The clerical staff have many duties that involve mathematics. These range from helping in scheduling (see the receptionist for more detail) to making change for payments.
The clerical staff probably use the least mathematics of all of the people in the doctor's office. Much of their job involves filling out paperwork and filing. However, when they use mathematics it is very important to be correct in their calculations because it involves money.
The clerical staff is responsible for checking patients out after their treatment and for receiving payment for services rendered. They must be able to input information into the computer so that they know how much money the patient must pay that day. Then, the must be able to make change for those patients that pay cash. These employees do not keep a calculator and would feel embrassed if they needed to rely on a calculator to make change. The calculations must be correct or they cost the office money. At the end of each day, they must be able to total all of the money that they have taken in on that particular day. The money is then given to the office manager who checks to make sure that each employees balance is correct. A person that whose does not have the correct amount of money at the end of the day will not keep his/her job for long because the company will not keep an employee that costs the company money.
So, mathematics are used by the clerical staff on a daily basis and their keeping their jobs depends upon them being able to do mathematics quickly and correctly.
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