Medical Secretary Career Description

Medical secretaries transcribe dictation, prepare correspondence and assist physicians or medical scientists with reports, speeches, articles, and conference proceedings. They also record simple medical histories, arrange for patients to be hospitalized and order supplies. Most medical secretaries need to be familiar with insurance rules, billing practices and hospital or laboratory procedures.
Medical Secretary Career Facts
- Medical secretaries are employed in virtually every sector of health care, ranging from small doctor's offices to university research departments to hospital offices.
- Their work can be highly specialized and require knowledge of technical procedures and terminology.
Medical Secretary Career Details
Medical secretaries perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic or laboratory procedures. Their duties include billing patients, scheduling appointments, compiling and recording medical charts and correspondence using typewriter or personal computer. Tasks may include greeting visitors, ascertaining the purpose of their visits and directing patients to the appropriate staff members. Other duties include tracking and routing messages and documents such as laboratory and other test results. Preparation and transmission of patients' bills; maintenance of medical records and correspondence files. Job requirements may include answering telephones and directing calls to appropriate staff, as well as scheduling diagnostic appointments and medical consultations of patients.
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Medical Secretary Career Specializations
Some positions require highly specialized work requiring knowledge of technical terminology and procedures.
Medical Secretary Career Working Environment
The majority of medical secretaries are full-time employees who work a standard 40-hour week. Occasionally, these jobs offer alternative or flexible working arrangements such as job sharing (in which two people divide responsibility for a single job), however, this scenario is not necessarily the norm.
Medical Secretary Career Required Training
Medical secretaries typically have some postsecondary vocational training, which includes mastering administrative and clerical procedures and systems, including word processing, stenography and transcription and file and record management. While high school graduates with basic office skills may qualify for entry-level secretarial positions, employers increasingly require extensive knowledge of software applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets and database management.
Medical Secretary Career Coursework
Specialized training programs are available for students planning to become medical secretaries. Bachelor's degrees and professional certifications are becoming increasingly important in the general secretarial field as business continues to become more global.
Medical Secretary Career Future Job Outlook
The employment of medical secretaries is expected to grow. This difference is due to the projected employment growth in the health service industry. Opportunities should be best for well-qualified and experienced secretaries.
Medical Secretary Salary
Median Salary-$32,430 in 2010
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