The shortage of medical assistants is affecting the healthcare field. A shortage of workers is being felt across the country. The shortage, which is hitting different specific professions, is also hitting the medical assistant field, where thousands of newly trained workers are needed.
“For all of us, the next workforce is critical,” Mary Ann Osborn, vice president, and chief clinical officer at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, said in an article published on TheGazette.com. “It’s not something one organization will solve.”
The article focused on the nursing shortage, which according to the U.S. Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast, a shortage of registered nurses is projected to spread across the country between 2009 and 2030. “Projections from a separate agency, the Health Resources and Services Administration, state that the nursing shortage will grow to more than 1 million by 2020,” the article said.
“About 42 percent of nurses in Iowa are 50 years old or older,” said Rita Frantz, dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Nursing. “So there will be an exodus in the next 10 years or so” as the state’s nurses retire.
The shortage isn’t just hitting nursing, as there is also a growing shortage of medical assistants. Milwaukee Career College offers a medical assistant training program that offers students relevant training that today’s healthcare employers are looking for in new applicants. Medical assistants are needed across the country, but many employers are looking for applicants who have training from a school that offers foundation skills and hands-on experience.
Medical facilities across the country need workers who are professionally trained as medical assistants, who have a strong work ethic and are people that can be trusted.
The work of a medical assistant is important and a simple mistake or careless action can have a pretty big consequence. That is why medical employers are looking for applicants who have the right mix of professional training and a work ethic that values attention to detail.
Employers are seeking thousands of new medical assistants, but they are especially interested in those who have completed a quality training program like the one at Milwaukee Career Center.
The healthcare industry is one of the nation’s fastest growing and you don’t have to become a doctor or nurse to take advantage of this growing industry and the jobs it offers. Nearly 82 percent of all positions in the healthcare industry require some type of advanced degree or training and the pay difference between those with training and those without is large. Employers are looking for professionally trained medical assistants, making now the perfect time to enter this growing career field.
A Health Media Leader report on the changes taking place in the healthcare industry highlighted the growing role insurance companies are playing in Medicaid programs.
“More states have been expanding public insurance options through managed Medicaid programs, which put health insurers in charge of offering Medicaid coverage,” the report said. “This added focus will mean the insurers that are already dealing with that needy population will have an advantage over those that have stayed out of needy populations as states relax Medicaid salary restrictions.”
The growth of both health insurance and programs like Medicaid will increase the need for medical office professionals who can handle the growing amount of administrative work that will take place. The healthcare industry is already one that has a large administrative component, but that will only increase and medical office professionals with quality training will continue to be needed.
The growth of the Web in the medical field will also change the type of work medical office professionals will be expected to perform.
“Hospital leaders should recognize that patients are becoming increasingly educated in the use of online tools that allow them to compare not only the price of certain elective surgeries but other quality measures, such as the number of C-section deliveries or the mortality rate for heart bypass operations,” Health Media Leader reported. “In addition to the need to develop or refine a system-wide plan for presenting such information, there are opportunities to utilize such data market development.”