UAB Medicine CCMA Career Ladder

Medical assistants (MA) have direct impact on the quality of care delivered to our patients. Increased competitive market wages make it more difficult to recruit and retain MAs, resulting in staffing gaps and high turnover which negatively affect all aspects of our care outcomes. Career ladders have been proven to provide opportunities for staff to learn new skills and gain added responsibilities which translate to improved compensation and job satisfaction. The proposed UAB Medicine CCMA ladder will augment our recruitment and retention efforts and provide a pipeline to build our foundational staff - growing them from novice to expert. Staff will have the option of pursuing a long-term career as a CCMA or working as a CCMA while pursuing a nursing degree. Each tier will have inclusion criteria, training/educational expectations, and minimum performance requirements (based on assigned tasks and defined job functions). Organizational investment of resources will be considered during compensation modeling. CCMA roles within the career ladder are focused on care coordination, EHR documentation, patient-centered care, and training and education.