By: Nancy Brewster HS210-01
What duties should be completed before the patient arrives to your office?
Employees should arrive to work a little earlier than the patients to get the office completely prepared for the day. Employees should check the answering service for any messages left overnight and record those messages in the message book. After recording the messages, go pull the correct patient’s medical record for the medical assistant to retrieve any information for the patient and follow up with them.
Employees should make two copies of the appointments for the day and place one on the physician’s desk. If there are more than one physician at the office then make sure each physician gets a copy of the appointments for the day. Once you give the physicians a copy of the appointments, take the other copy and go pull all medical records that are needed for the day and place them in a secure location where Medical Assistants can get them. Check the medical records to see if there is enough progress note space available for the physician to write notes, if not then add a new sheet. Also look over the medical records from previous visits to see if there was any lab work or treatments were ordered for the patient and see if the results are ready for the physician.
Employees should go check all the patient exam rooms to make sure they are restocked with necessary supplies such as gowns, gauze pads, bandages, cotton balls and drapes. Make sure to check all the restrooms to see if they are clean and stocked with supplies such as toilet paper, hand soap, paper towels and hand sanitizer. Some offices keep urine specimen cups in the restrooms, if so, check to make sure there is enough to last for the day in each restroom. Check all exam rooms to make sure there aren’t any prescription pads or medical files lying around accessible to patients. You don’t want patients to find the