it on to whoever may need it whenever they may need it.

This article will take you through the steps of writing your medical receptionist resume.

YOUR OBJECTIVE

The purpose of an objective statement is to explain to the employer why you’re sending her your resume. Even if you’re responding to a job posting, your employer may be trying to fill several different positions at once, so it’s important to be clear what position you’re applying for. If you are including a cover letter with your resume, it is more correct to include the objective statement with your cover letter. Otherwise, place it at the very top of your resume.

Make the “Objective” line work for you. If you just write “To get hired as a medical receptionist”, then you’ll sound terribly dull. Instead, take this early opportunity to get the point across that you want this job, not because you need the money, but because it would make use of your skills, challenge you personally, or give you the opportunity to work with or alongside such-and-such.

Example:

Seeking a medical receptionist position that utilizes my extensive computer and medical knowledge and experience with client/patient service.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS

Below are some of the skills your employer will be looking for.

  • Extensive knowledge of medical terminology, medical billing and medical coding
  • Possess warm outgoing personality with excellent telephone etiquette
  • Knowledge of handling general administrative and clerical tasks
  • Skilled in computer applications like MS Word, PowerPoint, Spreadsheet and the Internet
  • Excellent monitoring, organizational and supervisory skills
  • Skilled in handling multiple tasks and work under pressure

YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE

If you want to build a career in this field the term “professional experience” is better than the term “work experience”, because it emphasizes that you’re a serious professional, and that this isn’t just a job for you.

When it comes to the work experience section of your resume, you need to list anything that will help you show you have the skills you’ve just listed. Have you volunteered in a nursing home or worked in a lab? Have you done any data-entry work, or any kind of secretarial work?

YOUR EDUCATION

When listing your education, list your computer skills separately from everything else. They will likely be more relevant to an employer than whether or not you have a bachelors degree.

OPTIONAL HEADINGS

Have you published any articles relevant to your field? Include the eye-catching heading, “Publications”. Do you belong to any professional associations? List them under the heading “Professional Associations”. Certificates and volunteer work go under education and work experience, respectively.

In the end, a medical receptionist resume isn’t all that different from any other resume. As long as you keep your employer’s needs and expectations in mind, you’ll do fine.

How To Get Along With Your Teacher?

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You probably remember how much of a difference it made in high-school whether or not our teachers liked you. With a teacher’s good opinion, you could look forward to friendly smiles, helpful explanations, and a certain amount of leeway on assignments. Without that good opinion, you would be lucky to be ignored.

I’m happy to say that it isn’t that bad in post-secondary institutions, but there are many subtle ways that a negative impression can work against you. If you’re concerned about making a good impression on the teachers of your medical receptionist courses, consider taking some of the advice below.

  • Show up to every class. Teachers don’t like to be made to feel superfluous. When you skip classes, you’re basically sending them the message that they have nothing of value to say.
  • Be on time and prepared for your medical receptionist courses. Just showing up isn’t good enough. If you’re there, but you sleep through the class or don’t pay attention, you’re sending the same message as if you hadn’t shown up at all.
  • Do your homework. Your teacher went to a lot of trouble to design a medical course for you, show some respect by completing the course work.
  • Participate in class discussion. Can you imagine how frustrating it is to stand in front of a group of 30 or so people, trying to engage them in conversation, and getting nothing but cricket chirps in response? It’s awkward, it’s embarrassing, and it’s no fun. Students who make the effort to meet their teacher halfway will earn some appreciation.
  • Don’t monopolize the class discussion. It is possible to go too far in class participation. If you don’t give anyone else the opportunity to talk, then you’re creating a problem for you teacher.
  • Don’t ask for special favors. Nobody likes to feel like they’re being taken advantage of. The point of getting on your teacher’s good side is not to get things you don’t deserve, it’s to make sure that your mark isn’t negatively influenced by your teacher’s feelings towards you.
  • Laugh, or at least smile, at your teacher’s jokes. If it’s a good joke, laughing will show that you were paying attention. If it’s a bad joke, a smile is a gentler rejection than complete silence.
  • Ask questions before or after class. Teachers like to feel that they are helping their students to achieve their goals. Just make sure that the questions you ask are good ones. A good question is one whose answer isn’t obvious or easily looked up in your course materials.
  • Be clean, well groomed, and “bright eyed”. Look at your teacher when he or she is talking. This is just basic respect for another person, and will demonstrate that you are a mature adult who deserves the same respect in return.

In general, as long as you’re respectful, punctual, and conscientious, you’ll be fine. Good luck with your medical receptionist courses, and remember to smile once in a while.

Why Take A Medical Receptionist Course Online?

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Why should you take a medical receptionist course online? Why is it better than the more traditional method of in-class study? There are a surprising number of reasons. Here are just a few.

