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Job Title: Medical Practice Supervisor
Type of Company: I work for a large multi-specialty medical practice.
Education: High School Diploma
Previous Experience: I started as a secretary in a cardiac unit at a community hospital then worked as a medical secretary for an internal medicine practice and for a cardiology practice.
Job Tasks: I am responsible for the daily administrative operations of a surgery department. On any given day we can have several physicians who represent different specialties seeing patients. I need to ensure that the staff are performing their given tasks and functions within the department. This means that the secretaries need to be answering the phones and medical assistants need to be bringing patients to the exam rooms for the physicians.
I am the troubleshooter for all levels of staff within the department, from the secretary and medical assistants to the nurses and physicians.
A great deal of my time on any given day can be spent trying to solve customer service issues for the patients, staff, and clinicians. It is not an easy task to balance the needs of the department with the needs of your employees and patients.
If a physician is unhappy with his schedule it is up to me to come up with a solution and ensure that it doesn't happen again. When staff have an issue they are trying to solve for a patient we will brainstorm together to come up with an appropriate solution.
Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best part of my job is helping a patient or one of my staff. There is nothing better then being able to talk with a patient whom illness has made cranky. Once they get to the supervisor it is usually because they have had a bad experience. It is very rewarding to work with a patient and have them say thank you in the end.
The worst part of my job is having to discipline my staff. Everyone works hard but as a supervisor you sometimes have to come down a little hard on people.
Job Tips: You need to develop very strong customer service skills and you need to be able to remain calm under pressure. Staff look to their supervisor for leadership and that person cannot be a hot-head.
You will need to be able to motivate others and you need to be a teacher. Basic knowledge of the different roles within a medical practice is essential. Working as a medical secretary or medical assistant is a great place to start. This gives you the basic medical terminology and understanding of processes.
Additional Thoughts: When people think about a supervisor's role, they assume that it puts you in charge. This may be so in a literal sense (and with me, definitely, the buck stops here). But I am there to serve my staff as much as to command -- anything it takes in order for them to get the essential work done every day. When I say this I mean that I need to make sure they have the tools they need to do their jobs. If the phone is broken, staff come to me; if a computer does not work, staff come to me; if a patient wants to file a complaint, the staff come to me.
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