No matter how skilled you are, you need to pay attention to small things in order to excel in any profession. In today’s post, we bring to you some simple tips to make your medical transcription work easier.

• Keep all the software updated and handy. Make sure you have the medical spell-checker, the medical abbreviation expander, the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) style guide, and all reference materials available when you start work. You may lose a lot of valuable time looking for them during work.
• Don’t commit to work you cannot handle. You may be able to meet deadlines in spite of the load of work, but can you ensure quality? You risk losing your goodwill by turning over bad work. You may even compromise on your health. Think of the long run and start saying ‘no’ to extra work. This rule applies more to the home-based transcriptionist.
• Don’t flag too soon and don’t ignore flagging when required. You are required to flag a document when there is some information missing in it. However, there are cases when people flag documents because they are reluctant to research. And there are times when a genuine flagging case is ignored. Both the situations should be avoided as they make lead to major inaccuracies in your medical documents.
• Inform doctors when they are sending out poor dictations. Letting doctors record poorly will eventually affect the quality of your work. You don’t have to be rude with doctors, but you have to make sure they understand that the poor quality of dictations will cause errors in medical records.

Simple, right? And yet, these are things one is likely to ignore. If you would like to add to the list here, let us know.

Imagine a third-grade teacher telling his/her class that the earth is flat! That is sacrilegious for a teacher, right? Every profession has a list of must-nots, and medical transcription too has quite a few. Today, we will look at what you are not allowed to do as a medical transcriptionist.

For starters, you cannot afford to compromise on the security of medical data. Irrespective of where you work, in an office or at home, you cannot let anyone access any work information, even by accident. Make sure your cabinets are locked, unnecessary papers shredded, and your computer inaccessible. Don’t let your work computer be used for personal purposes by anyone, including you.

As a medical transcriptionist, you cannot commit even a single critical error in the medical records you create. While the overall quality goal is 98 percent accuracy, the profession has zero tolerance when it comes to critical errors. A careless error on your part can risk a patient’s health. And you can ruin your career with even a single error of this kind.

Flagging medical documents inappropriately is a complete no-no. At times, you may be faced with recordings that have some parts absolutely incomprehensible. It is important you don’t assume things in such cases. Make sure you flag such instances. At the same time, don’t flag something because of your lack of interest and energy to research. You cannot afford to miss flagging certain instances or flag incorrectly.

You can’t afford to miss deadlines as a medical transcriptionist. Missing a deadline will not only add unnecessary pressure on you, but also make you unpopular with your client or employer. The medical transcription deadlines are sacred, and you have to make sure you meet them, every time.

Now that you have an idea of what you shouldn’t do as a medical transcriptionist, you will be able to make a better decision as to whether or not you want to join the profession.

Even the medical transcriptionist who loves his/her job will not call the work easy. The medical transcription profession, with its myriad challenges, is anything but easy. Expert medical transcriptionists, however, have learned the tricks to keep the deadlines and quality goals from getting on their nerves. In today’s post, we bring to you a few tips from the desk of experienced transcriptionists.

Never shirk away instances of incomprehensible recordings. Always follow up with the doctor on missing information. If you are in the habit of leaving the information missing and wait for the doctor to provide it during reviews, you are working the wrong way. You will end up losing valuable time as you not only have to plug in the information at a later stage but also wait for it to be reviewed. The best thing to do is to follow up with the doctor who recorded the information as soon as you find gaps. This will solve your problem early on and save you time.

Flag documents appropriately. In medical transcription, a document is flagged if it has critical information missing. It is important to note that improper flagging may cost you your credibility. Do not flag to avoid researching on it. Also, do not refrain from flagging when you cannot find the right information.

It is important that you don’t guess when a piece of information is missing. Working with the same kind of information over time may make you assume when there is no clarity in the available information. If you can substantiate your assumption with research, you can go ahead. However, if you are just making a guess, educated or otherwise, you may end up changing the information. Remember, your work can directly impact the safety of the patient.

Hope these tips help enhance your work experience.

Being a good medical transcriptionist involves doing the following:

• Gauging your potential before committing to medical transcription
• Finding a good medical transcription course that lets you practice extensively
• Meeting deadlines and quality goals
• Ensuring security and confidentiality of medical data

Now, these are the most obvious ways you can ensure you have a good career in medical transcription. Here are a few simple ways to ensure that you outperform your peers always.

