The Quote Garden sums up the medical field with an anonymous quote: "A doctor who cannot take a good history and a patient who cannot give one are in danger of giving and receiving bad treatment." Medical assistants are the bridge between doctor and patient, ensuring that practice of good treatment by freeing physicians from routine tasks such as cleaning exam rooms, taking patient histories, ordering supplies and processing paperwork. In Texas, medical assistants earned less per hour than the average for their profession.
Facts
Medical assistants earned an hourly rate of $14.16 throughout the country in 2009, as recounted in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' survey on the nation's wages. The state of Texas' average hourly rate fell under this figure, paying medical assistants $12.99 on average per hour.
Range
Not all of the Lone Star State's medical assistants earned below-average salaries. The hourly rate for earners in the 90th percentile averaged $17.86. On the other end of the scale, the hourly rate for the lowest-paid medical assistants was $8.71.
Cities
Making up the state's average hourly rate of $12.99 were quite a few differences in wages. Medical assistants in the Dallas area, including Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano and Irving, earned higher-than-average hourly wages of $14.44 and $14.68. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission areas paid the lowest average hourly rate of $10.44. Although it didn't have the highest 50th percentile wages, the city of Midland had Texas' highest 90th percentile hourly rate of $19.53, the only city in the state to break the $19 per hour mark for medical assistant salaries.
Considerations
Unlike physicians and nurses, medical assistants have no required path of postsecondary education or required training. Some medical assistants have just a high school diploma and receive on-the-job training. For Texans interested in the field of medical assisting, a short-term certificate or two-year associate's degree program may help the candidates stand out from the applicant pool. The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs accredits almost 2,000 technical schools, community colleges and universities across the country, including 23 institutions teaching medical assisting in Texas, such as the Texas School of Business (multiple locations), El Paso Community College, Texas State Technical College, Lone Star College, Cisco College, Westwood College (multiple locations) and Houston Community College.
Tags: hourly rate, assistants earned, average hourly, average hourly rate, 90th percentile
