Becoming a Medical Receptionist

Being a medical receptionist does not require as much education, compared to other medical professions. However, it requires certain skills and experience to be a good, functional and efficient medical receptionist.

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A medical receptionist’s job is someone who serves as intermediary between a doctor and a patient. Unlike other receptionist in the industry, the job of a medical receptionist does not just involve greeting patients at a doctor’s clinic. Duties of a medical receptionist are tedious and need meticulous management for he/she handles queries by patients, schedules appointments with them for the doctor, manages their records and details, answers mails and phone calls, explains prescriptions to patients, deals with insurance claims, and communicates with other medical and health care professionals. All these are front-desk responsibilities, yet these are very crucial and also go beyond the front desk, and having the knowledge and skills of some amount of medical jargons, business skills and office management will definitely help in this field.

It is to note that this is a job relies more on personal skills, than on any type of education, and most of the training is received on the job. For those who are interested, certification is available and definitely gives an edge to those who wish to pursue it as a full-time career.

What are the Requirements?

This job relies more on skill than on education. But before you can enter in this field, there are certain educational requirements that must be fulfilled along with the development of more essential skills.

You need a high school diploma or a GED for this is a basic requirement toward becoming one. If you have good grades on the sciences and maths, you might be opt for better performance on the job. While most such students may directly get jobs as medical receptionists, there are other additional things that you can take and do to get better at the job of medical receptionist such as Associates degree. Of course having a college degree would be an edge to land for the job, even for medical receptionists. If you decide to enter college, you can focus on subjects such as psychology, communications, computers, business skills and management, accounting, and statistics to develop the necessary skills for the job. One or two years in college will equip you well for this job.

Aside from a college degree, certification or pursuing a certificate course is also an option for an edge over others in the field. This is usually a one year course that will involve education in business communication, medical laws and ethics, computer programs, medical terminology, and workplace relations. Such a course will definitely help and arm you with some basic skills that you can hone when on the job. You may choose to attain only certification instead of an associate’s degree from college. While education is an edge, internships and volunteer work are definitely advisable for this career, for any job is better performed when one has experience in it.

Attaining an internship or performing some kind of related volunteer work will always be of use. These are aspects that you can highlight in your resume as a fresh medical receptionist that will undoubtedly help you get that first job.