Program Review: Medical Administrative Assistant

Spring Term, 2018

Section One: Mission Overview

How does your department and its program(s) fulfill the larger work of the college?

The Medical Administrative Assistant program strives to fulfill the larger work of the college by helping our students achieve their goal of employment within their chosen healthcare field. Throughout our program, we create spaces where students can learn together, with college faculty/staff and with local employers. Like all programs in Allied Health Occupations, the Medical Administrative Assistant Program endeavors to decrease student time to completion while maintaining quality education, leveraging our local partnerships within the community, and ensuring that program completion leads to actual jobs within the Rogue Valley.

Program Goals:

Prepare students for rewarding allied health careers. Support the training and professional development of local health care employers and

employees.

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Section Two: Profile

Brief history of department and its program(s).

The Medical Administrative Assistant Program began its first cohort of 13 students in Fall Term of 2016/17. Initially, the program was an extra term and involved placement at practicum sites. The practicum course was later removed to shorten the program for these entry-level positions.

Career Pathways Certificates

Certificates Two-Year Degrees Entry Requirements

N/A Medical Administrative Assistant

N/A Pre-requisites:MTH20, RD90, WR90

Successful program application, interview, and mandatory information session.

Enrollment & Demographics:

2017/2018: Began Fall term with 30 students and students will complete Winter Term, 2018.

2016/2017: Began Fall Term with 13 students, ended Winter Term with 12 students

Completion rate = 92% Successful job placement = 3 students Students transferred to Medical Assistant Program = 6 Students transferred to OHSU Nursing = 1 Students transferred to Pharmacy Tech = 1 Students transferred to Community Health Worker = 1

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Telephone Survey for Former Students

During Winter Term, 2018, we contacted all 12 former students who had successfully completed the Medical Administrative Assistant program. We asked a short list of questions regarding their post-program experience, and whether or not they had continued with their education, earned additional certificates or degrees, and if they were currently working in the field.

These were the responses:

7 out of 13 former students were willing to answer our survey questions.

Three students found employment as MAA’s Seven students continued their education into EMS, MA, PHL, Community Health Worker Seven have earned additional certificates or degrees.

Year 1: Year 2:FT Adj FT Adj

Number of faculty: 2 2Number of sections taught: 3 3

The Medical Administrative Assistant program has two part-time faculty teaching the three MAA specific courses, and shares a full-time administrative assistant (Kim Bell) with other Allied Health programs.

Staffing levels are adequate to support our student learning outcomes – but because most of our faculty are current industry professionals, our faculty are required to be extremely flexible with their schedules compared to the traditional 8-5 work day. Because of this, support during morning hours is limited, as our faculty and students are primarily on site from the afternoon until late evening.

Budget Narrative:

Are your Materials & Supplies and Equipment budgets adequate to support achievement of your program learning outcomes?

The current budget is adequate to support achievement of our student learning outcomes and successfully prepare students for a real-world experience.

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Facility Narrative:

Are the college facilities adequate to support achievement of your program learning outcomes?

Classroom space is adequate, but the facilities themselves are dated, and crowded. The lack of coded locks and the amount of entry points, as well as the many keys required for our faculty have led to security issues.

A new Allied Health building is in the works, but meanwhile we are having to get by with outdated facilities and cramped classrooms within the most objectively undesirable building on the Riverside Campus.

College Resource Narrative:

Are the college resources such as the library, technology, marketing, tutoring, testing, etc. adequate to support achievement of your program learning outcomes?

Our faculty note that “the Blackboard Support Staff is fantastic”.

Our faculty are happy with the resources available to both themselves and their students, and frequently cite the counseling department as an indispensable resource to our demographic of students who often find themselves in stressful situations and in need of assistance while juggling the intense program requirements.

Another invaluable resource is the library. Health care textbooks are inherently expensive, often prohibitively so. The library consistently reaches out to support us by ordering copies of our most expensive “barrier” textbooks, and keeping them on reserve in the library for short-term checkout. Each term we work directly with the Library staff to ensure the editions are current, and that student needs are being met. This is a vital resource, saves our students money, and helps greatly in keeping them in the program.

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Section Three: Program Context

How do your programs reflect national/regional/program/discipline trends?