1. Not having to commute to a campus doesn’t just save time, it also reduces your daily stress significantly. Think about how much you worry about traffic or surly bus drivers, and then imagine that worry just disappearing. Poof.

2. Have you ever sat all the way through a lecture that you realized early on was going to be a complete waste of your time, just for the sake of a class participation mark, or because you’d already gone to the trouble of getting to the campus? When you study online, you can fast-forward or skip unhelpful video lectures, assuming you have any in the first place.

3. There’s a lot of money to be saved by taking your medical receptionist course online. If you drive a car, you save the gas and maintenance costs of the commute. If you use public transportation, you save the cost of the bus passes. No mater how you get to the campus, you save the cost of eating pre-prepared food while you’re there. Finally, if you have children who are too young to be left alone but are able to amuse themselves, you save the cost of day-care and babysitters.

4. Studying from home, you can take breaks whenever you need to. You can spend more or less time on a particular topic if you need to. In other words, you are in control of your time and your pace of learning, so you won’t fall behind and have to scramble desperately to catch up.

5. Have you ever been frustrated with school computers being set up differently than your own? When you study from home you get to use your own familiar computer. This also means that you can compile a list of bookmarks for studying; something school computers don’t allow you to do.

6. While studying in the privacy of your own home, you don’t have to worry about being presentable. You can “go to class” in your pyjamas, with unbrushed hair, while eating a bowl of cereal. Have a weak bladder? There’s no need to be embarrassed about getting up to go pee every ten minutes. Are you sick with a cold or stomach bug? There’s no need to drag yourself to class and risk being patient zero.

7. Getting away from the campus reduces social pressures on you. Have you ever had the experience of feeling like your grade depended on how well you interacted with your classmates, or whether or not you could get the teacher to like you? If you’re a bit of a wallflower, you’re probably tired of being penalized for it. When you take your medical receptionist course online, there is little if any need to even learn the names of your classmates, let alone be charming. Enjoy the freedom be yourself.

If you decide to take a medical receptionist course online, remember to take full advantage of all the benefits, and you’ll have a positive and rewarding experience.

Five Reasons Why You Should Complete A Medical Office Assistant Program

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We all know that education is important, but why specifically is it important to graduate from a medical office assistant program? If you are considering a career in medical assisting, here are five good reasons to make that investment in your future.

ONE

While it is possible to get work as a medical office assistant straight out of high-school, it’s very difficult. In fact, you would probably need to know the person offering the job, and if they did hire you, they would be doing you a big favor, since they would have to take the time to train you, and might even feel responsible for you to a certain extent.

TWO

Any on-the-job training you receive will be the bare minimum needed to function in your particular office, and will not qualify you to work elsewhere, since every office does things slightly differently. You’ll be in a very vulnerable position with poor job prospects into the future.

THREE

Without having graduated from an accredited medical assisting program, you are not eligible to apply to take the CMR certifying exam, which is an important standard of competency that many employers rely on to make hiring decisions. That means that even if you accumulate a broad range of skills through practical experience and self-study, you will not be able to prove that you have that skill and knowledge. You’ll have to rely on future employers just taking your word for it.

FOUR

Most medical office assistant programs require less than a year to complete for a full-time student. Having to invest so little time to gain so much makes the decision to enrol that much easier. There are now even programs that can be completed entirely online, so if you don’t have the money to enrol in a medical assistant program now, and you don’t want to go into debt, you can wait until you have enough tuition saved and then work to complete your program online on evenings and weekends without even having to commute to a campus.

FIVE

Without any kind of post-secondary training, you may suffer from a lack of self-confidence. How will you feel when you’re always the person with the fewest credentials in the room? Science has shown that a lack of self-confidence has a tremendous negative impact on a person’s ability to perform. This could create a negative spiral in which you perform less well because you think you’re not qualified, and then you see your lack of performance as proof that you’re not qualified, which causes your performance to suffer even more.

I hope that I’ve given you something to think about, and that you’ll make whatever choices are right for you. Whether or not you decide to pursue a career as a medical office assistant, or enrol in a medical assisting program, you should enjoy a life full of continuous learning. I’ll leave you with this quote: “Knowledge desires always increase; it is like fire which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.” – Dr. Samuel Johnson

How To Find A Medical Billing Course In Your Area?

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If you work, or are planning to work in the medical field, and have realized that medical billing is or will be an important part of that work and that you will need training in it, one of your first questions may be where to go to get that training. This article will give you some advice on how to find a medical billing course in your area. And since you don’t want to just throw your money at the first educator you come across, this article also gives some tips on how to choose between what’s on offer.

