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What They Do
About This Career
Performs 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.
This career is part of the Health Science cluster Health Informatics pathway.
A person in this career:
- Answers telephones and directs calls to appropriate staff.
- Schedules and confirms patient diagnostic appointments, surgeries, or medical consultations.
- Completes insurance or other claim forms.
- Greets visitors, ascertains purpose of visit, and directs them to appropriate staff.
- Transmits correspondence or medical records by mail, e-mail, or fax.
- Receives and routes messages or documents, such as laboratory results, to appropriate staff.
- Maintains medical records, technical library, or correspondence files.
- Interviews patients to complete documents, case histories, or forms, such as intake or insurance forms.
- Operates office equipment, such as voice mail messaging systems, and uses word processing, spreadsheet, or other software applications to prepare reports, invoices, financial statements, letters, case histories, or medical records.
- Performs bookkeeping duties, such as credits or collections, preparing and sending financial statements or bills, and keeping financial records.
Working Conditions and Physical Demands
People who do this job report that:
- You would sit most of the time. There's some walking and standing. You may have to lift and carry things like books, papers or tools weighing 10 lbs. or less.
- Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
- Work in this occupation involves sitting more than one-third of the time
Working in this career involves (physical activities):
- Seeing clearly up close
- Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
- Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
Work Hours and Travel
- Regular working hours and limited travel
Specialty and Similar Careers
Careers that are more detailed or close to this career:
- Secretary — Schedules appointments, gives information to callers, composes and types routine correspondences, reads and routes incoming mail, files records, and other various clerical duties.
- Clinic Office Assistant
- Front Desk Receptionist
- Medical Office Specialist
- Medical Receptionist
- Physician Office Specialist
- Unit Clerk
- Unit Support Representative
- Ward Clerk
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts national surveys of wage data by occupation in every state and in all industry divisions. These surveys are conducted through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.
The statistics collected for one year are published the next fall. For example, 2013 wage information was published in the fall of 2014.
There are over 800 occupations in the surveys, and these occupations cover the entire U.S. labor market. The surveys ask for reports in a scale of ranges for both hourly wages and annual wages.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics for a broad category, be aware that the salary data for a specific career may differ.
For more details about how wage information is collected and calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm.
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts a national survey of over 400,000
employers in every state and in all industry divisions. This survey is conducted
through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Every other year the
department publishes outlook information based on these surveys.
Each outlook period covers 10 years. For example, in 2003 the outlook information
was published for 2004-2014. Employers are asked to report the number of employees
in about 770 different occupations that cover the entire U.S. labor market.
From this information, staffing patterns for different industries are established.
Industry growth is projected into the future based on past trends and current economic
conditions. Industry staffing patterns are then applied to the industry projections
to obtain occupational projections.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties
of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational
category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics
for a broad category, be aware that the employment data for a specific field may
differ.
For more details about how employment information is collected and calculated by
the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
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