Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/817155
18 Community Health Center, Inc. Community Health Center created the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA) along with Salud Family Health Centers of Colorado in 2016, a groundbreaking initiative to provide quality, patient-centered care training to medical assistants. With CHC CEO Mark Masselli as chairman, CHC and NIMAA are out in front with this new way of providing innovative education to medical assistants. e effort has resulted in strong interest from healthcare orga- nizations across the U.S. supportive of the NIMAA goal: deliver- ing high-quality medical assistants (MAs) to clinics and improv- ing the career path of an MA. It looks to give medical assistants more responsibility as opposed to the traditional model, where they are assistants to doctors or nurses. Rounding out a team in this way ultimately yields better results for patients and healthcare organizations, says David Aylward, NIMAA project lead. In the spring of 2016 an advisory group began addressing is- sues such as the debt medical assistants take on aer graduation. Aylward said MAs would be charged $20,000-30,000 for jobs that paid about $24,000. "ey are deeply in debt, spending lots of time … training on the job. Certain things were not in their curriculum. By nature, it was not a standardized process." e pilot program began with six medical-assistant students at Salud and five at CHC in Connecticut. e timely need for an initiative like NIMAA was evident aer CHC spread the word within the industry. Interest was high. Early in 2017, CHC brought the NIMAA model to a webi- nar open to all primary care organizations. Over a thousand groups in the U.S. and abroad logged in to the presentation. A sec- ond webinar focused on sites looking to join NI- MAA as Phase II host clin- ics. e positive response represented a giant step forward for the medical assistant healthcare model overall. Aylward said that CHC leadership saw a need and strategized not only for its organization, but for other Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) across the country as well. "ey are looking for a solution for everybody," said Aylward. "FQHCs rely increasingly on medical assistants to be successful, and they aren't being trained to do primary care, much less the model of advanced primary care at CHC, integrating medical, dental and behavioral health." NIMAA plans to follow the pilot MAs through their careers as it welcomes and tracks more students. Aylward said the affordable program is attractive to those already working at clinics — even in different roles. e effort, led by CHC, will result in better careers and better care. n National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement They might go unnoticed, but they are the lynchpin of every medical visit you have. The medical assistant makes you feel at ease, gathers your vitals and from behind the scenes ensures that your experience goes smoothly. And yet, their training is a cottage industry executed by people who aren't anchored in the modern delivery of health care — with too many medical assis- tants left in debt and too few prepared for changes in primary care. - Mary Blankson, PhD, Chief Nursing Officer www.NIMAA1.org