AN ONLINE SEARCH

This is probably the quickest and most efficient method of finding the information you need. Typing “medical billing course” into any search engine will bring up the websites of dozens of colleges and vocational schools. If you use Google, then those schools that are near the area of the computer you’re using will be at the top, with an additional link below that leads to a map and driving directions to the campus. The downside to this method is that it’s difficult to tell the difference between quality schools and schools that simply exist to make as much money as they can at your expense. One very important thing you can do to protect yourself is to ask if the school is accredited. An accredited school has been evaluated by a non-government agency. Accreditation is a voluntary process, so schools that have something to hide will not be accredited.

THE YELLOW PAGES

Tried and true, the yellow pages will list community colleges in your area. Call these colleges and ask if they offer a medical billing course, ask to have a copy of their course calendar mailed to you, or go to their website and browse through their course listings online. Keep in mind that medical billing is also associated with medical coding, and those two subjects are often taught together. If you don’t have a paper copy of the yellow pages, you can find them online at 360.yellowpages.ca.

AN ONLINE COURSE

If you don’t want to commute to a school, you can learn medical billing from the comfort of your own home. Just search for “medical billing course online” and browse through the results. There are many schools offering online medical courses. This is not an endorsement, but one such school is Medical Billing Course.com, which additionally offers testing online. Many online schools require that testing be administered in person. Don’t forget to search for online third party reviews of any school you’re thinking of giving your money to. Just put the name of the school and the word “+review” into your search engine.

ASK AROUND

If you’re on friendly terms with someone who works in the medical field, you can ask them if they can recommend a school to you. Getting first hand recommendations from people you trust will help you to choose your school with confidence.

Training in medical billing can be applied to more than one career path, so it gives you flexibility, as well. No matter how you find your medical billing course, you won’t regret investing in such an important aspect of your education.

How To Pass A Medical Assistant Online Course?

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So you’ve signed up for a medical assistant online course, and now you’re biting your nails, not sure how you’re going to pass it. This article will give you some useful tips.

ORGANIZATION

Just like for any other course, you need to be organized so that you can find what you’re looking for when you need it. Make sure that you can access all of the online forums and any password-protected web pages for your course before the course starts, so that any technical difficulties will not cause you to miss any real-time course content. Also, keep any course-related bookmarks in their own folder in your favorites, so that you can find them quickly.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Time management is an important skill. People who have good time management skills know how long it will take them to complete a homework assignment or to practice for a test, so they can plan their day accurately, which reduces their stress by giving them a stronger sense of being in control of their lives. If you’re completely new to the concept of time management, you should read up on it. Entire books have been written on the subject, but a quick Google search should give you more information than you can read.

 

An important aspect of time management is fighting procrastination. If you’re intimidated by an assignment, you may find yourself avoiding it by doing other, non-essential jobs that allow you to tell yourself that the reason you’re not working on the assignment is because you’re just “too busy”. To fight this habit, make a point of spending ten minutes a day making a serious effort (not just staring at the screen and angsting) to work on the assignment. You may find that you experience mini breakthroughs, and that instead of spending just ten minutes, you wind up spending 20 minutes or an hour before you get stuck again.

STUDY SKILLS

You should study approximately twice as many hours per week as you have class time. If you’re taking an online course, it’s harder to judge how many hours to study, because there is no class time. An hour a day is pretty safe to start with, and can be adjusted as needed.

Study often, and stay relaxed while you’re studying. It may be a different story for physical work, but for mental work, any anxiety you feel, especially self-inflicted, will cripple your productivity. Giving yourself ultimatums will just cause you a distracting amount of stress, and you’ll accomplish less.

When you encounter a difficult concept, instead of re-reading your course materials over and over, look for other materials online that discuss the same topic. Using online resources like Wikipedia and medical websites will allow you to approach your topic from multiple viewpoints, significantly improving your understanding of it in short order.

CONTROLLING PERFECTIONISM

It should go without saying that you should hand in every single assignment, but some people have difficulty with this, not because they’re lazy, but because they are perfectionist to the point that they feel embarrassed to hand in anything that isn’t up to their too-high standards. They feel that giving sub-par work to an authority figure like a teacher will open themselves up to being judged even more harshly than if they had handed in nothing at all. While that may sometimes be true, understand that your teacher’s impression of your character is of secondary importance, even in a classroom environment. With an online course, it’s not important at all. Your teacher’s every move is being recorded electronically. They can’t afford to be anything less than professional and polite to their students, so don’t hesitate to submit your work, even if you know you could have done better.

With these tips and a good attitude, you’ll be well on your way to success in your new medical assistant online course. Good luck!

How to Become a Medical Receptionist?

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With an ever increasing worldwide population, society has had to make several adjustments to meet the medical needs of the populace explosion. The number of hospitals, medical laboratories, and physicians’ offices are on the rise, ergo the need for well-trained medical support staff is at an all-time high. Medical receptionists play a key role in these institutions to provide prompt and accurate service to patients.

What is a Medical Receptionist?

