Texas County Technical College announced the approval of an academic associate’s degree in the medical office assistant program.
Charlotte Gray, president, received the announcement of approval from ACICS, the school’s accreditation agency, in Washington, D.C., in February.
TCTC has offered a certificate program in medical office assistant for the past 11 years. The clock hour program went to a credit hour system in 2007. Students in the current program, and students since 2007, are eligible for the associate’s degree course work. According to Gray, “Basically, what this means is one additional semester of 15 credit hours added to the current four semester program. There will be five classes in the new semester including: English, math, communications, psychology and biology. The first offering of the fifth semester classes will begin on Jan. 11, 2011.”
“We’ve had interest from students and employers the last few years for medical office training that will result in an advanced degree. Competition for jobs in the medical office market has become more specialized as facilities are adding computerized systems such as charting, billing and coding and insurance,” said Barbara Romines, academic director.
TCTC became a National Healthcareer Association testing center in May 2010 and had the first students test in June of 2009. Results of those were a 100 percent pass rate. NHA is a nationally recognized testing entity that offers specialized certification in medical administrative assistant, insurance and billing and coding to current and former TCTC students as well as any healthcare facility that would like for their employees to gain certification in the area in which they are working. Check out the nhanow.com Web site for more details.
According to Romines, “Adding this academic associate’s degree to our existing program is an exciting new development, not only for the college, but for area students, employees and employers that are interested in the fast-paced, ever-growing job market in the medical office field. TCTC is pleased to announce this advanced degree to Houston and surrounding communities.”
Call or visit Texas County Technical College for more information at 800-835-1130 or visit its Web site at www.texascountytech.edu