ABSTRACT
People are the critical resource for a service organization because of the skills and experience they bring to their job. To analyze staffing needs, one will step back from the individuals and look at personnel from the perspective of the organization needs for different skills and capabilities. Clinical and technical staffs are those staff members with specialized training that enable them to provide a clinical service to the patient that is definable and can be coded and billed. Support staff includes medical assistants, secretaries, transcriptionists, receptionists, and other clerical positions. These positions may require some formalized training to do well, but generally do not require licenses. Medical assistants, in particular, are often underutilized in practice settings. The more knowledge they have as to what physicians do— signs and symptoms, diagnostic testing, common drugs, and such— the more they are able to support the day-to-day operations. The support staff has the most contact with patients and the public.