The Medical Administrative Assistant program meets with its advisory board once per year in order to update our members on changes, program successes, and to obtain feedback from industry professionals on how we can improve the quality of our program to meet the real world needs of Rogue Valley employers.

Our faculty note that “the MAA program fills a vital need in the community, providing employees for the health care industry. Provider offices are routinely understaffed and struggling to find qualified workers”.

External Stakeholders

Advisory Committee

Jamie Dougherty, Rogue Community Health Mackenzie Crichton, La Clinica Jessica Wynant, Providence Medical Group Administration Cassy Leach, Asante Katelyn Borman, Mountain View Family Practice Michelle Chamberlain, Providence

Our last advisory board meeting spotlighted the need for some sort of field experience, in the form of limited practicum hours, job shadowing or off-site field trips to give students an opportunity to see contrasts in different compound and retail pharmacies, clinics and smaller private offices.

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Section Four: Program Learning Outcomes and Assessment

The Medical Administrative Assistant program “owns” just two of the courses required to complete the two-term certificate:

First Term (Fall)

AH100: Medical Terminology: Introduction AH105: Communication and Professional Behavior AH120: Medical Administrative Assistant I WR115/BT113: Introduction to Expository Writing CS120: Concepts in Computing

Second Term (Winter)

BA109: Ready, Set, Work: Techniques for Landing A Job AH121: Medical Administrative Assistant II AH123: Legal and Ethical Issues for Medical Personnel AH130: Concepts in Medical Insurance and Billing

The Medical Administrative Assistant program staggers course outline updates every three years. This year we are working with the Outcomes and Assessment Strategist (Lori Sours) on both our program maps and official course outlines, and making recommended changes as needed.

Program Learning Outcomes:

PLO 6- Uphold legal and ethical standards and adhere to principles of patient confidentiality within the health care and community environment as defined by HIPPA.

This PLO is assessed in AH 123 - Legal and Ethical Issues for Medical Personnel with the following CLO’s:

CLO 7: Identify and describe the ethical and legal issues that are specific to medical assistants and medical administrative assistants.

CLO 8: Describe the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) and describe how it affects practices in medical offices.

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Assessed by: Written and oral examination, evaluation of small group work by instructor.

Winter 2018: 29 students enrolled

CLO 7 Assessed:

Week 6 Multiple- Choice Quiz

Question 131 point each

29 students participated

26 answered correctly

3 incorrect

Week 8 Multiple- Choice Quiz

Question 51 point each

29 students participated

25 answered correctly

4 incorrect

Journal 7Graded with rubric

10 points possible

28 students participated

19 earned 10 points

4 earned 9 points

2 earned 8 points

2 earned 7 points

1 earned 6 points

Discussion BoardGraded with rubric

10 points possible

29 students participated

21 earned 10 points

2 earned 9 points

3 earned 8 points

2 earned 7 points

1 earned 5 points

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CLO 8:

Week 10 Quiz

29 students participated

Question 2 27 answered correctly

2 answered incorrectly

Question 8 25 answered correctly

4 answered incorrectly

Journal 10: Journal 10Graded with rubric

10 points possible

29 students participated

18 earned 10 points

4 earned 9 points

4 earned 8 points

3 earned 7 points

Background Information (possible evidence of significant changes): When developing this course in September 2016 two separate classes were created, AH 106 Legal and Ethical Issues for Medical Assistants (MA), and AH 123 Legal and Ethical Issues for Medical Administrative Assistants (MAA).

We quickly realized many MAA’s were continuing their education in order to earn their MA certificate as well. The CLO’s were revised and presented at CASC in Spring 2017. This change alleviated the requirement for MAA to take two Legal and Ethical Issue courses.

From the review of these assessments we discovered it would be beneficial to use the group feature on Blackboard so that data for both the MA and MAA students could be easily extracted by program type.

Faculty Development

While our faculty are industry professionals with years of experience in the field, many of them come to us with little or no experience in teaching. All of our faculty are adjunct, making the challenge to equip them with the skills of classroom management, curriculum development and assessment creation even more difficult, and it can be a challenge to get new faculty to where they feel comfortable in a classroom setting, and with the many hoops and administrative processes expected of our teachers at Rogue Community College.

