Office Administration – Health Services – OAM4
Introduction
Video: “Office Administration Health Services Professor Laura Chivers Roberts” by Fanshawe OER Design Studio [2:32] is licensed under the Standard YouTube License.Transcript and closed captions available on YouTube.
In health services office administration, you will be at the centre of a highly specialized environment that requires a unique combination of attention to detail, compassion and managerial skills. The Office Administration – Health Services (OAM) program will teach you all the skills needed to be an administrative assistant in most office settings, in addition to acquiring specialized knowledge specific to performing administrative support in a wide variety of medical environments.
This professional, two-year Ontario College Diploma program is designed to provide students with extensive practical understanding and knowledge of medical terminology, medical transcription, computerized medical scheduling, health records systems, billing systems, and other office equipment technology and software applications. This knowledge will be combined with analytical and multitasking strategies to facilitate scheduling, decision-making, communication skills, coordination, and task completion. Researching, developing, and presenting accurate medical documentation, correspondence and reports will be emphasized. The importance of professional ethics, privacy and confidentiality will be highlighted throughout the program.
Work Placement Information
In addition to the skills gained from your classes throughout the Office Administration – Health Services program, you’ll also gain valuable work experience during a four-week unpaid work placement in a medical office environment or through a comprehensive project-based capstone experience.
Our work placement occurs during the last four weeks of the level 4 semester. This opportunity offers students practical hands-on learning in a medical environment. Live placements allow students to gain valuable experience and have the possibility of getting a job from the position. For online students, if you are not able to do a live placement, we do offer a comprehensive capstone project as an alternative. This is a project that will take about 140 hours to complete (same as your work schedule for in-person). The benefit of the project is that you can complete the work placement requirements but do so on your own schedule should you not be able to do an in-person placement due to location constraints, childcare constraints, or you cannot leave a full-time job. We do recognize that our online students are online, generally for those reasons.
The college has work placement locations throughout Ontario. We do try to find work placements for you. If you are out of town and we do not have a location for you, we will ask you to provide locations in your area where we could reach out to ask if they are willing to host a student. Alternatively, students often find their own placement sites because they have contacted the site and want to be there. In this case, we ask for the contact information, and we set it up. As work placement opportunities vary from year to year, much more information is provided to you in the semester prior to the student completing work placement.
Student Experience
Program Information
This program is available full-time, either in-person or online, or part-time online.
For a full-time student, you would need to commit between 25-40 hours per week to be successful in your studies (depending on the student, the courses and level of study). Part-time studies allow students to take up to three courses at a time, which would reduce the hours commitment to at least half of the full-time.
In the fully online (asynchronous) version of this program (either full-time or part-time), you do not have scheduled classes on specific days or times. Generally, the materials for each course are posted online at the beginning of each week, and you learn the materials when it is convenient for your schedule. Although you learn around your own schedule, you will still need to ensure that you are submitting all evaluations by the due dates given each week. Therefore, you can learn the materials when it works for you but still submit them by the required due dates.
For the full-time in-person (synchronous) version of this program, you do have scheduled live classes on specific days and times. Most classes are done live on campus. A few classes may be live over Zoom, while others may be asynchronous (not scheduled) online. Classes can run Mondays to Fridays, anywhere between 8 am. and 10 pm. Schedules are given to students about 3-weeks before the start of each semester.
For more information about our program, please go to Office Administration Health Services.
For further information about general part-time studies, please go to Register for Part-Time College Credentials.
If you would like further information about part-time studies in our program, please go to Part-Time Online Course Sequence.
Student Testimonials
“Every professor was very helpful and understanding.” – Jasmeen Kaur
Your Future Career
Upon graduation, you will be ready to start an exciting career in any medical environment with jobs including medical secretary, medical team assistant, medical records clerk, administrative assistant, office assistant, medical office coordinator, clerk or receptionist, and much more.
You might work in a hospital, medical lab, residential care facility, community clinic, insurance company, or with doctors, surgeons, dentists, chiropractors or other health care practitioners.
Your Future Path
Pathways to Other Programs
Pathways to other programs allow greater flexibility in your studies and future careers. Currently, the first half of the Office Administration Health Services (OAM) diploma program is also the full Office Administration General (OAG) certificate program. Therefore, if a student does not want to continue further in the OAM program but has completed the first half, you may choose to graduate with your OAG certificate. Conversely, if a student is in the OAG program, it is very easy to transfer into the OAM program. There is also a pathway to move from either the OAM or OAG programs to the Office Administration Executive (OAE) program. The pathways offer the student more flexibility in being able to choose many different career options.
Additionally, there are graduate diplomas, such as the Health Systems Information program, that are available at Fanshawe to further your studies upon graduation from the Office Administration Health Services program.
To learn about the Office Administration – Health Services program, including the description, admission requirements and courses, see the program website.
If you have any further questions regarding the program, please do not hesitate to contact the program coordinator, Laura Chivers-Roberts, at lchivers-roberts@fanshawec.ca.
