Medical Secretaries are trained to handle basic secretarial tasks for a doctor, such as taking telephone calls, making appointments, handling mail, taking dictation, and typing letters and medical reports. They are also trained to recognize medical terms and understand what they mean. Duties will vary depending upon the kind of institution in which one works. In smaller doctor's offices, one may be required to handle the bookkeeping, medical records, health insurance, as well as acting as receptionist. In a hospital, one may be a private secretary to a department head or work in the medical record department. A Medical Secretary is expected to be efficient and versatile. Secretaries must be able to comprehend scientific terminology, be accurate in typing, and know how to handle confidential medical information with discretion.

To become a Medical Secretary, one should enroll in a formal training course which can be from 9 to 18 months long. The primary areas of educational experience include medical terminology, insurance billing and coding, and word processing and typing skills.

• Less than 2 years

Employment opportunities exceed the number of available qualified applicants. Prospective employers include physician's offices, medical schools, laboratories and research institutes, and insurance companies. Medical Secretaries may command a higher salary than office secretaries. The very large size of the occupation, coupled with moderate turnover, generates several hundred thousand secretarial positions each year as experienced workers transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. The trend toward secretaries assuming more responsibilities traditionally reserved for managers and professionals should also stimulate demand. Widespread use of automated equipment is already changing the workflow in many offices. Administrative duties are being reassigned and the functions of entire departments are being structured. Large firms are experimenting with different methods of staffing their administrative support operations. In some cases, such traditional secretarial duties as typing or keyboarding, filing, copying, and accounting are being assigned to workers in other units or departments. In some law offices and physicians’ offices, for example, paralegals and medical assistants are taking over some tasks formerly done by secretaries. Professionals and managers increasingly do their own word processing rather than submit work to secretaries and other support staff. In addition, there is a trend in many offices for groups of professionals and managers to “share” clerical staff, allowing secretaries to assume new responsibilities. The traditional arrangement of one secretary per manager is becoming less prevalent; instead, secretaries increasingly support systems or units.

A number of other workers type, record information, and process paperwork. Among these are bookkeepers, receptionists, stenographers, personnel clerks, typists and word processors, legal assistants, medical assistants, and medical record technicians. A growing number of secretaries share in managerial and human resource responsibilities. Occupations using these skills include clerical supervisor, systems manager, office manager, and human resource officer. NOTE: Medical terminology and insurance billing and coding are individual courses, not comprehensive educational programs.

$23,430

• Kirksville Area Technical Center
• Labette Community College
• Moberly Area Community College
• Northwest Missouri State University
• Ozarks Technical Community College
• Rolla Technical Center
• Springfield College
• State Fair Community College
• West Virginia Junior College

• Aft Healthcare
• Association Of Health And Human Resources Mgt,inc.