While many of our faculty rely on their current full-time employers for professional development within their industry (certifications, etc.) they have difficulty planning the available time needed to concentrate on their development of classroom skills. We would love to see more professional development opportunities in these skills offered by the college at non-traditional times and days, or online.

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Section Five: Significant Changes

Based on the evidence from your learning outcomes assessment and other information related to student success (such as graduation rates), describe recent or anticipated changes.

Based on feedback from our faculty, external stakeholders, and advisory board, the Medical Administrative Assistant program is considering/implementing changes for future cohorts.

We have upgraded the first term writing requirements to BT113 Business English I, WR115 Intro to Expository Writing or placement test score.

Advisory board members would like to see the practicum element reinstated as part of the program, or at least see field trips or student job-shadowing incorporated into existing course work. This would “give students an opportunity to see contrasts in a different compound and retail pharmacies, clinics, or smaller private offices (Wyant, Smith).

Employability was preferable when students completed both the MAA and MA programs. It is “beneficial for students to go from MAA to MA for employees in the long run” (Boreman).

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Section Six: Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

List the Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) that are relevant to this department/program and the courses in which there is an assessment that can be aligned with each:

Institutional Learning Outcome Statements: Relevant to our program: (indicate yes or no)

Course(s) aligned with this ILO

CLO that aligns (CLO1, CLO2, etc.)

Application of Knowledge: Students will synthesize and use knowledge in familiar and unfamiliar situations to effectively solve problems and complete tasks.

YES AH120 CLO4

Approach to Learning: Students will engage in and take responsibility for intentional learning, seek new knowledge and skills to guide their continuous and independent development, and adapt to new situations.

NO -- --

Communication: Students will engage in quality communication using active listening and reading skills and expressing ideas appropriately in oral, written, and visual work.

YES AH105 CLO7

Critical Thinking: Students will think critically and creatively about problems and issues in classroom or school, home, work, and community settings to create positive, sustainable solutions

NO -- --

Personal Growth: Students will balance life and civic responsibilities, believe in themselves, accept and commit to change, self-reflect, and be tolerant and respectful of themselves and others.

YES AH123 CLO4

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Section Seven: Summary

Describe the major strengths, challenges, and themes that emerged from your department/program review.

The major strengths of the Medical Administrative Assistant program can be seen in our successful completion rates, placement and employment of our students into their chosen health care careers.

Our major challenges are:

Staffing:

Allied Health Occupations is responsible for 8 programs. 7 of these programs are limited entry, and involve open information sessions, an application process, screenings, interviews, orientations, criminal background checks, drug testing and vaccination/immunization screenings for practicum placement. Each student needs these items checked individually at multiple stages throughout the term and program.

Winter Term, 17/18 we had approximately 130 students in our limited entry programs. We have a single full-time faculty member who is the advisor for every one of these students.

The original configuration for the AHO department (2017) included a full time director, five full-time classified Training Services Coordinators, and an administrative assistant.

This year, we have a Department Chair, a part-time Training Services Coordinator and an administrative assistant. We continue to offer the same amount of programs, with an increasing amount of students in each, while also expanding into new program offerings. This is unsustainable.

This does not include the approximately 350 students we serve in our “open” courses such as Medical Terminology, Intro to Healthcare, Exploring Careers in Healthcare, and Healthcare Informatics. We are also responsible for 45 unique courses offerings.

Faculty Development:

Our faculty are industry professionals, technically skilled and highly dedicated to their field. Classroom management, assessing students, developing and selecting curriculum, and other elements of teaching usually come as secondary skills, learned through practice in front of a live classroom. We continue to struggle to offer professional development to our faculty in a manner in which they are able to participate with their busy schedules. Lack of professional growth opportunities on campus for faculty is also an issue.

Facilities:

The Allied Health building on Riverside Campus is a major challenge. The classroom and facilities are dated, often crowded, and limit the number of students who can participate in training at any

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one time. The lack of coded locks and the amount of entry points, as well as the many keys required for our faculty have led to security issues.

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Section Eight: Attachments

Sample Syllabus: (AH120 – will attach)

Link to Program Website: http://go.roguecc.edu/node/2024

MAA Map (attached)

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