Inside Medical Transcription

Medical transcription jobs from home provide legitimate typing jobs. Because of the aging population, the need for health care services has increased. This in turn has increased the need for medical transcriptionists and there is a lot of work available in this field.

Medical transcription jobs includes working for individual doctors at physician’s offices, hospitals, and a variety of healthcare facilities, insurance companies, legal offices, research centers, laboratories, government medical facilities, and other organizations. However, you are not restricted to working in an office, and many transcriptionists work from home either as freelancers or employees.

When freelancing or working from home, you can charge slightly higher fees than medical transcriptionists working in an office because clients do not have to pay employee benefits. They set their own hours and can choose to work part time or full time.

The person who transcribes the dictation is called a medical transcriptionist, typists, medical word processors and medical secretaries. They use a transcription machine and a word processing program to transcribe dictation into a typed document. When transcribing digital recordings, they use a specialized foot pedal and software.

What kind of work will you do as a medical transcriptionist? You simply transcribe or type dictated information into a word processing program.

The health professional dictates the patient information into a recorder or through a phone dictation system. Medical transcriptionists transcribe this information into a typed document. The transcribed documents are sent back to the dictator as a digital file or hard copy for verification and approval and they become part of a patient’s permanent medical record.

What skills do you need? You need to be familiar with many medical specialties and must be able to produce accurate transcription. The finished transcription work or transcribed documents provide legal documentation of patient care. They are needed for insurance reimbursement, litigation and scientific research.

To get medical transcription jobs, you will need to be proficient with medical terminology and you may need to have formal medical transcription training. As health records contain patients’ personal information and medical information, transcriptionists must keep all information confidential.

How do you start getting medical transcription work from home?

You can receive and send transcription work through the Internet, making it possible to work from any location. Many medical transcriptionists can work from home either as independent contractors or home-based employees.

Client for transcription from home jobs may include medical professionals, physicians, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and insurance companies. It may be easier to start by working for larger medical transcription service offices. Some individual transcriptionists may be open to helping you get started.

You may be able to find clients advertising, through the Internet and online job sites and freelance sites.

If you want to do transcription work from home as an employee, you are more likely to get work from home from an employer you have worked for in an office previously.

If you’re looking for legitimate typing work from home, consider medical transcription. It’s one of the best home typing jobs from home and there is plenty of work available.

Medical transcription is a diligent process and noble objective to humanity by serving patients who require treatment from specialist doctors and health care providers. The jobs of medical transcription have been gaining importance due to its abundant supply and a profession of financial bonanza but it does not demand huge qualifications and skills. With the change of food habits and climatic irregularities human life has been facing a challenge to attain matured age in life.

And it is the medical transcriptionists who can contribute for actual treatment by transcribing dictated notes from specialist’s doctors and health care providers stationed in various locations in this planet. So, the process of converting verbal advice in a readable format is called medical transcription.

The following are the functions that a medical transcriptionist should adhere to i.e.:

A. History of patients and possible occurrences of diseases,

B. Mental and physical reports,

C. Notes of office and clinic,

D. Pathology and operative reports,

E. Transcribe consultation with doctors and heath care providers and their advises,

F. Patients discharge summaries,

G. Laboratory and x-ray reports,

H. Other kinds of jobs which are required to prepare a medical record.

The demand for good medical transcriptionists have been increasing day by day.The recent data from US dept. of labor reveals that medical transcription jobs at entry label provide $25000-$27000 P.A while it will be increased to $50000-$60000 P.A depending upon skills and qualifications. The AAMT has been providing degrees and diploma both offline and online arrangement. After completion of course, the successful candidates deserve the following skills.

A. Ability to use correct vocabulary, punctuation and spelling.

B. Good exposure in medical terminology relates to anatomy, general medicine and surgery, pathology and laboratory reports.

C. Basic computer software knowledge and internet technology.

D. Speed in keyboard operations 60-80 wpm and ability in proofreading.

E. Good understanding HIPAA, ICD-9, CPT-4 and its applications in medical transcription.

The medical transcription career is not hard but it is not as easy as data entry jobs. It requires lot of patience to sit in front of computer for a long time. Besides, some short term or long term qualifications are needed to do the jobs successfully.

Medical transcription jobs are on the rise and will continue to be for the next decade, largely due to the aging baby-boomer population and the special medical treatment and care they will require.   Couple that with the fact that the average age of medical transcriptionists is now 55, one can see that a shortage of medical transcriptionists will soon become a critical issue.

But wait: It is no secret that a lot of medical transcription work is being outsourced, sent overseas to India and the Phillipines. The per line cost is cheaper, and many companies are willing to sacrifice quality for the bottom line. Surely that will save us from the MT shortage. It may indeed. However, what it will not save us from is the inexcusable compromise and swapping of quality for quantity in the medical field. It is dismaying to those of us who have remained dedicated, committed, and proud to do our very best as medical transcriptionists to see such a decline in quality.

It is not that medical transcriptionists in India or the Phillipines do not care about quality. I firmly believe they do care.   One of the main problems is the English language itself. There are so many colloquial and slang expressions that even a person whose primary language is English is hard pressed to know them all. When you throw medical terminology on top of that with a doctor who is talking sloppy and as fast as he can, is it any wonder then that the result is poor quality medical reports?

Here is an example: I remember dictating a medical record review in which I was reviewing billing information. Several dollar amounts were even amounts; i.e. $175.00, $20.00, $55.00. Consequently, I dictated the amounts: ”One hundred seventy-five dollars even, twenty dollars even, and fifty-five dollars even.” When I received the dictation back from India, it read: ” $175 even, $20 even, and $55 even.”  I had to go in and edit many entries. I had taken for granted that what I had dictated would be understood, but it definitely got lost in the cultural translation.

So what am I saying about medical transcription jobs? I am saying it is best to keep the work in our home country. We who work here know company names, the lingo, the jargon, the slang, and colorful nuances that other individuals from other countries cannot begin to fathom.  The most precious thing we can do for patients is to provide them with the best medical care and that is based on an accurate, quality medical report, is it not??

Doctors are notorious for sloppy, incomplete, and inaccurate dictation. They could clean it up if they were so motivated, but they leave that to the MTs. We are the gatekeepers who ensure quality medical reports are produced, and if medical transcription jobs keep going abroad, quality patient care may literally and figuratively be lost in translation.