Medical Assistant I

TEMPORARY MEDICAL ASSISTANT

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Santa Cruz Community Health (SCCH) is a multi-site, Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving Santa Cruz County residents. SCCH began as a women's health collective in 1974 with the mission to improve the health of our patients and the community and advocate the feminist goals of social, political, and economic equality. Now, 50 years later, we serve that same mission at our three clinic sites: the Santa Cruz Women's Health Center in downtown Santa Cruz serving women and children; the Live Oak Health Center serving everyone; and the Santa Cruz Mountain Health Center providing appropriate and expanded access to care for our patients in the San Lorenzo Valley.

Driven by our commitment to health care as a human right, SCCH is a leading non-profit provider offering comprehensive health services to our patients, regardless of their ability to pay. We have been recognized in the community as a leader in delivering high-quality, innovative care, and we are active in local, state, and national advocacy work that empowers our patients and community to be healthy, happy, and successful.

SCCH has a diverse patient population and an engaging and friendly work environment. Our caring and committed staff work as a team to fulfill our mission so that all our patients have access to quality, whole-person health care.

POSITION SUMMARY:

A Medical Assistant (MA) ensures patients receive excellent customer service care and that operations are conducted in support of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model. Medical Assistant’s work in Care Teams and are responsible for a variety of back office medical assisting, lab, and patient education duties. Duties include but are not limited to, preparing charts for patient visits, rooming patients, taking, and recording vital signs, assisting providers with exams, and working as a strong and flexible member of a health care team. Medical Assistants are expected to demonstrate exceptional critical thinking, clinical, patient relations, organizational, and time management skills.

Classification: Temporary, Full-Time, Hourly, Non-Exempt

Reports to: Clinic Manager & Site Operations Director

Compensation: $23.23 - $28.41 per hour, depending on experience and certification, DOE. Plus $0.50/hour bilingual differential Spanish/English

Location: Women's Health Center

Hours: Varies; Some evenings and/or Saturdays required
Language: English; English/Spanish strongly preferred

**CORE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:**

• Provide health education to patients under the direction of medical providers.
• Assist providers with medical procedures and provide direct patient care (under the direction of medical providers) when demand is high.
• Attend and participate in organization meetings and attend assigned training courses.
• Ensure protection of individually identifiable health information by HIPAA regulations.
• Assist Clinic Manager in ensuring that facilities are safe and meet staff and patient needs.
• Create and support a positive teamwork environment.

Job Expertise

• Demonstrates knowledge of medical assisting principles and practices.
• Demonstrates knowledge and use of clinic policies and procedures as well as applicable federal and state rules and regulations.
• Applies technical and procedural know-how to get the job done.
• Serves as a ‘resource person’ on whom others rely for advice and answer difficult questions.
• Effectively gathers and uses information, procedures, materials, equipment, and techniques required for job.

• Acts as a patient liaison with front office, billing staff, and providers.
• Assists providers with procedures.
• Demonstrates ability to effectively use Electronic Health Records system (EHR).
• Performs lab tests and documents results.
• Conducts pregnancy screening, administers adult and pediatric injections, provides health education, information and referrals as needed.
• Sets up and breaks down exam rooms.
• Prepares paperwork for external laboratories, sterilizes equipment in autoclave, and assists with stocking, inventory, and ordering medical/clinic supplies.

Customer Service

• Provides patient-centered customer service at all times.
• Demonstrates the ability to anticipate patients' needs and deliver services and respond to patients in a timely, accurate, courteous, respectful, and friendly manner.
• Demonstrates ownership, initiative, attention to detail, and follow-through.
• Approaches problem-solving by focusing on patients first.
• Advocates for care that best serves the patient.
• Addresses customer complaints/problems in a timely manner.

Communication Skills

• Oral and written communication is clear, concise, accurate, positive, and respectful.
• Demonstrates comprehension of oral and written questions, instructions, and information rapidly, thoroughly, and accurately.
• Response to oral and written questions, instructions, and information is timely and appropriate.
• Written communication is well-organized, legible, concise, neat, and in proper grammatical form.

• Checks work related email and mailbox on a daily basis.

