1. Statement of Problem/Question Description of Program
Training Medical Assistants to Work in a Patient Centered Medical Home. Oswaldo Hernandez, Judith Hamlin, Gerardo Caldera-Rosales, Scott Joy, MD, Brian Dwinnell, MD “
Statement of Problem/Question
Description of Program
Data/Findings to Date
Practice leadership met to review existing protocols and identified areas of deficiency in these protocols that could be expanded upon to improve the training and skills of new/existing medical assistants to work in a PCMH.
A draft of the new checklist was developed that included categories and methods of evaluation (tasks).
All staff and faculty were given the opportunity to make comments and to add/clarify details in regards to the categories and tasks listed on the checklist.
Oversight of each checklist task was assigned to an administrator, faculty, or peer to insure that the PCMH medical assistant had achieved competency.
Oversight consisted of one of the following options: Personal Observation, Review Existing Policies, Review Relevant Practice Document, Watch or Complete Video or Online Resource Tutorial.
The new clinical orientation/training checklist consisted of the following:
Existing clinical orientation checklists and processes are insufficient for training and evaluating medical assistants who are working in an academic Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) practice.
Category
# of tasks in category
Personal Observation
Policy Review
Document Review
Video/website Review
Review Clinic Policies and Procedures 12 9 3
Obtain Electronic Access
Clerical Training 10 2 8
Clinical Training 33 1 29
Principles of PCMH Training 5
Objectives of Program/Interventions
Develop broad categories for training expectations for PCMH medical assistants.
Expand within these categories specific training expectations and competencies for PCMH medical assistants to achieve.
Optimize training techniques and create a system of accountability to ensure optimal skill set development of PCMH medical assistants.
Lessons Learned:
An orientation checklist can be completed to provide new and existing practice medical assistants with the skill sets needed to function at a high level in a PCMH general internal medicine practice.