• Be organized. If you have organizational skills, you will be better placed than your peers. If you start work without any preparation and get up many times to gather your work tools, you will waste a lot of time. You will also end up spoiling your work flow. If you are organized, you will save on time and be more productive.
• Keep yourself motivated. Not everyone can motivate himself/herself. And in the medical transcription profession, thanks to the nature of the job, one cannot survive for long without motivation. If you can keep yourself motivated, you will do well as a transcriptionist.
• Be disciplined. Since the medical transcription profession expects you to work independently, without any supervision, you have to be extremely disciplined to finish your work properly.
• Be willing to learn. The willingness to learn is a prerequisite of becoming a medical transcriptionist, but more often than not aspirants don’t understand its significance. If your learning skills are good, you have an edge over your peers.

Sincerity is the key to a good medical transcription career. If you don’t think you can be committed for long, don’t become a medical transcriptionist.

This blog has often discussed ways to make your medical transcription career better. There are some things that are absolutely no-no for a good medical transcription career. Let’s look into the don’ts of this profession.

Don’t commit critical errors. Now, this one is obvious. The medical transcription profession has zero tolerance when it comes to critical errors. A careless error on your part can risk a patient’s health. And you can ruin your career with even a single error of this kind. So, critical errors are a complete no-no.

Don’t panic when faced with a crisis. As a medical transcriptionist, you are required to work independently. There will be situations that will make you look out for help. Incomprehensible recordings, difficult reviewers, and many such problems can put you in a crisis situation. The key here is not to panic. You should consult seniors, your medical transcription company, and your peers for help.

Don’t let the confidentiality of your data be compromised. Irrespective of where you work, in an office or at home, you cannot let anyone access any work information, even by accident. Make sure your cabinets are locked, unnecessary papers shredded, and your computer inaccessible. Don’t let your work computer be used for personal purposes by anyone, including you.

Don’t flag irresponsibly. Inappropriate flagging can put your medical transcription career at risk. At times, you may be faced with recordings that have some parts absolutely incomprehensible. Don’t assume things in such cases. Make sure you flag such instances. At the same time, don’t flag something because of your lack of interest and energy to research.

If there is anything else you would like to add to the list, drop in a line.

Every profession requires you to keep yourself motivated. Probably medical transcription needs you to be motivated all throughout. The reason for this is that medical transcription is not a team job. Even if you have co-workers around, you don’t get to work as a team. And if you choose home-based medical transcription, you will have to work in isolation. So, you have to take certain steps, though small, to keep yourself connected and interested in the job. Here are a few tips.

When you make that work routine, make room for other things too – your family, your domestic responsibilities, your own interests, and some rest. It is important you don’t forego other things in your life because of your work.

Never ignore your meals, your exercise, or your entertainment while meeting the deadlines. Being fit helps you remain focused and thus keeps you motivated. Try to make some time for your hobby even if for a couple of hours every week.

Develop the habit of rewarding yourself on successful completion of big tasks. Pamper yourself. Spend time with your friends, watch a movie, play video games, watch your favorite sport, visit the spa or go shopping.

Plan vacations every few months. Plan for a couple of big vacations twice a year, and take smaller breaks once a month. Looking forward to these breaks from work will keep you focused and motivated.

Now, these tips look very simple and yet more often than not we don’t follow them. Try making these a part of your life and you’ll soon find out how miraculous they turn out to be.

Meeting deadlines while ensuring high quality is not an easy task. You have got to be extremely disciplined and dedicated in order to achieve this. Ensuring high productivity will help you meet both deadlines and quality goals. How can you increase your medical transcription productivity? Here are a few easy tips.

• Plan your day, and stick to the plan. Yes, you have to make a plan on how you intend finishing the tasks you have for that day. It is important you make a realistic plan,  including scope for unplanned breaks.
• Irrespective of where you work from – home or office – keep away from e-mails and social networking sites during designated work time. You can always get back to these once you have finished your work. You may find social networking giving you a breather at times, but a two-min break can stretch to an hour without you realizing it. It is better to update your Facebook or Twitter status at leisure, after you have finished your work for the day.
• Plan and take logical breaks during work. You cannot be efficient if you keep sitting in one place for hours. Take a logical break every half an hour or so. Take a walk, talk to your co-worker, or stretch yourself, and then get back to work. Make sure your break doesn’t stretch for more than a few minutes – where possible, take breaks when natural breaks occur in your work, for example, one task is completed.
• Reward yourself at the end of a hard day at work. If your work plan tells you that you are going to have a long day, plan a reward that you can give yourself on completion of all your tasks for the day. You may choose to watch a movie, go out with friends, order in from your favorite restaurant, soak your feet in warm water, a long bubble bath, an evening out with your family, or dinner with the boys/girls. Plan just anything as long as it feels like a reward.
• Use the abbreviation expander, the AutoCorrect option in your word processor, and other shortcuts to save on time and effort while creating the medical records. This one should become a habit.

