Inside Medical Transcription

Transcription developed gradually in the early sixties through different machines like manual and electric typewriters, computers, word processors, magnetic belts, cassettes, plastic disks and digital recordings. In the past, medical reports that were gathered for patients contain handwritten abbreviation notes that were very difficult for common people to understand.

Nowadays, a lot of healthcare providers make use of voice streaming and dictation to make transcription more effective and efficient. However, since the medical spoken language is still too complex to understand, medical transcriptionists are required to convert the spoken medical records into typewritten form.

What is a Medical Transcriptionist?

A medical transcriptionist, also called an MT, is an individual who is in charge of converting or translating a patient’s medical records to typewritten layout. Although transcriptions can also be done in handwritten form, a typewritten layout is often preferred because it is clearer and more comprehensible. These transcriptions are usually done for the purpose of charting reports and information. Much of the recordings that a medical transcriptionist works on come from either a Dictaphone machine or recorded tape.

A Medical Transcriptionist should be a practiced typist

Since the market for medical transcriptionists is growing, employers often look for a person who is a practiced typist with outstanding interpretation of what he hears through dictation. A fast typist will be able to lay out the medical records in typewritten form as the recording runs, without having to play back the Dictaphone machine or tape. This makes him more efficient in his job.

An MT should be knowledgeable with medical terms

A medical transcriptionist must have strong knowledge of medical language and terms. Since a medical transcriptionist has to record a lot of medical terms, it is essential that he knows the spelling and pronunciation
of such terms. Without a good knowledge of medical terms, it is rather impossible for a person to work effectively as a medical transcriptionist.

Educational qualifications and skills required for an MT position

To be a medical transcriptionist, you must be at least a high school graduate with a diploma that is relevant to the field medical transcription. You will have an advantage if you have at least one to three years of working experience that is in line with the duties and responsibilities of a medical transcriptionist. As a medical transcriptionist, you must be able to comprehend dictation of medical terms and you need to possess short hand skills. You should also be good in verbal communication and spelling, and have excellent memory skills so that you can sort out, count, check and authenticate numbers with accuracy.

Other skills required of an MT

It is essential that you are able to use and operate some of the basic office machines, equipments and computers. A medical transcriptionist needs to possess excellent records maintenance ability and a profound knowledge of medical transcription practices and guidelines. You have to be resourceful enough to be able to use a wide selection of professional reference materials and work under pressure with limited time and minimal supervision.

You must also have the skills to use proper grammar, capitalization rules, and correct punctuations. As you progress in your job as a medical transcriptionist, you will be required to perform quality assurance check to ascertain that the medical reports are correctly done. You will also have to understand and apply important legal concepts like confidentiality.

As a whole, an effective and successful medical transcriptionist has to be able to decide what is essential and vital to medical reports. In other words, a medical transcriptionist has to comprehend the medical terms used in the reports, instead of just being able to identify them. A medical transcriptionist possibly will not be able to determine which parts of a report are important if he has no fundamental knowledge of the terms used by medical experts.

Drug reference books are an important resource in the library of a medical transcriptionist. In order to keep up to date on new drugs, a medical transcriptionist should purchase drug reference books every year or every other year.

Four important pharmacology references in the medical tanscriptionist’s library are:

1. Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR)
2. American Drug Index (ADI)
3. Saunders Pharmaceutical Word Book
4. Understanding Pharmacology

It is very important that a medical transcriptionist be familiar with drugs, their indications and dosages as well as how to research new or unusual drug names in drug reference books. Elderly people especially sometimes take multiple, as many as ten or more medications per day. A wise medical transcriptionist will be sure to stay up-to-date. Familiarity with drugs and drug reference books will make transcription assignments much easier and will increase the rate of productivity, which is important if the medical transcription is being paid by line of transcription.

The pharmaceutical companies use three different names to describe a drug, they are:

* The chemical name (which is a complicated formula describing the drug’s molecular structure).
* The generic name (a shorter name assigned to the drug chemical)
* The trade or brand name (the copyrighted name selected by the pharmaceutical company)

The trade or brand name is easy to pronounce, and may indicate what the drug is used for or how often it is taken, and is selected for its appeal to prescribing physicians. A generic drug may have several trade names copyrighted by different manufacturers.

