Implementation and Scalability of a Clinic-Based Medical Assistant Training Program to Improve Recruitment, Retention, and Continued Team-Based Care Transformation

Currently, training programs for medical assistants (MAs) have not caught up with the national move toward Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition and value-based care. Therefore, recruiting MAs trained for these advanced roles is challenging. Moreover, the leading primary care agencies bear the burden to provide extensive practical training for individuals they hire. These challenges result in extra recruitment and training costs, inefficiencies from staffing shortages, and lack of proper support for providers. A response is to create clinic-based training for MAs. Implementing an academic training program from the ground up requires a significant commitment and investment of resources: financial and human capital. Projections during the planning and initial start-up year for the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA) indicated a substantial need and demand for this service. While the initial investment was significant, it was projected that once the program was up and running the payback would be fairly rapid and that, over time, the project would offer significant Return on Investment that could be used to further support the mission of the health centers along with ensuring a viable answer to the challenge of recruiting highly-trained individuals into these more advanced MA roles.