Interviews are hard to ace – but only because one is not prepared. Preparation is a key to success.
Going in unprepared for an interview and then complaining that it was designed to fail you is hardly fair.
Yes, interviews are designed to take the mickey out of you but they are hardly malicious.
An interviewer is basically trying to put you on a pedestal to see how strong you are – and what exactly it is that you have to offer.
Here is a set of likely interview questions and answers that you can use to prepare for a medical administrative assistant position:
Medical Administrative Assistant Interview Questions and Answers
1. As a medical administrative assistant, what have been your basic duties in the past?
Providing both clerical and administrative support to the office that I represent is what I have been responsible for. This includes scheduling appointments, answering telephones, handling correspondence, checking in patients and interviewing them for case histories, and handling record-keeping duties.
2. What skills do you possess that make you an excellent contender to work as a medical administrative assistant?
I am proficient in working with technology (specifically medical software) to handle patients’ records and information. In addition to this, my medical terminology is excellent and I am highly familiar with medical and insurance legislation. Furthermore, my communication skills are excellent and I possess exceptional recordkeeping skills as well.
3. In this role, have you ever been part of an altercation with a patient or a family member? If yes, explain what happened and how you handled the situation.
Patients and their families always come to hospitals and medical facilities in a state of upset. Altercations are quite the norm here. There was a time when a patient’s husband became quite rude because he had to stand in a queue for his turn since he did not have an appointment. He lashed out at me, even going as far as calling me names. I did what I was trained to do in such situations –I kept my cool and did not react. When things got out of hand, I did not have a choice but to ask my supervisor to step in.
4. What has been your greatest accomplishment in this role?
In the second week of joining my present job, I realized that the recordkeeping system of the medical facility was hardly safe. I did thorough research to determine what could be done to make it more confidential and managed to develop and implement a system that was not only safer as far as data confidentiality was concerned, but also faster in terms of data retrieval. This I believe has been a great achievement on my part.
5. How do you handle the stress associated with working in a fast-paced environment?
I learned to detach myself from the stress part of this job long ago. If you let the stress get to you, your work is compromised. I focus only on the job at hand and do not succumb to the pressure of petty problems.
6. How important are communication skills in this work?
To be honest, everything depends on good communication when you are working as a medical administrative assistant. You have to be constantly in touch with doctors, patients, family members, and coworkers to ensure smooth medical administrative processes, so it is important to be able to communicate well, both verbally and in writing.