Hiring a medical assistant (MA) is still one of the more difficult HR tasks for medical group practices after years of staffing shortages and competition from other industries for workers.
More than four in 10 (43%) medical group leaders report they have hired alternative staff to cover open MA positions, per a July 16, 2024, MGMA Stat poll, while 57% say they have not had to resort to this. The poll had 362 applicable responses.
This latest poll finds a slight easing of this specific recruitment challenge compared to summer 2022, when an MGMA Stat poll found 52% of practices had sought out alternative hires to cover open MA positions.
When MAs are unavailable, it puts practice administrators in a position to find someone else — including themselves, at times — to ensure a staff member can room patients throughout the day. Other major duties that can fall between the cracks with an MA vacancy include:
- Taking and recording vitals
- Lab specimen collection basic laboratory tests
- Medication administration
- Removing sutures and changing dressings
- A full range of patient interaction and care coordination tasks, from phone calls and check-in to checkout and beyond
- Updating EHRs and assisting with billing and coding
- Exam room preparation and supply inventory maintenance.
Assessing the talent market, finding solutions
Practice leaders who made alternative hires when MAs were unavailable have focused on:
- Hiring certified nursing assistants (CNAs), registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) for a close match to the clinical duties left to be done in an MA vacancy
- Starting internal education/training/apprenticeship programs to allow some nonclinical employees to work toward becoming an MA or for non-certified MAs to become certified
- Hiring EMTs and/or combat medics
- Bringing on medical and nursing students as interns or part-time workers to give them experience, pay and education while they are still in school, or hiring college graduates taking gap years pending medical school to have them work as scribes and other duties normally performed by MAs.
Do you have a recruiting success story to share? Email us at connection@mgma.com.
JOIN MGMA STAT
Our ability at MGMA to provide great resources, education and advocacy depends on a strong feedback loop with healthcare leaders. To be part of this effort, sign up for MGMA Stat and make your voice heard in our weekly polls. Sign up by texting “STAT” to 33550 or visit mgma.com/stat. Polls will be sent to your phone via text message.
Additional resources
- MGMA Better Performer staffing solutions — Learn how Cone Health, an MGMA Better Performer in Operations, created a certified medical assistant academy to address employee turnover, while also investing in CMA retention and development.
- “Retain your team through onboarding and training academies” — Discover RWJBH Medical Group’s step-by-step approach to enhancing recruitment and retention via training academies and improved onboarding.
- People Strategies for Today’s Healthcare Staffing Challenges — Download the 2024 MGMA DataDive Management and Staff Compensation summary data report for benchmarks and context around hiring for MAs, nurses and much more.
