Medical Office Assistant Diploma

This course serves as an introduction to medical terminology, intended to serve as a foundation for all subsequent courses, studies and practice. Students will become familiar with various medical words, word parts and their spelling, and will develop fluent pronunciation. They will also become skilled at examining the structure of medical terms to decipher their meaning effectively.

This course focuses on the study of body systems and sense organs. Instruction on each system and organ will include learning about both general and specific bodily functions, parts, location, and relationships between systems. There will also be an exploration of common pathologies. This will involve developing familiarity with some lab diagnostic tests, as well as basic signs, symptoms and prognosis of various pathologies. At the discretion of the instructor, a discussion of pharmacology may be included.

The course includes the study of formal and informal business communication formats, including letters, memos and business presentations. Students will study formal and informal documents, methods of communications and technological tools, as well as their proper, effective and ethical use. They will also learn about selecting the best communication method depending on the communication purposes and the audiences.

The students will develop familiarity with medical keyboarding, advanced keyboarding, medical language, grammatical and office skills. This will involve the study of documents, such as forms and medical reports. Students will focus on further developing their overall keyboarding skills, progressing to a speed of least 65 words per minute with 90% accuracy while using medical terminology.

This course is the introduction to various administrative skills that a clerical healthcare worker will require. It includes reception skills and processes, focusing mainly on record management procedure. Subjects such as scheduling, inventory control and communication techniques (over the phone, e-mail and interpersonal) will also be dealt with.

The course serves as an introduction to terminology and procedures unique to pharmaceutical and medical billing. This, among other topics, will involve exploring the communication of information between pharmacists and physicians regarding medications. The importance of classifications, spelling and pronunciation of the most commonly ordered prescription medications will be emphasized, as will the study of appreciations, symbols and systems of measurements surrounding prescriptions.

Students will become familiar with the procedures, forms and processes related to different types of billing. This will include familiarity with the Preamble and Fee Schedule from the Medical Services Plan of British Columbia. Students will also learn the procedures, forms and processes related to alternative forms of billing. The study includes, but is not limited to, learning about the WCB (Workers’ Compensation Board), ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia), Department of Veterans’ Affairs, out-of-province billing, and medical-legal billing.

Students will learn the skill of preparing medical documents through the use of transcription. They will be exposed to various reports, forms and formats used in preparing medical-related documents. This will involve developing familiarity and skills with transcription equipment and software. At the end of the course, students will demonstrate comfort with the application of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology. Legality and accuracy will serve as overarching themes throughout the course.

Students will spend 80 hours in a clinical environment under the supervision of a practising professional, demonstrating their aptitude in the various skills developed throughout the program.