Kinn's Chapter 1 The Professional MA and Healthcare Team

Holistic

A form of healing that considers the whole person (i.e., body, mind, spirit, and emotions) in individual treatment plans.

Triage

A method of prioritizing patients so that the most urgent cases receive care first.

Professional

A person who is characterized by or conforms to the technical or ethical standards of a certain profession.

Work Ethic and Punctuality

A work ethic is composed of sets of values based on hard work and diligence. All employees should know and follow the attendance policies of the facility as outlined in the policies and procedures manual. Excessive absences or tardiness (being late) will negatively affect the employee. It may be grounds for termination (job loss). If the medical assistant must be absent or tardy, the supervisor must be notified prior to the start time. All employees must be punctual (on time) every day.

Healthcare Facilities Secondary Level of Care

Both primary care practices (PCPs) and specialists provide care and larger municipal or district hospitals that provide a wider variety of specialty care and departments

Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Five core functions and attributes

Comprehensive care, Patient-centered care, Coordinated care, Accessible service, and Quality and safety.

Prioritizing

Deciding which tasks are most important.

Jonas Salk

Developed the first safe and effective injectable vaccine for polio.

Albert Sabin

Developed the oral live-virus vaccine for polio 10 years after Salk developed the first injected vaccine.

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

First physician to recommend hand washing to prevent puerperal fever; believed there was a connection between performing autopsies and then delivering babies that caused puerperal fever in new mothers.

Ambulatory care centers

Freestanding emergency center, day surgery center, physician's offices, group practices, and multispecialty group practices.

Barriers to Professionalism

Having a negative attitude can affect the whole team, procrastination - Doing your tasks quickly and efficiently is the best way to be a professional; Personal problems and "baggage" - the MA should never transfer personal problems or baggage to anyone at the medical facility, especially patients; Gossip, rumors and the grapevine - the MA should refuse to participate in the office rumor mill; Personal phone calls, e-mails and business - the MA should not take unnecessary phone calls, check personal e-mail from friends and family at the office; and Dating co-workers.

Professionalism

It must be practiced at all times in the workplace, it can lead to wage increases and promotions, and unacceptable behavior is detrimental to the medical assistant's career.

Prioritizing and Time and Management Skills Use code system to prioritize task:

M: must be done that day, S: should be done that day, and C: could be done if time permits.

Scope of Practice for Medical Assistants

MA's are not independent practitioners. They can never diagnose, prescribe or treat patients. The medical assistant's actions are always done under the supervision of a provider such as a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant. He or she should follow the written order or follow established policies and procedures.

Christiaan Barnard

Performed the first human heart transplant.

MA Clinical and Administrative Skills would be expectation of a competent medical assistant

Performing insurance coding and billing; Giving instructions to patients about self-care after treatments; Using the computer to perform a variety of office functions; Assisting during physical exam; Performing patient screening procedures; Performing ECGs, phlebotomy, first aid procedures, and infection control procedures; Answering telephones; Managing patient scheduling; Documenting accurately in patient health records; Managing facility correspondence; Following legal and ethical principles.

Examples of specific tasks that are beyond the scope of practice of medical assistants

Performing telephone or in-person triage (medical assistants are not legally authorized to assess or diagnose symptoms); Prescribing medications or making recommendations about over-the-counter drugs and remedies; Giving out drug samples without provider permission, automatically submitting refill prescription requests without provider orders; Administering intravenous (IV) medications and starting; Flushing, or removing IV lines unless permitted by state law; Analyzing or interpreting test results, and operating laser equipment.

Healthcare Facilities Tertiary Level of Care

Referral system for primary or secondary care facilities, provide care for complicated cases and trauma, and medical centers, regional and specialty hospitals.

Healthcare Facilities Primary Level of Care

Smaller city or community hospitals and usually serve as the first level of contact between the community members and the hospital setting

Hippocrates

The Father of Medicine and contributed the Hippocratic Oath to medicine.

PCMH-Coordinated Care

The PCMH coordinates care across all parts of the health care system, including specialty care, hospitals, home health care, and community services and supports. The PCMH works at creating and maintaining open communication among patients and families, the medical home, and members of the broader healthcare team.

PCMH-Quality and Safety

The PCMH is committed to delivering quality healthcare by providing evidence-based medicine, sharing decision-making with patients and families, assessing practice performance and working on improvements, collecting safety data, and measuring and responding to patient experiences and patient satisfaction. All of these data are made public so that there is an open assessment of the practice with possible methods for improvement.

PCMH-Accessible Services

The PCMH is designed to deliver accessible care. This is achieved through establishing policies that create shorter wait times for urgent needs, more office hours, around-the-clock telephone or electronic access to a member of the care team, and alternative methods of communication such as email and telephone care.

PCMH-Patient-Centered

The PCMH provides primary health care that is holistic and relationship-based, always considering the individual patient and all facets of his or her life. The goal of PCMH is to encourage and support patients in learning how to manage and organize their own care. Patients and families are recognized as core members of the care team.

PCMH-Comprehensive Care

The PCP has the potential to provide physical and mental health care, prevention and wellness, acute care, and chronic care to all patients in the practice. However, comprehensive care cannot be provided by only the practicing physician. It requires a team of care providers.

Diagnostic medical sonographer

The allied health specialist who performs ultrasound diagnostic procedures under the supervision of a physician.

Morale

The mental or emotional condition with respect to cheerfulness or confidence.

Doctors of Medicine (MD)

are considered allopathic physicians. They diagnose illness and disease, prescribe treatment for their patients. They have a wide variety of rights, including writing prescriptions, performing surgery, offering wellness advice, and performing preventive medicine procedures.

Hospitalists

are physicians whose primary professional focus is the general care of hospitalized patients. Most hospitalists are employed by the healthcare facility instead of having individual freestanding offices in which patients are seen and treated.

Through cooperation, the physician's office healthcare team is more productive and their major concern is

caring for patients, great customer service is provided, the team members have greater satisfaction, and there is a great sense of communication and understanding as a team.

Doctors of Osteopathy (DO)

complete requirements similar to those of a Medical Doctor to graduate and practice medicine. They use medicine and surgery, in addition to osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) in treating their patients. They stress preventative medicine and holistic patient care, in addition to a special focus on the musculoskeletal system and OMT.

William Harvey

first described circulatory system.

Doctors of Chiropractic (DC)

focus on the relationship between the spine and the function of the body. The goal is to correct alignment problems and thereby alleviate pain, improve function, and support the body's natural ability to heal itself.

Medical Assistants are multiskilled healthcare workers who

function under the direction of a licensed provider and are primarily employed in outpatient and ambulatory care facilities such as medical offices and clinics.

Physician Assistants (PA)

is a certified healthcare professional who provides diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive healthcare services under the supervision of a medical doctor.

Chain-of-events map

mind maps would display the cause and effect of events.

Nurse Practitioners (NP's)

provide basic patient care services, including diagnosing and prescribing medications for common illnesses, or they may have additional training and expertise in a specialty of medicine. They must have advanced academic training beyond the RN degree and vast clinical experience.

The process of critical thinking involves

sorting out conflicting information, weighing your knowledge about that information, ignoring or letting go of personal biases, and deciding on a reasonable belief or action. Critical thinking is actually an active search for the truth.

If managers were asked to name the most important attributes for medical professionals,

teamwork would be high on the list. Teamwork is a vital part of the medical profession. All staff members must work together to care for the patient and perform required duties in the healthcare facility.

Since medical assistants are trained in both administrative and clinical skills,

they are the perfect employees to meet the needs of this increasing population and for maintaining a high-quality medical practice.