Teamwork and Interpersonal Skills

• Dealings with others are characterized by fairness, courtesy, diplomacy, honesty, firmness, empathy, and confidence.
• Effective in offering support and assistance to others, in obtaining information from others, and in supplying information to others.
• Demonstrates a positive attitude, flexibility, and ability to develop effective relationships by helping others accomplish tasks and using collaboration and conflict resolution skills.

Judgment and Problem Solving

• Uses critical thinking and common sense to analyze situations, make timely and valid decisions, and take appropriate actions
• Demonstrates good judgment in making decisions
• Resolves issues independently and only seeks assistance as needed

Reliability

• Completes assigned duties & responsibilities in an accurate, timely and efficient manner

• Arrives to work on time and maintains consistent attendance
• Follows instructions and appropriate procedures

• Maintains patient confidentiality as required by HIPAA

**COMPETENCIES:
Accountability: **Takes ownership for delivering on commitments; owns mistakes and uses them as opportunities for learning and development; openly discusses his/her actions and their consequences both good and bad; has an ability to identify strengths and developmental opportunities and leverages insight to make adjustments to improve their effectiveness; courage to have difficult conversations.

Clinical Skills: Stays up to date and knowledgeable on the clinical guidelines laid out in SCCHC policy and procedures.

Communicating Effectively: Shares information. Listens and involves others. Clearly conveys ideas in a manner that engages others and helps them understand and retain the message. Ability to manage competing demands, able to deal with frequent changes, delays or unexpected events and ensuring work responsibilities are covered when absent.

Patient/Customer Focus: Builds patient confidence, is committed to increasing patient satisfaction and engagement, assumes responsibility for solving patient problems, ensures commitments to pateints are met, responds to internal customers.

Decision Making/Judgment: Approaches problems and decisions methodically and objectively; involves others as needed; uses sound judgment in making decisions and understanding the impact to themselves, customers, their team, and the organization; conducts the appropriate analysis to identify the symptoms and root cause of issues; makes timely decisions.

Leading Change: Supports people in their efforts to try new things; embraces change; maintains a constant focus on efforts to improve performance, quality and efficiency of work processes.

Results Orientation: Is focused on outcomes and accomplishments; follows through on commitments; can be counted upon to successfully execute on goals; motivated by achievement and a need for closure; has an attention to detail and is both efficient and effective in achieving a high level of measureable outcomes; persists in achieving goals despite obstacles

**QUALIFCATIONS:
Minimum Qualifications: **

• High School graduate or equivalent
• Clinical Medical Assistant School indicating completion of program including externship
• Current BLS/CPR certification
• Minimum of one year back-office experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bilingual English/Spanish strongly preferred
• Good knowledge of general back-office procedures, such as taking vitals, and administering immunizations.
• Good comprehensive knowledge of medical terminology in English and Spanish
• Emergency response capability for possible crisis situations

Skills & Knowledge:

• Knowledge of standard clinical healthcare practice policies and procedures.
• Experience working on computers and Knowledge of Microsoft Office software products.
• Ability to work with practice management and EHR systems.
• Knowledge of health insurance plans.
• Knowledge of healthcare terminology, procedures, and practice.
• Knowledge of HIPAA regulations.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Knowledge of personnel management and labor law as it relates to this position.
• Ability to work independently and to use good judgment.
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with co-workers.
• Possess empathy towards the needs of others with excellent leadership and coaching skills.
• Actively works to maintain a good working relationship and team approach with peers and co workers.

BENEFITS THAT SUPPORT YOU:

We offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package to support employee well-being and work-life balance. Benefits are available to employees working 20 or more hours per week, and include:

• Employer-subsidized medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• Optional coverage: pet insurance and other supplemental plans
• Coverage begins the first of the month after 30 days of employment
• Paid time off and holidays starting on day one
• 401(k) plan with 2% automatic enrollment and 2% employer match
• Wellness reimbursement and telecommuting stipend (as applicable)
• License and certification fee reimbursement (as applicable)

Internal Staff: Internal staff who transition into this position will retain their current benefits, tenure, PTO accruals, and retirement matching as applicable, with no lapse in coverage

Santa Cruz Community Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer (W/M/V/D).