Essential for Shriners Hospitals for Children – Medical Assistants

“I love to work at Shriners Hospitals for Children,” said Maria Mace, MA. “I love everything we do here for our patients. Nowhere else could they ever have better care.”

Maria has worked at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Salt Lake City for almost eight years as a medical assistant (MA). She works in the busiest part of the hospital – the outpatient clinic. As part of her duties, she prepares the clinic before each patient, pulls together all test results and medical records for new patients, and provides information as needed to providers in order to improve clinic flow and better serve the patients and their families.

Medical assistants are a very important part of Shriners Hospitals for Children — Salt Lake City. They keep the outpatient clinic running with their continued efforts in escorting the patients and families through each step in clinic, ensuring the patients have a great experience and the doctors are prepared to provide the best possible care to each child.

Maria is one of the more seasoned medical assistants at the Salt Lake City Shriners Hospital. She’s worked as an MA since 2009, having received her training at Vatterott College. Maria wanted to become an MA because she always liked taking care of people and has found contributing to the work at Shriners Hospital to be incredibly meaningful. She loves the family-centered approach.

Another thing she loves about working at the Salt Lake City Shriners Hospital is working closely with the physicians. “Our doctors are amazing professionals, compassionate and kind,” said Maria. “They treat us with respect and always appreciate our work. I wish more people could come to know our hospital.”

A newer member of the medical assistant staff, Sam Babcock, MA, completed his MA training through a community learning center while he was in high school. The program required that he take anatomy and medical terminology classes, qualifying tests and an externship of 160 hours. This allowed him to work in a pediatric office, an orthopaedic office and a family practice clinic.

Sam become an MA because he was interested in the medical field and it seemed to be a good stepping stone which would lead into further education. Since joining the Shriners Hospital team two years ago, he is working on his bachelor’s degree with the goal of become a physician’s assistant. He was also one of the two most recent recipients of the Blake A. Carroll scholarship.

“The best part of working at Shriners Hospitals for Children,” said Sam, “is the children and getting to spend my day with the incredible staff we have. The doctors are also really fun to work with. At times the outpatient clinic can get busy and stressful, but more often than not, our team of MAs keeps it interesting and fun.”

Kristen L. Carroll, M.D., recognizes that the medical assistants make the outpatient clinic at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Salt Lake City possible. “The MAs make clinic run. It’s as simple as that,” said Dr. Carroll. “Without MAs, our kids couldn’t access clinic and without clinic we couldn’t care for our children – they are as important as oxygen. The medical staff appreciates them more than they can possibly know.”