Career Introduction Flashcards
The Guilds (17th century): Definition
Guilds are associations of persons engaged in a common trade or calling for mutual advantage and protection.
1946: Hill-Burton Act
Improvement and construction of hospitals.
1948: World Health Organization (WHO)
Agency under the United Nations that tries to cooperate to control and eradicate the disease worldwide.
1965: Medicaid
Helps pay for the medical care of indigents.
A title under the social security amendments.
1967: Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)
Established guidelines for operating laboratories.
1968: Uniform Anatomical Gift Act
Allows for individuals to decide if they want to be an organ donor.
1970: Controlled Substances Act
Providers must apply for registration and receive a DEA number to administer, prescribe, or dispense drugs.
Specifies proper storage of controlled drugs.
1970: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Originally an act to reduce the incidence of injury, illness, and death in the workplace.
Extended to the health care industry in 1980s to protect workers from blood borne diseases such as AIDS and HIV.
1996: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)
Limit health administration costs, provide for patient information privacy, and prevent fraud and abuse.
2006: Medicare D
Prescription drug plan to assist in payment of medication costs.
Medicare members are eligible.
Accreditation
Process by which an educational institution or program establishes credibility or legitimacy by complying with predetermined standards.
o Must meet thresholds for exam pass rates, grad rates, and positive placement %.
Medical assisting programs:
Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)
And
Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES)
Administrative Skills
Manage business affairs
* Medical Reception
* Patient navigator
* Medical business practice
* Establishing patient medical records
* Scheduling appointments
* Practice finances
Additional skills
* Medical record preparation
* Demographic data review
* Providing resource information
* Office supply inventory
* Equipment maintenance
* Accounts receivable/payable
* Payment receipts
* Manage petty cash
* CPT/ ICD-CM coding
* Insurance claims
Alternative Therapy: Acupuncture
Consists of using extremely thin sterilized needles, sometimes electrified with low voltage, that are used as an anesthetic or to treat pain.
o Practiced by Koreans, Japanese, and French.
Alternative Therapy: Faith
Patients who receive prayer respond more favorably than those who don’t.
Many practitioners recognize something or someone else was responsible for a patient’s unexpected recovery.
Alternative Therapy: Biofeedback
Use of electronic equipment to learn to control otherwise involuntary bodily functions.
Can have some therapeutic uses.
Alternative Therapy: Hypnosis
Supported by scientific research, unlike the others.
Provides acute or chronic pain relief, stress management, and control of certain phobias, and for other conditions.
Alternative Therapy: Yoga
Discipline of breath control, meditation, and stretching and strengthening exercises that is thought to promote mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Increases balance, flexibility, strength, energy, and calmness.
Alternative Therapy: Hand Reflexology
Stimulating points on the hand send impulses to help the muscle relax and increase blood circulation.
Allows for more oxygen and nutrients to enter and promote healing.
Each point on the hand is said to be a map to the corresponding body part.
Alternative Therapy: Naturopathy
Belief that the body has the power to heal itself.
Treatment is based on the correct diet, rest, relaxation, exercise, fresh air, clean water, and sunlight.
Other forms of advice on lifestyle such as herbal products and massage may be suggested.
Alternative Therapy: Visualization and Guided Imagery
Imagery involves all the senses.
The therapy works when a patient visualizes some activity affecting their problem.
Evidence shows that it reduces nausea with chemotherapy, reduces postoperative pain, shortens hospital stays, and reduces anxiety.
Alternative Therapy: Humor
Laughter affects most of the major systems of the body, increasing heart rate and blood pressure and improving muscle tone.
Reduces anxiety.
Increases NK cell activity, lymphocyte proliferation, monocyte migration, and the production of IL-2 and IgA.
Alternative Therapy: Aromatherapy
The use of essential oils for a therapeutic effect.
o Lavender for first aid for burns
o Neroli for anxiety
o Tea tree for antibacterial and antifungal action
Alternative Therapy: Magnet Therapy
Theory that cells possess an electromagnetic field and that disease occurs because of an electromagnetic imbalance.
Alternative Therapy: Massage
Most popular, can be covered by insurance.
Treats stress-related conditions and manipulates the muscles.
Alternative Therapy: Tai Chi
Improves strength, flexibility, and sense of balance.
Reduce frailty and falls in elderly patients.
Proper breathing with the exercises helps integrate the body and mind and enhance the flow of qi and overall health.
Alternative Therapy: Ayurvedic Medicine
Traditional to India
Addresses mental and spiritual well-being and physical health.
Sickness results from energies being out of balance.
Three energies are:
o Vata
o Pitta
o Kapha
Practitioner accesses the proportions of each and comes up with a health plan.
Alternative Therapy: Homeopathy
Is a 200-year-old system of medicine that is based on the law of similars.
o If a dose of a substance can causes a symptom, that same substance in minuscule amounts can cure the symptom.
American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC)
For medical billing and coding
Renewed annually.
36 hours of CEUs are required every two years.
Includes:
o Certified professional coder (CPC)
o Certified professional coder – Hospital outpatient (CPC – H)
o Certified professional coder – Payer (CPC – P)
American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA)
Candidates are allowed up to 90 days to take the exam.
Certification valid for 60 months
Can renew by
o Earning 60 hours of continuing education or academic credit or other.
o Retaking the certification exam.
Certification exams provided by NHA along w/ continuing education program development and career and networking services.
Professional organizations provide members with continuing education units that are necessary to retain certification.
American Medical Technologists (AMT)
Certification and membership society
Offers registered medical assistant (RMA) and certified medical administrative specialist (CMAS).
Awards registered medical assistants (for evaluating competence or entry-level MAs) and certified medical administrative specialists (front desk specialists) certifications.
