New apprenticeship program aims to tackle demand for medical assistants

Facing a growing demand for workers, Centennialbased Centura Health has teamed up with Arapahoe Community College to create a new apprenticeship program for medical assistants in hopes of creating a pipeline of employees.

The six-month program, which launched last month, aims to train future medical assistants by pairing online and laboratory education components with 32 hours per week of paid apprenticeship work at Centura Health facilities.

Those who complete the program successfully and become certified will be hired on as medical assistants by Centura Health.

“It’s one of the fastestgrowing fields in the medical profession,” said Eric Dunker, dean of business, technology and workforce partnerships at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton.

The tight labor market is making it difficult for employers to recruit and retain workers, and the health care industry has seen more demand for workers, most notably for nurses.

But demand for medical assistants is also expected to grow, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting that, by 2026, employment of medical assistants will be up 29 percent from 2016 levels.

“It’s fairly difficult to find qualified medical assistant candidates,” said Susie Artis, associate administrator for professional practice and education for Centura Health Physician Group.

It’s also difficult “to recruit them to specific areas of town because of cost of living,” she said.

Centura Health has 60 openings for medical assistants, which provide support to physicians through duties such as taking vital signs, giving patients medication and helping doctors prepare for procedures. The median pay last year for medical assistants was $32,480, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other health systems in the state also have programs to provide additional training to medical assistants to prepare them for working with physicians and patients.

For example, medical assistants hired for UCHealth’s outpatient clinics participate in a training program that provides an additional two weeks of training on topics such as electronic health records and medical terminology.

Centura’s medical-assistant program received about $38,000 through grants from the state’s Department of Labor and the Colorado First and Existing Industry program, which came from the Colorado Community College System and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

There are 12 participants in the program, but Centura Health hopes to increase it to 15 to 20 apprentices, Artis said.