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The Bay Area Medical Academy is providing free medical assisting classes to 20 Redwood City residents, helping low- to moderate-income individuals kick start their career in the healthcare industry.
“This is really helpful for individuals who are low-income, unemployed, struggling or trying to figure out their career path and are not able to go to college,” said Simonida Cvejic, CEO and founder of BAMA and its nonprofit arm STEP into a Job.
The program starts on March 31 with one month of phlebotomy training during which students will learn how to draw blood from patients for various tests, transfusions and donations. Following this, students will learn about clinical medical assisting and how to perform an electrocardiogram, a test that records the electrical activity of the heart.
Cvejic launched BAMA in 2005 in response to increasing demand for healthcare training. She says the academy has helped graduates become medical assistants at Sutter Health, UCSF Medical Center, Concentra, Kaiser Permanente and many smaller doctors’ offices and clinics.
Medical assistants help doctors with various administrative and clinical duties from booking patient appointments, recording patient symptoms in their medical files to drawing blood, performing lab tests and assisting doctors during physical exams. This does not include nurses who often provide more skilled and hands-on care to patients.
According to a study published in Annals of Family Medicine, having the ratio of two medical assistants to one doctor can improve the patient experience, cut health care costs by reducing unnecessary hospitalization and reduce burn out in primary care physicians.
Another study published in the same journal, however, revealed inadequate levels of medical assistant staffing in the U.S. It analyzed survey answers from 1,252 primary care practices and found that about 56% of the practices had ratios of just one medical assistant to each primary care clinician.
Cvejic founded STEP in 2019 to help disenfranchised workers overcome barriers to employment by providing them healthcare training free. So far STEP offers its free programs in San Francisco, sponsored by UCSF and the Crankstart foundation and in San Jose, supported by the Sobrato foundation. Their aim is to address racial and economic inequity by investing in people of color, system-impacted individuals, refugees and low-income workers.
Last year, STEP received a federal grant to start another free program in Redwood City, training 20 students.
The phlebotomy module will be taught entirely in person at the Sobrato Foundation Redwood City offices. The medical assisting and EKG modules will follow a hybrid format, with two days of in-person instruction at the BAMA San Francisco location at 530 Bush Street and three days of live instruction on Zoom.
After the completion of their eight months training, all 20 students will be placed in clinical externships where they will apply their classroom skills in the real-world setting.
As part of the class, graduates will prepare for and take three national certification exams, as well as apply for and obtain a CPT1 Phlebotomy license with the California Department of Public Health – Laboratory Field Services. The certifications include the National Medical Assistant Certification, the National Certified Phlebotomy Technician and the EKG Technician National Certification. Additionally, graduates will complete the requirements for the California state phlebotomy licensing.
Applicants for the class must live in incorporated Redwood City and be 18 years or older and meet low- to moderate-income requirements. They must have a high school diploma or GED. Individuals with a completed bachelor’s degree or higher education do not qualify. Applicants must also have received at least one full course of COVID-19 vaccination.
Residents interested in applying are encouraged to book an online appointment with the admissions team as soon as possible to learn more about eligibility and enrollment. Appointments can be scheduled at this link. For an immediate response, applicants can also contact BAMA Admissions Manager Abdul Nawabi at abdul@bamasf.com.
“I hope to touch and transform each and every individual that comes to our school,” Cvejic said.
