You already know that the medical transcription profession is a challenging one. With its stringent adherence to deadlines and the high standards in terms of quality, it ought to be challenging. Ask any transcriptionist and he/she will tell you that the challenge lies not just in deadlines and quality goals but in everyday duties. So, what are the medical transcriptionist’s duties?

• He/she has to filter relevant medical information out and discard the irrelevant information and noise from voice recordings.
• He/she has to analyze the voice recordings so that he/she can transcribe meaningful text.
• If the recordings are incomprehensible or there are gaps in the recordings, he/she has to follow up with doctors for additional information.
• He/she is required to analyze the transcribed text and give a logical flow and meaning to it.
• He/she has to ensure that the transcribed text is correct grammatically.
• He/she has to make sure there are absolutely no inconsistencies in the medical record.
• He/she has to check the medical record for spelling errors and make necessary changes.
• Before delivery of the record, the medical transcriptionist has to proof-read the record thoroughly.
• He/she has to incorporate the changes suggested by doctors and reviewers after the review rounds.

That’s a lot of work, wouldn’t you say? This is the actual work of the transcriptionist within the parameters of time and quality. High quality work does not count if deadlines are being missed. Similarly, productivity does not mean a thing if the quality suffers. No wonder the medical transcription profession is called a difficult one.