Medical Secretaries

No one knows exactly when secretaries originated. Members of the nobility had secretaries (always men) who had command of several languages, including Latin, and were required to have what we would consider today to be a broad, generalized education.

During the industrial expansion at the turn of the 20th century, businesses faced a paperwork crisis. Secretaries helped to solve this problem, using new technologies such as adding machines, telephones, and typewriters. Many people aspired to hold positions as secretaries. In the 1930s, the number of male secretaries dwindled, and women began to dominate the office workforce.

Today, secretaries, also known as administrative assistants, office coordinators, executive assistants, and office managers, are more technologically driven, using computers, the Internet, and other equipment to perform vital information management functions in the modern office.

As insurance and billing practices in the health care industry grew more complicated, and physicians began to see a higher number of patients, the career of medical secretary was created to handle administrative responsibilities that were previously taken care of by physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals. Today, medical secretaries are key players in keeping medical facilities operating at top efficiency.