Examinees must recertify every three years by obtaining the required number of CEUs.
Must graduate from a formal medical services training program or be employed in the medical field for 5 out of the last 7 years.
Ancient Civilization: Egypt (3000 BCE)
People of the Nile River had developed a level of medical practice as early as 3000 BCE.
Practitioners were Priests who studied medicine and surgery in the temple medical schools.
Used 1/3rd of medical plants used today.
Tried to use black magic.
Used leeches.
o Helped remove the blood and disease toxins.
o Produced Hirudin which prevented coagulation.
o Currently helps in some procedures where blood is present within the tissues.
Ancient Civilizations: China (3000 BCE)
Began to search for medical reasonings for illness.
The great emperor was known as the father of Chinese medicine and followed the Great Herbal which contained more than a thousand drugs and the art of acupuncture (originally used to drive out demons).
Ancient Civilizations: Greece (2000 BCE)
Said Apollo, the sun god, taught medicine to a centaur who ended up teaching Asklepios, the god of healing.
Priests used massage, bathing, and exercise in treating patients.
o Depended on the power of large yellow nonpoisonous snakes.
o Patients were put into a drug-induced sleep in the temple and the snakes would lick the wounds and Asklepios applied salves (wax-like healing material)
Asklepio’s staff became the origin of the medical symbol, caduceus
Ancient Civilizations: India
First hospitals and nurses.
Extensive use of drugs, including those for anesthesia.
o Helped with the Hindu’s contribution to surgery.
Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564)
Residence: Belgium
Wrote one of the most influential anatomy books of all time based on his dissections on corpses he took from the gallows.
Antony Van Leuwenhoek (1632 – 1732)
Residence: Netherlands
Built more than 200 microscopes, allowing him to see red blood cells.
Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE)
Residence: Greece
Philosopher who brought together medicine, biology, botany, and anatomy. His findings were based on animal dissection because human dissection was illegal.
Barber Surgeons
Surgeon practice was limited to the nobility, high clergy, and wealthy merchants.
Barber surgeons however cut hair, practiced bloodletting, opened abscesses (areas that accumulated pus), and occasionally did amputations.
Red and white poles depict the wrapping of bloodstained bandages.
Boundaries of the MA Practice CAN do
Diagnostic test with order
Patient preparation
Patient history
Vital sign
Screener
Chief compliant (convey the concerns of the patient)
Boundaries of the MA Practice CANNOT do
Example, diagnose, or prescribe.
Physical assessing
Diagnostic test without order
Claudius Galen (CE 121 – CE 199)
Residence: Turkey and Rome
Physician, surgeon, and anatomist.
His theories were flawed because he only studied the anatomy of pigs, dogs, and Barbary apes. Believed the body was composed of and regulated by four humor fluids of life: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile.
Clinical Skills
Application of principles of aseptic technique and infection control
Performance of vital signs
Performance of sterilization and minor surgery procedures
Collection and processing of specimens
Performance of laboratory tests
Administration of medications
Performance of phlebotomy procedures
Performance of patient screenings
Preparation of patients for examination, procedures and treatment
Response to emergencies
Communication Skills
Adapt to different types of patients while using therapeutic responses.
Promote information between provider and patient.
Good interpersonal skills
* Maintaining positive relations
Communication Skills
Adapt to different types of patients while using therapeutic responses.
Promote information between provider and patient.
Good interpersonal skills
* Maintaining positive relations
Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Supplements or treatments that add to the conventional form of medicine.
Physician: Dermatologist
Skin disorders
Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO)
- Similar educational requirements
- Both are licensed physicians who can use all accepted methods of treatment.
- DOs place emphasis on the body’s musculoskeletal and nervous systems, preventive medicine, holistic patient care, and patient education.
- Can apply some administrative and clinical knowledge and skills
Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823)
Residence: England
Gave the first vaccination to an eight-year-old boy, using the exudate from a cowpox lesion of a dairymaid. He injected the boy with smallpox, and it didn’t develop.
Physician: Endocrinologist
Malfunctions of the glands of internal secretion (hormones).
Physician: Family practitioner
General practice with family unit.
Treats all, even infants.
1930: Food and Drug Administration
Responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.
Gabriel Fahrenheit (1688 – 1736)
Residence: Germany
Introduced the thermometric scale and developed the mercury thermometer.
Physician: Gastroenterologist
Treats the stomach and intestines
General or Family Practice
Sees all kinds of problems and will refer a patient out for more serious unknown cases for a further diagnosis. Usually, will return once problem is remedied or for continued care.
General Skills
Communication
Medical law and Ethics
Administrative
Clinical
Health Care Provider
Individual licensed to examine, diagnose, and prescribe treatment to patients seeking assistance.
Health Care Team: Respiratory Therapist
Perform procedures of treatment that maintain or improve the ventilatory function of the respiratory tract in patients.
Health Care Team: Dietician
Help patients regulate their diet based off their condition.
Health Care Team: EMT
Administer specialized emergency care to victims of acute illness or injury and transport them to a medical facility (recertifies every two years).
Health Care Team: Hospital Registrars
Take patients’ demographic and insurance info upon arrival.
Health Care Team: Laboratory Technician
Performs chemicals microscopic, and bacteriologic tests of blood, tissue, and bodily fluids under the direction of a pathologist, provider, or medical scientist.
Health Care Team: Limited X-ray Machine Operator
Performs radiographs of the chest, extremities, spine, and sinuses in ambulatory settings.
Health Care Team: Medical Biller
Create a billing statement listing all charges the patient has incurred for services rendered and send the bill to the patient, insurance, or company.
