Just as you might need help keeping things running smoothly at your medical office or practice, you might need help creating a job description to help you find a well-qualified medical secretary. Before you discount the usefulness of a professionally written and well-tailored job description, bear in mind that your description goes a long way in saving you time, business and possibly even money in the long run. To give your hiring process a booster shot, it’s a good idea to have a medical secretary job description sample on hand.
Medical Secretary Job Summary
Our weekend medical secretary is tasked with performing standard administrative and clerical duties in addition to supporting Dr. Bossa. You’ll organize and screen physical and electronic mail as well as physical and electronic documents. The job also requires that you schedule patient appointments, set up referrals when necessary and ensure patients receive their medical bills in a timely manner. The position also involves light accounting duties (necessary training will be provided).
Medical Secretary Job Responsibilities & Duties
- Receive and announce patients and visitors.
- Schedule physical therapy, MRIs, CTs, lab tests and X-rays.
- Ensure Dr. Bossa’s calendar is properly maintained and synched on his electronic devices (phone and tablet).
- Prepare medical summaries and reports, transcribe diction, and control as well as coordinate projects.
- Backup patient files and the medical database on a regular basis (preferably at least once a week).
- Perform maintenance on office equipment, adhere to proper operation procedures, troubleshoot breakdowns and schedule repairs when necessary.
- Adhere to office policies to ensure quality and adhere to state and federal medical document regulations.
Medical Secretary Skills & Qualifications
- At least an associate’s degree (prefer a candidate with a bachelor’s degree, but willing to train the right person)
- Two years of experience as a medical secretary
- Knowledge of fundamental medical terminology (willing to teach the right candidate)
- Proficient in computer software applications
- Superior customer service skills
- Time management skills
- Attention to detail
- Knowledge of medical databases
Company Profile
Dr. Frank Bossa specializes in internal medicine and has more than 20 years of experience practicing in the Chicago area. His areas of specialty include diagnosing a variety of diseases that affect adults, disease prevention and health promotion. Dr. Bossa strives to create a medical office that is welcoming, comfortable and professional to a variety of patients and a variety of patient needs. He is fluent in Spanish as well as Korean. While remaining under his care, you can expect nothing but compassion, detailed information regarding your medical situation and flexible terms when it comes to taking care of your medical bill. We look forward to seeing you and helping you improve your health.
Writing a Job Description: Best Practices
- While having a medical secretary job description sample on hand can certainly prove useful, you might find the one above to be lacking for your specific needs. If so, know there are specific practices and dos and don’ts to bear in mind while crafting your job description. Be sure to use them to narrow down your pool of candidates and save time on sorting through submission materials from unqualified applicants. Such practices include:
- DO use language that’s specific and to-the-point. This paints an accurate picture of your practice or office and helps candidates decide whether they should submit resumes or cover letters.
- DO add bullets points throughout your job description wherever possible. Doing so make things easy to scan and easier to digest than large blocks of text
- DON’T mention anything about benefits or salary is doing so is against your most current policy.
- DO be sure to include a call to action as well as contact information at the bottom of your job description. Applicants should know who to get in touch with if they have questions and where they should submit application materials.
- DON’T forget to provide examples of your company policy throughout your job description. Let candidates know the type of personality you’re looking for and the type of work environment they can expect if selected for the job. As always, be specific and transparent.
- DON’T stuff too many keywords or key phrases throughout your job description. Doing so looks clunky, often comes across as unprofessional and may give the wrong impression about your business.
Medical Secretary Job Responsibilities
While the content of the medical secretary job responsibilities section in your job description is important, you cannot afford to neglect the formatting either. By organizing the information effectively, you can increase the chances that talented professionals will get the right impression and submit their application. You should format your medical secretary job description as a bulleted list and include between six and eight bullet points. Each bullet point should describe the daily responsibilities and begin with a strong action verb. The below example entries provide a good selection of strong verbs that are especially beneficial for this position specifically. Think about what daily actions will be necessary when writing.
Whatever else you choose to include with it, the job responsibilities section should be the longest section in the medical secretary job description. This is because it includes the information that readers will be using to decide whether they want to apply for the position.
- Maintain medical records, filing documentation carefully and quickly retrieving information as needed
- Create records based on patient information, physicians’ findings and dictation
- Answer calls, interact with patients and explain procedures to guests
- Manage the schedule of appointments, making new appointments to best accommodate physicians and patients alike
Medical Secretary Job Specifications
When writing your medical secretary job description, do not neglect the job qualifications and skills section. It may be short, but that does not mean it is not important. One effective practice is to format it as two bulleted lists, one for mandatory qualifications and another for preferences. This lets you greatly narrow down the kinds of candidates who apply and weed out unqualified professionals without discouraging those who are the best matches for the position. Because there is not much education required for this position, there may be relatively few mandatory qualifications. These may be previous working experiences, foreign languages or WPM. Preferred qualifications are usually skills, attributes or behavioral qualities.
Because the medical secretary job specifications influence how strict the qualifications are, it affects how many readers will choose to apply. You should avoid making the opening seem intimidating while ensuring the minimum requirements are clear to dissuade underqualified applicants. Strengthen your medical secretary job description with these example entries.
- Must have completed relevant certification program, associate’s degree preferred
- Must be fluent in both English and Spanish
- WPM above 60 and the ability to record dictation in real time
- Strong written communication skills as well as interpersonal skills
- Highly organized with administrative familiarity