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One glimpse behind the scenes at your doctor's office may leave your head spinning. As you sit quietly thumbing through a magazine in the waiting room, the phone is ringing with patients hoping to see the doctor, the fax machine hums as it receives someone's blood work results, a pharmaceutical representative stops by unexpectedly to speak with the doctor and one of the doctor's colleagues is on hold waiting for confirmation regarding that evening's lecture to hospital surgeons. As the doctor spends time treating patients, who is gracefully managing the information tsunami that has consumed the front office? A medical secretary.
Medical Secretary Training Overview
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than 470,000 individuals in the United States were employed as medical secretaries in 2008. These highly specialized professionals perform the variety of administrative and clinical duties necessary to run a medical office efficiently and effectively. In addition to scheduling meetings and patient appointments, a medical secretary will often:
Medical Secretary Training: Degrees and Coursework
Medical secretary training is increasingly leaning towards graduation from a postsecondary degree program. An associate's degree in Medical Office Administration is one way to prepare for a career as a medical secretary. Medical Office Administration courses cover topics such as accounting, business, customer service and medical terminology, law, ethics, laboratory procedures and record systems. Many Medical Office Administrator degree programs also require students to complete an internship in a physician's office to gain "real world" experience.
In addition to medical secretary training degree programs, several valuable certifications are available to help medical secretaries sharpen their skills and become more attractive to prospective employers.
Medical Secretary Career Outlook
Medical secretaries are valued members of any medical office team. They perform vital office functions such as scheduling appointments; billing patients and insurance companies; and compiling and recording medical charts. They have specialized knowledge about medical terminology and hospital and laboratory procedures. All of this makes a medical secretary's contributions essential the success of a medical practice.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2009, 469,740 people were employed as medical secretaries and earned an average annual salary of $31,450. The field is anticipated to experience above-average employment growth over the decade between 2008 and 2018. In fact, it is expected to increase by 27 percent during this time period.
When exploring the industries in the medical field that employ the largest number of medical secretaries, physician offices lead the pack, employing 176,040 professionals in 2009. Physician offices are followed by general medical and surgical hospitals, dentist offices and offices of other health practitioners. Outpatient care centers were fifth in the list of the top five employers of medical secretaries, employing approximately 14,680 individuals in the field.
As with any other occupation, there are certain areas in the country that employ more medical secretaries than others. Ohio employs the largest number of individuals in the field with a total of 36,090. Ohio is followed by Massachusetts (20,880), Oregon (11,270) and Maine (4,320). Delaware rounds out the top five, employing 3,200 medical secretaries in 2009.
Although the average annual salary for medical secretaries was approximately $31,450 in the United States in 2009, several states average higher compensation for individuals working in the field--four of which are on the east coast. The District of Columbia awarded the highest annual salary with an average of $42,240; Massachusetts was second with an average of $37,890 annually; followed by Connecticut ($36,890), New Jersey ($36,830) and Washington ($36,390).
Resources for Medical Secretaries
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