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ADENA PARTNERS WITH PICKAWAY-ROSS OTC TO ADDRESS MEDICAL ASSISTANT SHORTAGE
As the health care industry continues to evolve, and the baby boomer population gets older, the demand for medical professionals has steadily increased. The result in many areas is a national shortage of trained medical personnel. One area where workers are in demand is the medical assistant (MA) field, where thousands of trained workers are needed.
of qualified MAs to fill openings in many of its outpatient clinics. To help address the shortage of MAs in the region, Adena Health System and Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center’s Ohio Technical Center (PRCTC) partnered to offer a six-month program to Adena employees who wished to advance their careers by earning an MA certification.
Medical assistants are often the first caregiver a patient encounters on their way from the waiting room to an examination room. These health care professionals are cross-trained to perform administrative and clinical duties, such as assisting physicians during a patient examination, taking patient vital signs, entering and updating patient records, scheduling appointments, and much more.
Mary Richards, 39, and Starr Patrick, 42, were each working at Adena as patient access representatives (registrars) when they heard about the MA education program.
Adena, like many health care operations, has been challenged to find a substantial number
SPRING 2019
“I’ve always had an interest in medicine, but never thought I could do it - especially at this age,” Richards said. “Between raising kids, working, and life in general, I thought I would never have the time to go back to school. With some encouragement from my family, co-workers, and my boss, I decided to go for it.”
