If you are a medical transcriptionist who takes pride in delivering quality work, you should definitely be proud of that. But is your quality compromising on the deadlines? Quality loses its meaning if your medical records are not delivered in time. High productivity and high quality need to go hand-in-hand in the medical transcriptionist’s life.

Discipline is the key to timely delivery of records. In today’s post, we bring to you three practical tips that will help you improve your productivity.

Start using shortcuts. The computer and the word processor offer several shortcuts for you to play with. You may not realize this but using shortcuts help make your work complete faster than when you are not using them. Remember, every minute is valuable when you are chasing the stringent deadline.

Make use of the abbreviation-expander. You will save a few seconds for each medical abbreviation, thus saving you a considerable amount of time at the end of day. Moreover, the application saves you from losing focus every time you come across an abbreviation. Without the expander, you would have to search for the expansion of acronyms, spoiling the flow of your work.

Customize the word processor. Microsoft Word has a feature called Autocorrect which corrects/expands an input automatically when it is typed with a slight change of spelling or when its short form is typed. This helps you type faster. If you don’t use MS Word, you may find a similar feature in your word processor and if you don’t, create some macros.

If you have any other such practical tip, do share it with us.

When you work from home, you don’t see the competition around. And you don’t even have a boss hovering around you. And then you get to work as per your convenience. You find yourself in control. Do you find these things as benefits of home-based medical transcription? Well, you’ll be surprised to know how these very things ruin your productivity. And if you cannot maintain your productivity, you won’t last too long as a home-based medical transcriptionist. So, what can you do? Here are some tips.

• Don’t take unnecessary work. Know when to say ‘no’. You should know when your plate is full. Don’t take more work for more income or to impress your client.
• Make an effort to avoid distractions. Don’t log on to social networking sites during your work hours. Don’t check your personal mails.
• Plan your day and stick to the plan. Make a realistic plan, accommodating your meals, breaks etc.
• Work only during your designated working hours. Try not to extend your work beyond that. Also, make it a point not to do anything else during those hours.
• Take logical breaks during work. Making an effort in doing so will prevent the random breaks you take all the time.
• Try not to watch the television during your breaks. The breaks can get prolonged if your attention is elsewhere. Even during your meal breaks, don’t let the TV distract you.

It is you who knows what helps you work sincerely and what causes the problems. Make a conscious effort to prevent the problems.

A medical transcriptionist’s job is a challenging one. While everyone who is doing well in the profession does a decent job, you need to do a little more to rise above the rest. Here are a few tips to help you become a better medical transcriptionist.

• Don’t panic when you face a crisis. If you don’t panic when faced with absolutely incomprehensible recordings, too many gaps in information, difficult doctors and reviewers, and extremely tight deadlines, you will come out as a better medical transcriptionist. If you panic, you end up spoiling your work.
• Always 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.
• Make sure you are always HIPAA-compliant. In a medical transcription company, employees can comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) easily as the 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. So, you have got to make sure that you never lapse on this front.

There is another thing that establishes your goodwill in the field. Your integrity. If you ensure that your clients’ work never suffers, you will make them develop trust in you. Never lie to a client. Small things go a long way in establishing your credibility in a profession.

Come back tomorrow for more discussion on medical transcription.

Work during work hours and do nothing else.Corollary: Work ONLY during work hours.
Don’t let domestic worries trouble you at work. If you have children at home, ask another member of the family to take care of them or get a baby-sitter. If you have a household job pending, don’t tend to it until you have finished your official work.

Don’t get up from work unnecessarily.
Taking breaks is important but arbitrary breaks cause more harm than good. Take logical breaks instead. Take a break after you finish a set of logical tasks. This way, you will prevent fatigue and stress and yet keep yourself from getting distracted.

Don’t watch TV during your working hours, not even during breaks.
In medical transcription, TV is a complete no-no. You cannot let other sounds distract you while you are transcribing. And even during breaks, you risk making your breaks longer if you watch TV.

