I have a few legal questions if anyone could please help me with. I have a coworker who says she is a medical assistant but can't prove it. She says she can't find the papers to prove it. Anyway, i have a few questions regarding her and what is legal.

1. Is it legal for her to be drawing up injections?

2. Is it legal for her to fax prescriptions without the doctor even seeing them? The doctor will call out that he wants a Ultram prescription and we can enter it into our computer system, electronically sign it and then fax it to the pharmacy without the doctor even seeing it. How legal is that for her to do this without being a MA?

3. Is it legal for her to put a patient up for an X-ray even before the doctor see's them? So its not even a written order from a doctor, we just do it.

Also, our physician assistants see patients without a doctor in the office. We also do patient care like taking staples out, casting fractures and post op's without the doctors in the office, just the physician assistant. How legal is this?

We work in PA. I hope someone can shed some light on this matter...

Thank you!

Your Professional Title/Credentials: MA

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? Yes

I'm in AZ so things may be different here.

As far as I know, you can come in off the street, receive on the job training and be a medical assistant. No papers or higher education required. Being Certified or Registered requires the education/testing/credentials.

I work in an urgent care that has 2 providers every day. Some days we only have PAs. They are allowed to work independently but they do have a supervising MD/DO. They are allowed to enter orders into the system with no restrictions, just like our MD/DOs.

Does "put a patient up for an X-ray" mean entering the order in the system or refer to actually positioning the patient or otherwise being involved with the imaging process?

Your Professional Title/Credentials: RT(R), CMA (AAMA), CHUC

Are You Still In School? No

Are You Working? Yes

TiffanyH is correct on every count as far as I know.

At my last job; the Doc requested us to look at the chart notes if he indicated at the previous visit that we would follow up in x-time with more x-ray's, he expected the films prior to seeing the patient. We had a stack of signed x-ray forms, to maximize his time. He said it made the office flow better. How legal it was, IDK, but he is the doc.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA (AAMA)

There is no license to be an MA so anyone that works in a medical office could call themselves one.

As far as drawing blood that would depend by your state. In California you have to be certified in venipuncture.

It is not legal for ANYONE to fax an RX without the doctor seeing it; that is practicing medicine...

I am not sure what you are asking with your x-ray question. Is she making appointment for an x-ray because SHE thinks the patient needs one and the doc has not seen the patient yet? Yes that would be wrong.

As far as the PA...I am not sure. I know that a FNP can practice without the MD in the office physically, but I am not sure about the PA, I am not as familier with this but I imagine it would be ok as long as a doctor can be reached when needed.

HeartsOpenWide, I am glad you are stressing the RX issue. I think this is where many medical assistants, especially those without formal training (because a good instructor would have taught the dos and dont's in class), open themselves, and their employer, up to possible very serious consequences. Those who have been in the field long enough, I am sure, have seen it happen all to easily.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: Website Owner/Forum Admin

Are You Working? self-employed