Top 5 Accredited Medical Assistant Schools in Texas
Certified professional Medical assistants are invaluable to modern healthcare. With rising costs and shrinking benefits, hospitals and clinics must have specialists who can quickly attend to and dismiss patients. Medical assistants thus enjoy steady work and job security, but only if they have the right training.
If your looking for where to study for medical assistant certification, you’ve come to the right place. The following medical assistant schools in Texas are sure to prepare you for a successful CMA career in the healthcare field:
The Southern Careers Institute
With an 80% job placement rate, Southern Careers Institute (SCI) has some of the best student outcomes among accredited ma programs and medical assistant schools in Texas. The medical assistant school length is just 40-hours. This certified medical assistance program provides comprehensive training, teaching students word processing skills, customer service methods, clinical and medical science, and a variety of other essential skills to become a CMA.
Graduates are prepared for 7 national licenses, including CPR certification (with an average salary of $32,000), phlebotomy technician certification ($34,000), and electronic health records certification ($78,000). As promising as some of these numbers may look, never choose a school based solely on employment statistics. A school that appears effective on paper may prove inadequate given your personal learning style and time commitments, so make sure to get a sense of the program\’s instructors, location, scheduling, and assignments before you apply. For more information on medical assistant programs and other vocational courses, contact the Southern Careers Institute today.
Lone Star College
Lone Star College (LSC) offers medical assistant training at two locations: LSC- CyFair and LSC- North Harris. The programs teach students how to pass the American Association of Medical Assistants\’ Certified Medical Assistant exam. Those who pass the exam make an average salary of $29,000 a year in Texas. The 2011 CyFair class had a first time pass rate of 100% for the certification exam; the national average first time pass rate is only 67%.
Kaplan College
Kaplan University has 12 campuses in Texas as well as online courses you can take from anywhere, making it one of the most flexible medical assistant schools in Texas. Its program offers training in a wide range of administrative and clinical skills, including medical equipment preparation, administering EKGs, word processing, filing insurance claims, and assisting in exams, tests, and minor surgeries. Tuition for the online medical assistant program is $17,060. This program prepares students to become either Certified Medical Assistants, who make an average salary of $29,000 a year in Texas, or registered medical assistants, who make $27,000.
Houston Community College
This school\’s medical assistant program has a job placement rate of 82%, and you can complete the program in as little as 44 weeks, though most students take longer than this. Like Kaplan College, these programs will prepare you to become either a Certified Medical Assistant or a Registered Medical Assistant, but at a significantly lower cost.
Pima Medical Institute
Pima\’s Houston branch offers an accredited medical assistant program designed to prepare you for certification in only 8 to 9 months. This program focuses on clinical skills, including how to provide dietary advice, prepare medications, draw blood, give shots, and perform a wide range of other tasks necessary for running a clinic smoothly. The total cost of medical assistance training was $28,379 in 2013, making it one of the more expensive medical assistant schools in Texas. Pima makes up for its high price, however, by offering quality networking, career advice, and other services to help you find a job after graduation.