Envisioning New Roles for Medical Assistants

During 2010 and 2011, 140 in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with providers, administrators, and practice staff to understand their patient-centered medical home (PCMH) transition. The interviews revealed how adapting the roles of medical assistants (MA) enhanced the practices' ability to achieve PCMH standards and quality improvement. With a scope of work that traverses general, administrative, and clinical responsibilities, MAs can be used to augment the capacity of physicians and nurses, can move into newly developing practice roles such as health coaches, or can assume more instrumental roles in population management. Seven strategies most frequently mentioned during the interviews as being successful and central to PCMH implementation are described. All were widely used by the practices and were shared at learning collaborative sessions.