Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
Perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures. Duties may include scheduling appointments, billing patients, and compiling and recording medical charts, reports, and correspondence.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Active Listening
- Service Orientation
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
- Critical Thinking
- Coordination
- Complex Problem Solving
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Administrative
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Personnel and Human Resources
- Computers and Electronics
- Administration and Management
- Economics and Accounting
What the work involves
- Schedule and confirm patient diagnostic appointments, surgeries, or medical consultations.
- Answer telephones and direct calls to appropriate staff.
- Receive and route messages or documents, such as laboratory results, to appropriate staff.
- Greet visitors, ascertain purpose of visit, and direct them to appropriate staff.
- Interview patients to complete documents, case histories, or forms, such as intake or insurance forms.
- Maintain medical records, technical library, or correspondence files.
- Operate office equipment, such as voice mail messaging systems, and use word processing, spreadsheet, or other software applications to prepare reports, invoices, financial statements, letters, case histories, or medical records.
- Transmit correspondence or medical records by mail, e-mail, or fax.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Social, Enterprising.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (47.6% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years (57.3%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (55.3%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | High | Higher on contact with others than 79% of occupations compared | 74% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Moderate | Higher on dealing with the public than 57% of occupations compared | 38% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 61% of occupations compared | 65% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 75% of occupations compared | 35% of surveyed respondents chose “Limited freedom” |
| Time pressure | Moderate | Higher on time pressure than 57% of occupations compared | 41% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 84% of occupations compared | 28% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 92% of occupations compared | 43% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Consequence of error | Very low | Lower on consequence of error than 89% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: moderate
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: very low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0.1%
- Contact with others about half the time: 1.15%
- Contact with others most of the time: 24.71%
- Constant contact with others: 74.05%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 14.73%
- Fairly important: 6.29%
- Important: 20.41%
- Very important: 20.97%
- Extremely important: 37.6%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 4.53%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 11.7%
- Very important: 18.33%
- Extremely important: 65.44%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 9.22%
- Limited freedom: 34.56%
- Some freedom: 22.3%
- A lot of freedom: 33.92%
n = 29, Incumbent 08/2021
Time pressure
- Never: 9.31%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 1.07%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 15.88%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 32.55%
- Every day: 41.19%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
Conflict situations
- Never: 4.63%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 25.32%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 18.11%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 23.81%
- Every day: 28.13%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 16.53%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 17.24%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 23.34%
- Every day: 42.89%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 46.88%
- Fairly serious: 17.7%
- Serious: 25.02%
- Very serious: 0.2%
- Extremely serious: 10.21%
n = 30, Incumbent 08/2021
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O*NET-SOC 43-6013.00 · SOC 43-6013 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8