How to become a medical receptionist

A medical receptionist is often the point of contact between the patients (public) and doctors or healthcare professionals. Their work is invaluable because it maintains a systematic order in what sometimes can be a chaotic environment.

Medical receptionist is a broader categorisation for all types of receptionists working in the medical industry. The receptionist jobs range from those working at a physician's office to those working at hospitals as well as for private health care providers that have centres across the country.

Role of a medical receptionist

The role of a medical receptionist is, in many ways, identical to a receptionist working in other industries. A medical receptionist is expected to:

• Meet and greeting patients
• Liase with medical professionals
• Locate patient medical records from a database
• Answer patient queries over the phone
• Deal with prescriptions and repeat prescriptions

Where do medical receptionists work?

• Offices of physicians
• Hospitals
• Private healthcare canters

Typically, a medical receptionist works the standard office hours, however, the pattern of hours could depend on the shifts worked because some healthcare organizations operate outside the usual business hours e.g. hospitals operate all hours and therefore will have receptionists working on shifts.

Requirements to be a medical receptionist

• A medical receptionist needs to have extremely confident personality because interaction with patients or people in general, as well as medical professionals is part and parcel of the job;

• Need to be able to work independently on their own;

• Need to be able to work as a team;

• Need to have a good level of proficiency with running and working with computer packages.

Preparing to become a medical receptionist

Although there are no specific requirements to become a medical receptionist, this may depend on the type of medical receptionist you intend to become. For more complex medical receptionist jobs, a receptionist would be expected to have either some qualifications relating to a medical receptionist course; past experience as a medical receptionist; or to undergo intensive training prior to starting the job or on the job training.

• Any accredited business administration courses can provide good grounding for a job as a medical receptionist because these courses tend to provide skills required by an administrator, which is what a medical receptionist, in effect, is.

• In the UK, there is a range of receptionist courses offered by AMSPAR (Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Managers, Administrators and Receptionists).

Medical receptionist certification

Many online education course providers now offer accredited certification for medical receptionists. These courses provide an in depth knowledge of the human anatomy, medical terms and a general understanding of the medical profession.

How to enter the medical receptionist profession

There is no age barrier to entering the medical receptionist profession. Candidates as young as 16 are able to apply for jobs as a medical receptionist; At this age, it's probably more likely to be a training program though.

Medical receptionist salary

The salary earned by a medical receptionist will vary due to various important factors: The type of medical receptionist the person is; where the receptionist is working; how experienced the receptionist is. However, the median hourly wage is around the $13 mark.

Earnings will increase with experience and the level of responsibility accorded to the receptionist by the organization.

Due to many healthcare organizations such as hospitals being open 24 hours, many will require their receptionists to work in shifts i.e. in rotation. Of course, receptionists will be financially compensated for working outside normal business hours.

Receptionists also have to accept that working outside normal hours goes with the territory of being a receptionist in some sectors.