Rules to remember when transcribing drug names include:

* Generic drugs are always written in lowercase letters. Trade name drugs always start with a capital letter. Some trade name drugs will also have internal capitalization (such as pHisoHex). It is also important to note that the PDR contains only prescription drugs. There is a separate publication for nonprescription drugs. In addition, only drugs that the manufacturer
pays to have listed in the PDR are included.

* Be alert to drug names that sound alike but their uses are completely different, such as Xanax used to treat anxiety and Zantac used to treat stomach ulcers.
* Words such as tablet, capsule, solution, elixir and cream are not part of the trade name of a drug and should not be capitalized for use

The standard drug reference is the Physicians Desk Reference (published annually) and well known as the PDR. It contains various sections of drugs and is found in most physicians offices. Sections of the PDR of most interest to the medical transcriptionist are:

*Yellow pages (list generic names of drugs)
*Pink pages (list brand names of drugs)
*Blue pages (list therapeutic category
*White pages (give a complete description of the listed drugs including indications and dosages)

The American Drug Index (ADI) is another standard drug reference book. This is a comprehensive reference that lists both generic and trade name drugs and prescription and nonprescription drugs in alphabetical order throughout the reference book. It lists every drug name in all capital letters. Generic drugs are preceded by a small black dot to denote their difference from trade and brand name drugs. Trade name drugs list the name of the manufacturer to alert the medical transcriptionist that the drug is to be capitalized.

The Saunders Pharmaceutical Word Book is a new drug reference book to be updated annually first published n 1992. It is an A to Z listing of medications with generic drugs in lowercase letters and trade names capitalized as the medical transcriptionist must type them. Each entry states briefly what the drug is for and the usual methods of administration. It has an appendix list of Sound Alikes, 879 pairs of drugs that sound enough alike to be confusing which serves as a special help to the medical transcriptionist.

Understanding Pharmacology is an easy-to-read textbook used in many pharmacology classes. Medical transcriptionists seeking a greater understanding of drugs and their uses may find it especially useful to include in their library as well.

The process that deals with transcribing (or typing) any audio information associated with doctor notations or other medical data is called medical transcription. At some appointments in the doctor’s office, you may have noticed that he or she will speak into a small voice recorder regarding some of your symptoms, the diagnosis, and what kind of suggestions they will make about your medical care. A medical transcriptionist will later listen to these recordings (audio files) and create a report that is then slipped into your medical records folder.

Over the years, doctors have moved away from hiring a medical transcriptionist (also referred to as an MT) who resided in the area and are now seeking assistance from all over the world. In the past, the doctor would assign work for the week and the MT would come onsite; pick up the information stored on mini-cassette tapes; and come back at a later date to deliver the completed documents.

Since the start of more advanced technologies (like digital recorders), doctors are more partial to hiring a medical transcriptionist that could come from any part of the world. Today, digital audio files are not uploaded onto the Internet and the medical transcriptionist is able to type the reports onto the computer and electronically send them back to the doctor’s office.

In order to enter the field of medical transcription, it is important to expand upon an interest in medical terminology and complete a medical transcription course offered by the local college. There are also ways to complete this requirement on the Internet. The course will teach many different things, but will mainly focus on medical terminology,
as this is very important in regards to gaining an understanding of what a doctor will say.

A decent medical transcriptionist needs to be fast and accurate when typing. When it comes to pay, they are paid per line or sometimes by the hour. If you land a job where you are paid by line, then the more you type
the more money you will earn. It is also necessary to possess the capacity to sit for long amounts of time, as this is a requirement for the job.

Joining these skill requirements, you will also need a computer that is hooked up to high speed internet access. This is because you will receive a lot of audio files that can be quite large in size. If you are only working with a dial-up connection, then it could take awhile before all of the files are downloaded onto your computer. Depending on whom you work under, you may also need to download software onto your PC, which makes typing reports much easier. Many medical transcriptionists also take advantage of software that slows down the audio files you are listening to, which assists in having a better understanding of what the doctor is saying.

Typically, numerous doctors will outsource their transcription to other agencies that are professionals in locating medical transcriptionists that do work from their home. You can find these companies by doing a search on the Internet. Another approach is to locate doctors in your area and make your services known.

As for the pay rate, this will vary in regards to who you are working for and how much previous experience you have in the field. If you are brand new to the services, then you can expect to make between $10 and $12 per hour. Once you have about a year or two of experience under your belt, you can earn up to $19 or more on an hourly basis.