Supervision of Medical Assistants in a Medical Office

All doctors and licensed health care professionals have an ethical obligation to provide competent patient care. Whether full-time, or part-time, their practices are actually run as a small business, and medical assistants under their employ must be properly trained, and responsively supervised at the workplace.

Who Is In Charge of the Medical Assistant?

With the absence of licensing, and mandatory certification requirements for medical assistants in most states across the USA, it is the doctor who is put in complete charge, and ultimately responsible for their medical assistants. While a medical assistant can also work under the direct supervision of another licensed health care practitioner, such as a licensed nurse practitioner, or physicians assistant (PA), again, the ultimately responsibility for the medical assistant's actions rests squarely on their shoulders under the so called respondeat superior doctrine. However, this doesn't mean a medical assistant cannot be sued. As members of the medical office team they are expected to act responsibly, and within their scope of practice.

Proper Training and Supervision

Medical assistants must practice only methods and procedures that are commonly accepted in their profession, and in which they were properly instructed, trained, and supervised. When a registered nurse (RN), employed by a doctor delegates a task to a medical assistant, then the nurse becomes the supervisor of that task, while the doctor is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the medical assistant's actions. With so much at stake the vast majority of them seek experienced medical assistants when they hire, and often they are looking for an individual that is certified by a nationally recognized certification body for some quality assurance, and peace of mind.

Those who have received special training are expected to perform at a higher standard of care than those without such special knowledge, or training. Medical assistants who disregard established professional standards and attempt to perform procedures, or tasks beyond their training, capabilities, or lawful scope of practice are in danger of exposing themselves, the patients, their supervisors, and employers to serious consequences and liability issues. More on Medical Assistant's Scope of Practice.