Program Overview
Major ID: 024A
Program Start Dates: Fall, Spring, Summer-limited course offerings
Medical Office Professionals are critical to the support of clinical staff in the health care industry. Physicians, nurses and other direct patient contact personnel rely on well-trained medical office professionals to assist them in the creation, maintenance, and retention of quality medical documentation based on patient care. The medical office professional’s job may include transcribing medical documents, creating and processing correspondence, scheduling patient appointments, scanning documents into digital health records, releasing patient information, collecting or abstracting medical data, understanding reimbursement methodologies, meeting physician documentation needs, and other related duties.
Applicants should possess excellent communication skills, meticulous attention to detail, good spelling, finger dexterity, and extreme accuracy in their work. Candidates considering this field should be comfortable reading and analyzing data for long periods of time, listening to dictated material for extended periods, assisting the patient documentation needs, and working on an independent basis.
Career Opportunities
Medical Office Professionals enjoy salaries in the top bracket of office professionals. Some may advance to office supervisors or managers with further education; and some may develop their own business based on their medical office specialty, such as transcription.
The Medical Office Professional may work in a physician’s office, surgery center, specialty clinic, hospital, insurance company, government agency, research foundation, long-term care facility, dental office, consulting firm, rehabilitation center or other health care facility.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical Secretarial Occupations are anticipated to increase by +/- 16% between 2018 and 2028 (www.bls.gov).
Program Outcomes
- Graduates will apply basic medical sciences in accordance to the profession.
- Graduates will demonstrate use of office and healthcare-based software applications.
- Graduates will demonstrate entry-level data collection, documentation, and healthcare regulatory practices.
- Graduates will apply business procedures in accordance with the medical office profession.
- Graduates will transcribe and edit medical reports and related office correspondence.
Program Faculty
Jennifer Anglin
jennifer.anglin@saintpaul.edu
Part-time/Full-time Options
This program can be completed by using a combination of online, day, evening, and Saturday courses. Part-time and full-time options are available.
Transfer Opportunities
Saint Paul College has transfer agreements & partnerships between many post-secondary institutions. For more information please go to saintpaul.edu/Transfer.