What will the profession of medical transcription look like in 2020? I think we can tell a lot by what it looks like right now.

Today, a medical transcriptionist can receive an e-mail from a doctor, hospital, or medical specialist regarding a dictation report that is due by the end of the day. The medical transcriptionist can get her assignment and go online to see the specs of the medical document in need. After becoming familiar with the assignment, she can then start typing her medical document into a form field on the client’s website while listening to an audio recording uploaded to the site earlier that morning. When she is finished she hits “Send” and the client will be notified the job is done.

By 2020, the medical transcriptionist will be able to take dictation in real time. She’ll have pre-arranged an appointment with the client to receive dictation at a certain time on a certain day and at that appointed time she and the client will log in to their respective computers. The client will dictate while the medical transcriptionist transcribes. Afterwards, the medical transcriptionist will spend a few minutes editing her document – online, of course – then send it on to the client.

This process should cut down on the time to delivery for medical documents and the medical transcriptionist will be able to demand more income for her services.

Dictation is an important part of the medical transcriptionist’s job. But what is it? What does it entail?

Dictation is defined as an authoritative instruction or direction to do something. A second definition is speech that is intended to be transcribed into writing. The medical transcriptionist is involved in the process described by the second definition. There are a couple of ways this is done, however.

One way of dictating another person’s notes is to do so from written or handwritten messages. This is the least desirable method of dictation, but it can be helpful in some situations. The second and most common method is to listen to an audio recording of a person’s speech and transcribe that into a written record. This is usually done with something called voice recognition software.

The doctor, physician or other medical professional speaks into the software and sends the recording to the medical transcriptionist. The medical transcriptionist then listens to the recording and transcribes the notes into a written record. If there are passages of the recording that need to be clarified, the medical transcriptionist will contact the medical professional and clarify those passages. This is usually done according to a strict deadline.

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.

The medical transcription course is what prepares you for the medical transcription work. You already know that the profession does not have any prerequisites. It does expect an aptitude though, but it is only during the training that one gets to learn the real work. Thus, you have to choose your course with utmost care. Here are some things you should look for in a medical transcription course.

• Conformance to COMPRO: The course you choose must conform to the competency profile for medical transcription education (COMPRO) guidelines as laid down by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI).

• Hands-on experience: If a course does not contain enough dictation hours for practice, it is of no use. A good course should contain a high number of hours of dictation and the dictation should be authentic. Avoid the courses that contain dictations recorded by actors instead of doctors.

• Job assistance on completion: You should not go for a course whose completion is not followed by job assistance. Go through the placement figures of earlier batches to understand the effectiveness of an institute’s placement assistance.

• Good record: Look online for feedback on your course. You will get a fair idea of a medical transcription course from what people write in forums and discussion boards.

You may come across online courses too. Don’t rule them out just because they are not conventional. If they meet the criteria of being a good course, do consider them. If you are looking for a self-paced course and if you are disciplined enough, an online medical transcription course is ideal for you.

The first step towards becoming a medical transcriptionist is gauging your potential for it. The next step is to enroll yourself into a good medical transcription course. However, finding a good course is not easy. I have seen people choose courses that are conducted closer to home or that are being attended by friends. How do you choose your course? Let me share with you some practical tips in finding a good medical transcription course.

Find out if the course conforms to the COMPRO (competency profile for medical transcription education) guidelines as stated by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI).

Find out if the course contains enough dictation hours for practice. A good course should contain a high number of hours of dictation and the dictation should be authentic. Avoid the courses that contain dictations recorded by actors instead of doctors.

Find out if the institute offering the course provides job assistance on completion of the course. Go through the placement figures of earlier batches to understand the effectiveness of an institute’s placement assistance.

Talk to the working medical transcriptionists who have undergone the course and find out from them how effective it is. You can find out their details from the institute or from the Internet.

Make it a point to read the feedback of a course. Look online for feedback on a course. You will get a fair idea of a medical transcription course from what people write in forums and discussion boards.