Hear from a Medical Office Assistant grad
Kristina Ongkeko talks about the benefit of optimized class sizes at Vancouver Career College.
Medical office assistants play a vital role in doctor’s offices, hospitals, and medical clinics. They are responsible for scheduling appointments, maintaining electronic health records, billing and medical transcription, and much more. Without the help of these hard-working individuals, frontline healthcare workers would not be able to carry out their day-to-day tasks.
Vancouver Career College offers a Medical Office Assistant diploma program that covers key areas of medical office administration including keyboarding, medical terminology, communication skills, clinical procedures, and more.
Before you graduate, you will be placed in a real-world medical setting to practice your new skills as a medical office assistant (MOA). You will gain experience working closely with doctors and other medical professionals while improving on your interpersonal and organizational skills.
Admission Requirements
*From an English language teaching institution.
**19 years of age upon starting classes, and pass the college’s admissions test.
This program has been approved by the registrar of the Private Training Institutions Branch (PTIB) of the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. The program is combined delivery, meaning you will take both online and in-person courses.
Graduation Requirements
Kristina Ongkeko talks about the benefit of optimized class sizes at Vancouver Career College.
The purpose of this course is to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and study techniques to help foster effective learning and a positive educational experience. This course explores many different theories on learning and studying and how these theories can be applied to each student’s individual studying methods in order to develop a method that is both effective and efficient. Effective study habits and productive note-taking are key topics in this course, as well as the importance of values and goals. Through active participation in learner-centred activities, students will explore and practice strategies for setting personal goals, prioritizing tasks, managing time, and managing the stress that arises in school or work situations. This course will also equip students with a sound understanding of matters related to finance, credit, and debt and the critical implications they have on our lives. Students taking this course will complete the Enriched Academy program, which provides comprehensive coverage of financial and money management skills that will allow them to better save, budget, and manage their money and financial situations.
This course will train students to apply the language of medicine to communicate information, in both written and verbal format, within the health care environment. Students will build a vocabulary of common medical terms and abbreviations applied in office administration/ assistant duties within a medical office and hospital. Students will learn to identify body systems and their basic components and functions, distinguish basic medical terms, abbreviations and specialty of care by identifying the prefixes, suffixes or word root. Importance is placed on spelling and pronunciation of terms associated to the body cavities, body orientation, planes and surfaces of body. In addition, students will learn medical language associated with digestive system, urinary system and integumentary system (skin).
This course provides students with the knowledge and skills that are required to recognize and prevent medical and dental emergencies within a medical/dental office. It will prepare students to assist the physician/dentist in administering immediate care for the client in the medical office environment. Students also participate in CPR-first aid training. Lectures, reading assignments, and laboratory projects will provide a basic understanding of medical emergencies and the role of the office assistant in assisting with the administration of care used in the office. This information permits the student to interpret and relay information and to communicate to the health care team and emergency workers. Subjects include:
-Typical medical emergencies
-Roles of individuals in emergencies
-CPR and first aid training
-WHMIS certification
(*) This one-week course may extend beyond 20 hours due to first aid and WHMIS training on specific days maybe being fullday hours.
Students will learn to work with the specialized terminology of medicine, including the pronunciation and spelling of terms to describe medical circumstances and situations. Students will learn through descriptions, illustrations and exercises to identify the major anatomical features and systems of the body and the common pathologies, which can adversely affect these systems. This second course of three parts on medical language continues to focus on various body systems. Subjects include: Female reproductive system: organs, menstruation and pregnancy, pathology, clinical tests and procedures Male reproductive system: anatomy, pathologic conditions, and laboratory tests/clinical procedures Nervous system: general structure; neurons, nerves, and glial cells; the brain; the spinal cord and meninges; pathology Cardiovascular system: blood vessels and the circulation of blood; anatomy of the heart; physiology of the heart; blood pressure; and pathology Respiratory system: anatomy and physiology of respiration; pathology; clinical procedures Blood system: composition and formation of blood; blood clots; pathology. Lymphatic and immune systems: lymphatic system; immune system; pathology Musculoskeletal system: bones; pathology; joints; muscles Sense organs: the eye; errors of refraction; pathology; clinical procedures; the ear Endocrine system: thyroid gland; parathyroid glands; adrenal glands; pancreas; pituitary gland; ovaries; testes
The third and final course on medical language focuses on the specialized terminology of medicine, including the pronunciation and spelling of terms to describe medical circumstances and situations. This course will train students to apply the language of medicine to communicate information, in both written and verbal format, within the health care environment. Students will build a vocabulary of common medical terms and abbreviations applied in office administration/ assistant duties within a medical office and hospital. Students will learn to recognize, define and distinguish basic medical terms pertaining to different medical specialties and medical specialists such as oncology, radiology, pharmacology and psychiatry. Students will also be able to describe generally used diagnostic tests, therapeutic modalities for each specialty of care.
All businesses need to invoice for services rendered and collect their revenues as quickly and efficiently as possible. Doctors’ revenue comes primarily from the provincial medical insurance scheme. Students will be introduced to the medical billing procedures in accordance with the BC Medical Services Plan (MSP) requirements and create medical billing data using the BC Medical Association Guide to Fees and ICD-9 Diagnostic Codes. WorkSafe BC, the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC), and medical legal billing requirements are also discussed. Students also learn to perform medical billing data entry and preparation of billing statements using the Regent Smart series application, as well as understanding the transmission and receipt of data from the BC MSP office in Victoria. In the second section of this course, students will create patient databases and complete medical office billing procedures using the current software. Students will become familiar with all aspects of billing, including MSP, ICBC, WorkSafe BC, personal, and medical legal billing. They will also learn to schedule appointments, generate day sheets, and transmit claims. Course time is also dedicated to tutorials to learn the MSP system.
Students will learn techniques and procedures used to prepare and administer basic procedures and tests utilized in medical offices.
Topics include:
This course builds on the skills learned in the Student Success Strategies course or its equivalent. It provides information on how to use the communication skills learned in order to make a successful presentation to a prospective employer. Students also learn how to uncover the hidden job market and identifyemployment opportunities. Self-assessment during this course allows students to identify their personal skills that are transferable to the work place and to describe these skills to a prospective employer. Students may be videotaped during a mock interview and will participate in the analysis of their performance in the “interview”.