Medical Office Certificate (MOC)

The Medical Office Certificate program provides students with the skills and knowledge needed in a medical office environment: medical secretarial procedures, medical terminology, coding and billing, word processing, and medical machine transcription. For more information, please call (978) 630-9357.

Campus/format: This program can be completed during the day or evening at the Devens or Gardner Campus.

Helpful hints: Students will benefit from having some ability in mathematics and being detail-oriented. MAS102 and MAS201 are available in a convenient modular format for students who wish to learn at their own pace.

Transfer options: This program prepares students for immediate career entry.

Special requirements: Students must have excellent oral and written communication skills as well as keyboarding skills or the ability to acquire them. Technical standards must be met with or without accommodations.

Career options: Graduates are typically employed in a variety of health care settings such as physicians' offices, hospitals, insurance companies, third party billing services, and HMOs. Some positions to consider include claims benefit adviser, coding and insurance specialist, and self-employed consultants to medical practices.

Earning potential: $29,912 to $36,989 per year assuming immediate career entry after program completion.

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Technical Standards*

*general information about technical standards and accommodation.

All technical standards listed apply to MAS; technical standards that apply to MOC are indicated by: **

Students entering this program must be able to demonstrate the ability to:

1. Comprehend textbook material at the 11th grade level.**
2. Communicate and assimilate information either in spoken, printed, signed, or computer voice format.**
3. Gather, analyze, and draw conclusions from data.**
4. Be able to type 30 words per minute for three minutes with three or fewer errors using the "touch" method of typing.**
5. Write at a college level as evidenced by completion of ENG100 or placement into ENG101.**
6. Distinguish shapes and colors under a microscope.
7. Read typewritten text and patient data from a computer screen with or without corrective devices.**
8. Discriminate color in order to identify reagents and other materials such as laboratory media, stained preparations, and the physical properties of various body fluids.
9. Possess the manual dexterity as required in such tasks as performing phlebotomy; operating blood analyzers and laboratory information systems; handling small containers of potentially biohazardous specimens (one inch by one inch); using sample measuring devices such as pipettes; giving injections and being able to adequately focus and manipulate a microscope; using the small muscle dexterity necessary to do such tasks as gloving, gowning, and operating controls on machinery.
10. Traverse the hospital and laboratory corridors, passageways, and doorways (minimum width, three feet).
11. Communicate with patients and staff in the English language.**
12. Maintain cleanliness and personal grooming consistent with close personal contact.**
13. Possess hearing with or without corrective devices to be able to transcribe medical dictation from recorded media.**
14. Comprehend and respond to the spoken word of all age-specific groups.**
15. Function without causing harm to self or others if under the influence of prescription or over-the-counter medications.**
16. Function without causing harm to others. This would include situations that may result from chronic mental or physical conditions.**
17. React quickly, both mentally and physically.**
18. Work as a member of a team.**
19. Remain calm, rational, decisive, and in control at all times, especially during emergency situations.
20. Identify behaviors that would endanger a person’s safety and intervene quickly in a crisis situation with an appropriate solution.
21. Exhibit social skills appropriate to professional interactions.**
22. Respond to distress sounds, visual distress cues, emergency alarms, and vital sign assessment equipment.