Crafting the Perfect Medical Virtual Assistant Job Description
Medical professionals today face a wide variety of challenges and predicaments. From the ever-changing landscape of the healthcare industry itself to the piling plights of patients, doctors, physicians, and other healthcare professionals need all the help they can get. Here’s where virtual medical assistants come in.
Medical virtual assistants can lighten the burdens you carry as you proceed with your medical practice. They can perform various duties and administrative tasks that can free you up to focus on patient care. That said, you will need to hire the right candidate.
Key Elements of a Medical Virtual Assistant Job Description
When you want to hire the perfect virtual medical assistant for your practice, you’ll need to write a proper and coherent job description to attract the most suitable candidates. A job description tells the applicant everything they need to know about the position. It should clearly mention the following:
- Duties and responsibilities
- Expected tasks
- Skills and qualifications
- Benefits
The tone of the write-up should also reflect your organization or practice. Since you are a business operating in the medical industry, your job description should sound professional and direct. This will attract virtual assistants who share your morals and values.
On top of hiring a virtual medical assistant who fits perfectly in your practice, it is given that they should also have the right skills and experience for the job.
Skills and Qualifications of Virtual Medical Assistants
The experience and skills of the virtual medical assistant are their most important qualifying factor. This informs you whether or not you should even entertain an applicant in the first place. VMeDx takes a look at this first and foremost whenever we recruit a virtual medical assistant.
The following are the skills and qualifications of the virtual medical assistant that your practice deserves.
Experience in the medical industry
Not all virtual medical assistants need to have experience in the medical industry. However, if you’re at a point in your practice where you require nothing less than the best in the business, then the best option for you is to hire a virtual medical assistant who does have a medical background.
Many virtual assistants today are former workers in the medical field such as nurses, pharmacists, and medical technologists, among others. These former healthcare workers shifted careers and became virtual assistants to achieve better wages and have more time for themselves. Incidentally, these VAs are highly skilled and capable of taking on the role of being your personal virtual assistant. They know the industry, the job, the stresses, and the expectations that come with this particular role.
Technologically literate
A good virtual medical assistant should be technologically literate. Their job requires them to handle technology in the form of various software, tools, online platforms, and more for the sake of assisting you. Having said that, the virtual medical assistant you hire should be able to navigate through the digital world using any tools and software you provide them.
As a virtual medical assistant, they’ll be tasked to handle multiple software that handle billing, patient data, appointment setting, and more. A technologically literate person and an experienced VA will know how to use them. If they have no prior experience with a particular software, their technological literacy will enable them to learn about it fairly quickly.
Extreme attention to detail
When you work in the healthcare industry, there is very little room for error in your job. The same is true for virtual medical assistants. A worker can minimize or mitigate mistakes when they pay extreme attention to detail in everything they do. This is something every virtual medical assistant should have.
Everything a virtual medical assistant does, from administrative tasks to customer-related queries requires them to be attentive and perfectionists. The way they handle patient data, sensitive information, prescription refills, and the like needs to be pristine. The smallest errors in these tasks can result in the most major setbacks and complications.
Team player
Your virtual medical assistant isn’t only there to make your life better. They can also assist the other workers in your clinic if you employ multiple people. As virtual assistants, it is their responsibility to elevate your practice. If that requires assisting the other employees in the clinic, they’re willing and capable of doing that.
Having said that, for them to be effective at this part of the job, they’ll need to be efficient team players. They need to be able to complete tasks efficiently with others, work well in a team setting, and follow instructions without much trouble. In short, they need to be the ultimate team players.
Able to take initiative
There are a lot of instances in the day-to-day life of a medical virtual assistant where they’ll need to take initiative for themselves. There may be certain tasks wherein the expectations are made clear but the instructions may not. In cases like these, the doctor may not always be available for the medical virtual assistant to approach. It is instances like these where they must take initiative.
Experience and innate expertise come into play here as well. The best medical virtual assistant should be able to complete tasks with initiative for the sake of your medical practice.
Excellent people skills
Your medical virtual assistant will also have to interact with other people occasionally while performing their jobs. Whether this is other employees, patients, or other healthcare representatives, they’ll need to be more than capable and comfortable when it comes to interacting with other people.
In short, they need to have excellent people skills. One of the main duties of virtual assistants is customer service. People skills are a requirement when it comes to this. Other than that, you’ll also want to be comfortable and set your mind at ease whenever you ask your virtual assistant to deal with other employees, medical professionals, and patients on your behalf.
Responsibilities
Your healthcare virtual assistant carries an abundance of responsibilities. This is something you also want to make clear whenever you’re creating your job description. Set the expectation straight and make sure the virtual assistant who seeks you out knows exactly what is asked of them, even when they are already experienced in the role.
While it isn’t necessary to list out every single task that you expect your healthcare virtual assistant to do, you can mention the ones they are most likely to do often.
- Administrative tasks – This includes tasks such as data entry, scheduling appointments, inventory management, and email management.
- Customer service – One of the biggest roles of your healthcare virtual assistant is to function as the liaison between you and patients. They can answer queries or provide proper education, almost like a virtual receptionist.
- Billing and insurance – Your virtual assistant can ensure invoices are in order and assist in other matters such as insurance verification.
- Transcription – Virtual medical assistants can also work as medical scribes. They can transcribe and make notes during procedures and appointments so you can focus better on your patients.
These are just a few of the responsibilities virtual medical assistants handle. Take note of everything your healthcare facility or clinic needs from a virtual assistant and be sure to include them in the job description.
Attracting the Right Candidates
There is a sea of healthcare virtual assistants out there who are skilled, experienced, and highly motivated to make your healthcare facility run better. You just need to attract the very best of them. Make sure to provide proper incentives as to why these skilled assistants should work with you instead of another medical professional.
Better yet, turn to us here at VMeDx and you don’t need to personally attract the right candidates anymore. We already have them in our talent pool.
The Best Assistants for Healthcare Professionals
The healthcare virtual assistants that are employed at VMeDx tick all the right boxes when it comes to assistants you want working for you. Not only are they experienced and skilled, but under our fundamental training program, they undergo continuous learning so that they are better equipped to serve you and the needs of your clinic.
Work with VMeDx and you get the best assistants in the healthcare industry. Speak with us today and we will pair you up with a virtual assistant that will fit perfectly within your organizational structure. There’s no better time to elevate your practice with the help of a medical virtual assistant than today.