Position Overview
A medical assistant working in an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) facility performs more or less the same duties as a medical assistant working in any other dedicated facility.
It is the job of an ENT medical assistant to make sure that all aspects of an ENT facility are properly managed, and that any operational issues are handled before they can become crises.
Position Requirements
Working as a medical assistant in an ENT facility means that you will be required to possess a high school diploma (or a GED equivalent), in addition to a medical assistant certification from a recognized institute.
Apart from these qualifications, you will need to be exceptional at handling patients and their families by providing information about the facility and its services, along with providing assistance with examination procedures.
Medical assistants working for dedicated ENT facilities, need to possess deep insight into what the specialization is about.
This is because they often have to provide chairside assistance to specialists / ENT doctors, and must know how to operate examination and procedural equipment, and what instruments to hand during each process.
The work of an ENT medical assistant does not end at providing help to the specialist – a complete list of duties that a person working at this position is expected to perform is given below:
ENT Medical Assistant Duties and Responsibilities
• Greet patients and provide them with information on the facility services.
• Schedule patients over the telephone and in-person and provide efficient follow-up.
• Fill in any empty appointment slots by contacting patients on the waiting list.
• Register new patients by performing intake duties such as acquiring demographic information and taking, verifying, and recording insurance coverage information.
• Create and maintain effective liaison with insurance companies to ensure timely payments of submitted claims.
• Educate patients about ENT procedures recommended to them by the specialist in a bid to keep their fears at bay.
• Prepare patients for examination procedures by providing them information on what to expect.
• Calibrate equipment to be used for ENT procedures to ensure that it is in good working order.
• Assist specialists by handing them instruments during each procedure and keeping patients comfortable.
• Administer and document medications prescribed by the specialist and ensure that medicine refill requests are filled in an efficient and accurate manner.
• Clean, maintain and sterilize equipment and instruments after each procedure, by following established protocols.
• Maintain inventory of ENT supplies and equipment and contact vendors and/or suppliers to ensure timely delivery of low-stock items.