Psychiatric Medical Assistant

The Psychiatric Medical Assistant (PMA) supports the Health Center, Integrated Behavioral Health, and care teams in delivering high-quality patient care. Working as part of an interdisciplinary team, the PMA collaborates directly with providers and other care team members to perform a variety of back-office, clinical, administrative, and patient-related duties within the scope of their licensure. This role helps ensure smooth patient flow and supports the needs of patients in a outpatient primary and specialty care clinic setting.

What's in it for you?

• Great work-life balance: 8:30 AM–5:30 PM, Monday–Friday, with no weekends
• Generous time off: 12 paid holidays, a floating holiday, vacation, and sick time
• Affordable health coverage: Choose from two health plans, with 95% of premiums covered
• Plan for the future: 403(b) retirement plan with employer match
• Earn more for your skills: Additional pay for bilingual staff
• Student loan support: Eligible for the State Loan Forgiveness Program
• Wellness benefits: Access to Headspace for mindfulness and meditation

Duties and responsibilities

• Perform patient care duties within the scope of medical assistant training, including monitoring vital signs, conducting patient intakes, and preparing patients for examinations.
• Maintain client charts and ensure hospital and ER discharge reports are available for provider review prior to patient appointments.
• Assist with gathering and tracking health information and entering data into the Electronic Medical Record (EHR).
• Provide administrative support to the Psychiatric team including preparing forms, scanning medical documents, scheduling appointments, and reviewing and assisting with medication refill requests.
• Room patients or open telehealth appointments and collect updates to patient records
• Coordinate with clients and interdisciplinary team to address clients’ needs.
• Communicate health needs to care team members for comprehensive care coordination and treatment planning
• Complete all documentation per Medi-Cal, Santa Clara County, and AACI standards within expected deadlines.
• Facilitate referrals to community resources and perform case management services.
• Process medication refills as ordered by the provider.
• Attend ongoing training and maintain knowledge of community services and resources available to patients
• Participate in PCMH and Quality Improvement initiatives
• Participate in health outreach activities, health fairs, school and community presentations
• Complete other related duties and projects assigned.

Education & Experience:

• High School Diploma, GED, or equivalent.
• Completion of accredited Medical Assisting Program.
• Two or more years of experience as a Medical Assistant required. One year of psychiatric or behavioral health experience and/or training is preferred.
• Medical Assistant National Certification required (AAMA, AMT, NCCT, AMCA, or CCBMA certification).
• Basic Cardiac Life Support Certification.
• Experience using electronic health records (EHR) and completing documentation (EPIC preferred)

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

• Familiar with outpatient clinic workflows.
• Familiar with fundamental physical and mental health terminology.
• Ability to obtain accurate sets of vitals; awareness of normal limits associated with vitals.
• Ability to use clinical reasoning to make informed decisions
• Verbal and written fluency in English required; Bilingual skills in a second language (particularly Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese) desired but not required.

Competencies:

• Ability to communicate well with people of diverse cultural professional and experiential backgrounds.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

Working conditions

Work is often conducted in an office environment and a standard clinic setting. Basic safety precautions and use of protective clothing or gear may be required. Working with clients who are seriously mentally ill, or high risk may increase exposure to secondary trauma.

Physical requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to regularly sit for extended periods of time and regularly operate a computer and use manual dexterity for tasks such as keyboarding. The mental demands of the job include continuous comprehension, reasoning and decision making, interpreting and analyzing data, organizing, reading, writing, and resilience.

AACI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.