Course Overview Medical Administrative Assistant Degree Program

When a medical administrative assistant arrives at work each morning, they can be faced with gamut of tasks. These professionals can easily switch from administrative to clinical tasks throughout the day and their base of knowledge needs to be as wide as the field of duties they cover.

Two courses help medical administrative assistants to stretch their overall knowledge and prepare them to better assist patients and doctors, said Jessica Bland, supportive care nurse practitioner and Bryant & Stratton College instructor.

HCAS 143 Human Disease and Drug Pharmacology – This course, Bland said, covers medications and what disease processes and/or symptoms they help with. It also reviews the disease processes themselves, such as inflammation, infection and autoimmune disorders. She said it is helpful for a medical administrative assistant to have the medical terminology and language in their tool belt in order to better communicate with patients, families, as well as the healthcare provider they work for. Bland said understanding the differences between diseases and the medicines used to treat them is especially important when an MAA is tasked with calling a patient to discuss test results. Inevitably, the patient will have questions. This course will help prepare an MAA to answer them with some authority and knowledge.

MDAA 101 Introduction to Medical Office Support and Services – For a new medical administrative assistant student, this is a core course and one of the first courses to be taken. Want to know what happens behind the front desk of a medical office? This course will teach you. Basics covered include customer service and communication skills. Instructors will also teach basic billing and scheduling tasks and how the MAA’s role is an important part of a successfully functioning medical office. However, Bland said students will also delve into discussing how to handle difficult scenarios that happen every day such as HIPAA violations and ethical dilemmas. Bland said each topic is important in helping an MAA understand their role, the reason behind their tasks as well as understanding how to develop into a professional in this role.