Sandburg Medical Assisting Program Gains National Accreditation
Aaron Frey
Monday, March 15, 2021 2:19 PM
Campus News
Galesburg, IL
Carl Sandburg College’s medical assisting program recently earned accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Programs (CAAHEP), allowing both future and recent graduates of the program to become fully certified.
“Gaining the certificate and the CMA (certified medical assistant) credentials can literally change a person's life,” said Kris Gray, Sandburg’s dean of health professions. “They learn so much in a very short period of time, and they're an incredibly needed and invaluable member of the health care community because they're so prevalent in outpatient offices.”
New graduates of the program — as well as alumni from the 36 months prior to accreditation — will be eligible to take the CMA certification exam through the American Association of Medical Assistants, which is the preferred credential of many health care employers. That includes OSF HealthCare, the primary employer of Sandburg’s medical assisting alumni.
“They can move to any state in the nation, and that CMA credential will be recognized that they graduated from an accredited program,” Gray said.
Medical assistants handle a variety of duties in health care settings, including reception, billing, recording vital signs, performing basic lab tests and assisting the physician during the examination and treatment of patients. The median annual wage for medical assistants was $34,800 annually ($16.73 per hour) in May 2019, and employment in the profession is expected to grow 19 percent from 2019-29, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Sandburg’s five-year accreditation cycle lasts through January 2026. The College began the accreditation process in early 2018 and hosted a site visit from the CAAHEP in the fall of 2019. Sandburg had to display that the program was meeting the agency’s curriculum standards and that it housed proper lab facilities. The College had actually renovated one of its labs previous to the site visit, and it is now dedicated solely to the medical assisting and phlebotomy programs.
“The accreditation site visitors came away really impressed with our lab facilities and the equipment our students use to learn and acquire hands-on skills,” Gray said.
Because Sandburg’s medical assisting program does not have limited enrollment or admission requirements, it often serves as an entryway for students who go on to enroll in Sandburg’s other health professions programs such as licensed practical nursing (LPN) and associate degree nursing (RN).
“It's not only a huge service to our local health care facilities in having these students graduate and be credentialed in this manner, but it's also a huge opportunity for anybody living within our district to be able to come into this program, complete it in a relatively short timeframe and be able to get a typically full-time job with benefits,” Gray said. “It's a very good way to get in the door if they're thinking they might be interested in the medical world.”
Carl Sandburg College’s medical assisting program recently earned accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Programs (CAAHEP), allowing both future and recent graduates of the program to become fully certified. The employment of medical assistants is expected to grow 19 percent from 2019-29, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.