A medical receptionist, sometimes referred to as a medical administrative assistant, often provides the initial point of contact and therefore lasting impressions of an establishment. Once a patient, vendor, pharmaceutical representative, or other visitor contacts the practice by phone or in person, the medical receptionist is responsible for a successful interaction by delivering excellent service and care. Depending on the size of the office, he may work for a single doctor or be responsible for an entire clinic and may manage both front desk obligations and other in-house duties.

Why Should I Pursue this Career?

Like most workers within the healthcare industry, medical receptionists can look forward to strong job development in the coming years. Healthcare establishments will always be in need of friendly faces to man the front lines and perform administrative tasks. Many people find this occupation to be a fulfilling and rewarding experience; add that to job security and this profession could last one until retirement age.

Also, there are several occupations within the medical field and working at this entry-level position is an excellent way to get on-the-job training. With your foot in the door, a background steeped in experience will increase the chances of getting another job within the medical realm. An added bonus is the professional contacts and networking opportunities that will be created; these references could be the difference between an invitation to interview and a rejection letter. In today’s uncertain job market, any advantage should be used to the fullest extent.

What Skills are Required?

Since the medical receptionist is the main contact point within an office, most employers prefer a person with a friendly and empathetic nature coupled with professional objectivity. The perfect set of skills includes a pleasant disposition, sociable personality, natural aptitude to multitask, and an innate ability to maintain composure in stressful situations. Keep in mind that all employers are searching for different qualities; it is important to be flexible and showcase your abilities.

As in most jobs, it is important to be an independent worker that can complete duties without heavy supervision but also a team player that can pull together with cohorts to accomplish more difficult or detailed tasks. Other important assets include multiple phone system experience and computer literacy of basic and medical use applications.

What Type of Education Do I Need?

Unlike most medical professional fields, there is no legally required certification or training to become a medical receptionist. As long as the prospective worker has good communication skills along with basic computer and multi-line phone systems competencies, he is qualified to seek employment. However, there are training certification programs available through technical, vocational, and online colleges that will prepare one for working in a healthcare environment. These certificates can be acquired in one to two years and is an ideal advantage in the competitive job market.

In summary, becoming a medical receptionist requires a good attitude and a strong willingness to obtain numerous occupational skills. With all of these factors working in your favor, earning a satisfying position in the field of healthcare is firmly within your reach.

Medical Receptionist Salary

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As an entry-level position in the healthcare industry, medical receptionist is by far not the highest paying title available. Medical receptionist salary levels greatly range in direct correlation with education and experience levels. When comparing pay ranges, it is imperative to factor in location as an obvious influence on findings; salaries will vary tremendously across the nation. While certain locations tend to offer higher base rates, these sites often coincide with an area where the cost of living is quite high. Although many people entertain job offers from different cities and are more than willing to relocate, very few remember to properly research the effect such a major change will have on their overall finances.

Important Factors Used to Determine Pay Rate

Location, education level, and amount of experience were previously mentioned as great influences on the pay rate for medical receptionists. An often overlooked factor is the type of subcategories a medical receptionist is qualified in. Some licensures and certifications offer more than just the basics of medical knowledge and delve into more complicated professional arenas such as dental receptionist or medical assistant training. The broader an available skill set an individual possesses, the more valuable he becomes. In order to balance budgets and cut costs, medical offices are constantly looking for employees that can pull double duty. Since these individuals are qualified to handle a more difficult and varied work load, they command a higher salary.

Starting Medical Receptionist Salaries

Novices to the field of medical receptionist should expect wages to be low regardless of the region the job is located in. Often times a high school education is all that is required to get this position; this results in an inordinate amount of qualified applicants as compared to the number of openings available. Such a set-up mimics the commerce supply and demand law. Since supplies of qualified applicants are basically limitless and the demand for receptionist jobs is limited by economic factors, employers can benchmark pay at lower rates because the position is highly sought out. With such a high number of potential employees, employers know the odds of finding someone willing to work at or slightly above minimum wage are greatly increased. Expect entry level and low experience salaries to be in the neighborhood of $7.36 – $13.37 per hour.

Average Salaries as Related to Healthcare Sector

Assuming a full-time work schedule at 40 hours per week, the average medical receptionist earns somewhere between $9.37 and $16.21 per hour. Once the particular area of healthcare is specified, the natural variations in the price range are clarified. Medical receptionists employed by general physicians’ offices earned roughly $12.72 an hour which is quite similar to the overall average. Interestingly enough, medical receptionists employed by dentists, hospitals, and medical laboratories tended to have wages higher than average, while their cohorts employed by long-term care facilities, optometrists, and mental health practitioners reported below average wages.

It is highly regarded that education and occupation backgrounds are the greatest influences on medical receptionist salaries. While this is true, one must also consider location, industry, and certifications as equally important wage determining influences.