Is there any other tip you would like to share with our readers?

Your medical transcription resume is the first thing your potential employer comes across. The chance to impress the employer personally will happen only if your resume is shortlisted. For that to happen, your resume should be able to draw a good picture of you. Not a false picture, but a precise one. Now, how do you make a resume that has all the detail about you without looking cluttered? Focus on creating a resume that is concise but informative. Here are a few tips to help you create that perfect resume.

• Pay attention to the format: Avoid creating your resume from scratch. Use a template provided by your word processor. It will not only be a faster way to create the resume but will also give your profile a professional look.
• Make it informative: If you are a fresher, include the hours of dictation that you practiced with in your medical  transcription training. Mention your transcription skills including the typing speed, typing accuracy, and transcription accuracy. Include your achievements in the medical transcription field as well as in other fields. Achievements indicate your dedication.
• Get references: Include references to previous employers/clients. And keep them informed about their inclusion in your resume as references.
• Review well: Check the resume for spelling and grammar errors. Review your resume manually after you have used the built-in grammar-checker and spell-checker of the word processor. Verify that your contact details and that of your references are correct. Make sure there are no inconsistencies or errors of any kind in the resume.
• Seek another opinion: Get someone else to review your resume. This will help find out any obvious errors that you may have missed.

We wish you all the luck finding your dream job!

There are three things that the medical transcription profession expects of you:

• Meeting deadlines
• Meeting quality goals
• and ensuring security and confidentiality of medical data

You can prove to be a good medical transcriptionist as long as you meet these expectations. While everyone tries to meet them, not everyone does. Let’s look at how a good medical transcriptionist scores over a bad one.

A good medical transcriptionist will not panic in crisis. You are an above-average medical transcriptionist if you don’t panic when faced with absolutely incomprehensible recordings, too many gaps in information, difficult doctors and reviewers, and extremely tight deadlines. Such situations are crisis situations that can make many a medical transcriptionist goof up their work.

A good medical transcriptionist will always conform to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). All transcriptionists working in an office can comply with HIPAA as their medical transcription company implements measures to keep patient data secure and confidential. A home-based transcriptionist, however, has to take measures on his/her own in order to ensure compliance with HIPAA. If you can ensure the confidentiality of patient information in all situations, you get an edge over others.

A good medical transcriptionist will flag documents appropriately. Medical document flagging is something that is not properly handled by all transcriptionists. If you flag documents appropriately every time, you prove yourself to be better than most transcriptionists.

A good medical transcriptionist will treat its employers’ work sacredly and consider the deadlines sacred. He/she will keep employers and clients informed of any problems in meeting the deadlines, acknowledge his/her errors, and make sure the work doesn’t suffer in any way.

Home-based medical transcription can become monotonous and boring in the long run. The best way to keep yourself motivated is to keep yourself fit mentally and physically and making sure that your personal life never gets boring.

• Make a routine that has room not only for work but for everything you hold important in your life – your family, your domestic responsibilities, your own interests, and some rest.
• Don’t ignore your meals, your exercise, or your entertainment while meeting the deadlines. Being fit helps you remain focused and thus keeps you motivated.
• Don’t let work take over your life. Make time for your hobby even it for a couple of hours every week.
• Reward yourself on successful completion of big tasks. Pamper yourself. Spend time with your friends, watch a movie, play video games, watch your favorite sport, visit the spa, or go shopping.
• Spend quality time with your family. Your loved ones help ensure that you don’t get stressed. So, make it a point to spend a few hours with them every week.
• Plan vacations every few months. Plan for a couple of big vacations twice a year, and take smaller breaks once a month. Looking forward to these breaks from work will keep you focused and motivated.

You have to keep your heart and mind happy if you want to be motivated for work. So, make sure you never let your work take over your life.

If there are other ways you employ to keep yourself motivated, please share them with our readers.