Allied Health

This course is the first of a three-course sequence which introduces topics and clinical skills essential to students in the Medical Assisting AAS degree program. The course is designed to provide safe, technically proficient, and professional medical assistants to work in physicians’ offices and a variety of other healthcare provider offices. Matriculation in the Medical Assisting AAS degree program is required to take this course.

This course is a continuation of Medical Assisting I. This course provides valuable information about an individual's health and teaches medical assistants the skills and techniques necessary to take and record vital signs accurately. Main topics include vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, respiration), temperature conversions, and calculating Body Mass Index.

This course is designed to provide safe, technically proficient, and professional EKG technicians to work in a variety of healthcare provider offices. Topics include: anatomy of the heart, cardiac conduction system, performing a 12 lead EKG, analyzing and interpreting a six second rhythm strip. Upon completion of this course, students are eligible to take the EKG certification exam through numerous certification agencies.

This course will provide knowledge of administrative support in today’s health care environment. Students will learn to input patient information, schedule appointments, handle billing, and produce medical office lists and reports.

This course is an introduction to medical billing and the coding process. Documentation and medical necessity guidelines, claims submission, and reimbursement protocols, both electronically and via mail, and working with different payers (HMOs, Medicare) will be presented.

An introduction to prefixes, roots, combining forms, and suffixes which are the component parts used to build medical terminology. These terms are then defined. Abbreviations, drug highlights, information on diagnostic tests and human anatomy are integrated throughout.

This course will cover the unique aspects of medical billing known as medical coding with a concentration on CPT and ICD9 or ICD10 coding along with modifiers that are commonly used in medical billing.

Pharmacology is a survey course designed to meet the needs of students in the Medical Assisting AAS degree program. Students will gain an understanding of the principles of pharmacology. Major topics will include: Legal regulations, prescriptions, calculations, interactions and uses of drugs, as well as toxicology.

Medical assisting students will have the opportunity to study and take part in the functioning of a private practice medical office or a hospital office. A total of 160 hours of work experience will be required. Students are required to complete 80 hours on the administrative side and 80 hours on the clinical side of the medical practice during their externship. Students will meet with the instructor for a 1-hr. class four times during the course of the semester.

This is the last in the sequence of five courses, including AH 106, AH 108, AH 109, and AH 208. The course is designed to provide safe, technically proficient medical assistants to work in physicians’ offices and a variety of other healthcare provider offices. Topics include blood function, formation and components, reading and interpreting Laboratory reports, slide preparation and microscopic evaluation, and interpretation of formed elements and associated tests.

This course is designed to provide safe, technically proficient medical assistants to work in physicians’ offices and a variety of other healthcare provider offices. Topics include performing capillary punctures, performing venipuncture using the vacutainer and winged infusion set, centrifuging blood cells, proper specimen testing, and understanding lab value and norm ranges.

Phlebotomy students will have the opportunity to study and take part in the functioning of an inpatient/outpatient laboratory setting. Skill development in the performance of a variety of blood collection methods using proper techniques and standard precautions will be stressed throughout this clinical experience. Emphasis on infection prevention, patient identification, specimen labeling, quality assurance, specimen handling, processing, accessing, and ethics are incorporated into 54-hour clinical experience. Upon completion of this course, students are eligible to sit for the National Certification Exam.