Medical Officer Assistant’s

I am so glad it is Spring! Our puppies love water and I think that our planned kayaking adventure downriver in a few days will be just amazing!

I work full time as a family physician as well as having my online business www.chartingcoach.ca

I first started investigating getting a Medical Officer Assistant (MOA) 3 years ago. I was intrigued and perhaps a little jealous of some of my colleagues who had MOA's and I wondered if it was possible to trust someone enough to do tasks for me.

It took me months of indecision, doubt, courage, planning and then taking the plunge.

My first MOA was part-time and I taught her as I went along, this is definitely not ideal. She was an excellent MOA but I had difficulty figuring out how to delegate tasks to her to actually help me in my administrative duties.

So when she took a full time position in a new job, I wasn't sure if I wanted another MOA.

However, my husband and son over the dinner table said to me - " you need to hire a full time MOA and this time make sure she can do personal assistant duties too!". 

That was the encouragement I needed! They could see from a different perspective the value I had in having a part-time MOA and the potential in a full-time MOA.

My next MOA decision was much more deliberate: I wrote my own advertisement for the paper, did my own job interviews and hired another great MOA.

However, this time I was prepared. I had spent many hours figuring out the processes around every task I wanted my MOA to be able to do and I outlined this into a Manual: "The Medical Officer Assistant Standard Operations and Processes Folder".

I taught my MOA the manual on the first day and she was seeing patients and screening that day! Whenever she had a question I would direct her to the section in the manual and make sure she understood it. If her question wasn't in the manual I would add it.

My MOA is plenty busy and I have definitely delegated many tasks to her. My MOA does complex care preparation, answers my phone, re-schedules patients when needed, goes into room to pre-screen the patient’s and do vitals, updates the problem list, medication list and many other tasks.

Additionally my patients love being able to call and talk with my assistant and it helps my complex and sick patients get seen more urgently when needed. This is definitely helping with continuity, especially when my schedule is solidly booked.

New decisions always come with uncertainty, doubting yourself and discomfort! That's how you know you are doing it right, stretching your brain to believe you can achieve a new great plan for your future.

I want to tell you that preparing to get an MOA took me over 20 hours of systematizing everything in language and processes easy for an MOA to understand. I wanted to achieve excellence in panel management for my patients and improved efficiency in my practice.

You can have your own copy of this MOA manual FOR FREE TODAY 

Head to the website and go to the Freebies section

Editable and ready for you to download!

xx Sarah, the Charting Coach

PS. I would love to help you with your charting problem!

Head to www.chartingcoach.ca and Sign up for Charting Champions Program Today

Any questions email: [email protected]

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