Keep away from social networking during work hours.
We tend to check mails as often as we blink. Mails, unless it is related to work, and social networking sites should be avoided until you finish your work for the day. Instead of checking these sites often, reward yourself with an hour or two of networking online once you have finished your work.

Let family and friends know of your work hours.
Your family and friends ought to know when to meet you or call you. They should not find themselves being reprimanded for disturbing you during your working hours. Also, let your children know that you are working, and inform them of the time you plan to take breaks.

The medical transcription profession needs preparations of all kind, especially if you choose to work from home. Preparing yourself mentally for the job is extremely important if you want to do well in the profession.

Don’t worry about the deadlines that lie ahead. They are what your job is all about. Fretting over them will just exhaust you and spoil time.

Try not to make work your life. Don’t think about work beyond your working hours. You don’t want your work to alienate you from your personal life.

Always start your day with a plan. Jumping into the work without a plan in place can eat up a lot of your time. Start by making a daily work routine and then see how you can spread your work over the working hours. You’ll need to make a habit of working with a routine and a plan.

You have to prepare yourself to fight distractions. Keep in mind the fact that the less distracted you are, the more time you will have for your work and yourself.

If you are freelancing transcriptionist, you should always know that there will be phases where you won’t have much work or too much work. Preparing for this eventuality will help you avoid such phases.

You should also know that the medical transcription work will get boring over a period of time. You have got to keep yourself motivated. Plan breaks and vacations with family and friends so that you feel rejuvenated from time to time.

Along with comfort and flexibility, home-based medical transcription brings with it stress. Now, it is up to you to avoid getting stresses. Being disciplined can help you avoid stress to a great extent. However, thanks to the expectations the profession has of you and the isolated working environment, you will have to deal with stress from time to time. In today’s post, I will share with you some tips I have found useful to de-stress.

After you have completed your work for the day, go out. No, not to shop but to take a leisurely break. And don’t look at this walking routine as an exercise. Walk at your pace, taking in the sights and sounds around. If your hours are odd, take a walk on your terrace or your backyard.

Take logical breaks regularly between work. Sitting at one place for hours at a stretch is bad not only for your body but also for your mind. Taking logical breaks will not only help avoid arbitrary ones, it will also keep you charged up.

If you have kids at home, spend some time with them in the evening. No, don’t impose on them when they are playing. Just be around watching them run wild in the playground or score baskets. You will be surprised to find out how de-stressing this routine can be.

Reward yourself with a substantial amount of time every week. Spend it doing something you absolutely love. You may choose to unwind with music, read a book, talk to friends over beer, or visit a salon, just anything you like. Make it a point to do different things every week.

Spend time with your family. If your family stays with you, spend a considerable amount of time with them everyday. And if you stay alone, make it a point to talk to them regularly and meet them often.

Those were my tips. Do share with us your tips on beating that stress.

Your career as a home-based medical transcriptionist depends completely on you. Thus, it is important you start right. Let me take you through the first three important steps towards setting up your home-based medical transcription business.

Step 1: Find a good space for your home-office

You cannot start a medical transcription career from home, let alone flourish in it, if you do not have a dedicated place in your home for the medical transcription work. You need a secluded, noise-free, comfortable office space. Thus, you have got to make sure the space you select is not frequented by others in the family, and is pleasant to work in.

Step 2: Acquire all medical transcription tools and aids

Get yourself a medical dictionary and a medical spell checker. Also, get a copy of the medical transcription style guide issued by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). And equip yourself with the best anti-virus and firewall software.

Step 3: Become HIPAA-compliant

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has laid down certain rules on keeping patient information confidential and secure. As a home-based transcriptionist, you have to take measures to comply with HIPAA’s requirements. For starters, get a secure FTP connection to transfer work files. Make sure you use an encryption software to encrypt work-related e-mails.

Keep your computer dedicated to your work; don’t use it for personal purposes and don’t let anyone else use it. Get a secure cabinet to keep work-related papers. Use a paper-shredder to shred papers that are no longer required.

We wish you all the luck with your home-based career!

When your work is about stringent deadlines and high quality goals, you have got to be extremely productive. A home-based job, however, tends to make you a little complacent. You not only get a lot of comfort of flexibility but also find several reasons to distract you from work. Home-based medical transcription is difficult. How do you ensure high productivity in such a job? Here are a few tips:

• Work with a plan. Make sure the plan is feasible. It is important that you make room for breaks, meals etc in your work plan. Don’t attend to domestic chores unless you have finished all your work.
• Use the abbreviation-expander. The application not only helps you save time but also helps to remain focused on the task at hand.
• Make it a habit of using shortcuts when using the computer. Shortcuts help make your work complete faster. Remember, every minute is valuable when you are chasing the stringent deadline.
• Keep away from the television during your working hours. Don’t watch the TV even during your logical breaks as that can prolong your breaks.
• During your working hours, don’t access social networking sites and other sites not related to work. Instead, reward yourself with some time for surfing once you have finished your work for the day.
• Avoid taking random breaks during work. Take logical breaks on completion of a set of tasks. This will keep you motivated. Don’t prolong your breaks by engaging in activities that take a long time.

You can increase your productivity by planning ahead. Never start working without a plan.

The medical transcription profession has three main expectations:

• Meet all deadlines – The profession expects you to deliver records in time.
• Meet all quality goals – The profession expects you to maintain the highest standard in quality.
• Ensure security and confidentiality of data – The profession expects you to keep the sanctity of people’s medical information.

Now, these three expectations define how you should work. In one of our earlier posts, I discussed a way to ensure high medical transcription performance. I called it MOLD. MOLD stands for Motivation, Organization, Learning, and Discipline. I believe that these four skills can help us make a good mark in medical transcription career, or for that matter, in any career.

With the nature of medical transcription work, it is likely that you will find it uninteresting and boring in the long run. Only one thing can stop you from feeling this way. Motivation. And the motivation has to come from within, not from external sources. You got to motivate yourself.

Organizational skills are something every professional needs. A transcriptionist cannot work with a disorganized workplace. If you work from home, you have got to pay more attention to the way you work. Proper organization helps you save precious time and keep your calm even when chasing deadlines.

Learning during the job is mandatory for the medical transcriptionist. He/she has to keep updating his/her knowledge base in order to keep working. If you can make room for learning in your everyday routine, you will do well in the profession.

Now, let’s focus on discipline. Well, discipline accompanies your organizational skills but I placed it last in the mnemonic MOLD because it made the term easy to recall.  As a medical transcriptionist, you have to work with a plan and stick to it. You have to be disciplined enough to avoid distractions and focus on your work.

MOLD is how you can beat your peers in the profession and excel.

Before I write about how to overcome medical transcription challenges, let me tell you that deadlines and quality goals are part of the job, not challenges. The challenges lie elsewhere. You will come across them almost daily. I am talking about incomprehensible recordings, gaps in information and the like. So, what do you do then? Here’s what I suggest.

Start with following up with the doctor who recorded the information to understand the information. And you have to do this as soon as you face problems understanding information or notice information missing. Any delay will make your job tougher.

If you have receiving bad recording consistently, bring it up with the doctors. They may not be aware that they are doing a bad job of recording information.

When critical information is missing in a document, it is flagged. It is important that your flag responsibly and appropriately. Improper flagging may cost you your credibility. Never flag because you want to avoid researching. Also, make sure you flag when you cannot find the right information.

Some medical transcriptionist guess when a piece of information is missing. I understand experience is in their favor but that’s not the right way. If you are assuming something, back it up with research. However, a guess, educated or otherwise, can end up changing the meaning of medical information. Remember, your work can directly impact the safety of the patient. So, avoid guessing.

Understanding the critical nature of your work will help you be on track, and you will be able to handle work efficiently.