The medical transcription profession is a specialized profession, and a difficult one at that. Its expectations often deter people from joining it. Certain mistakes can affect your career adversely. Let’s look at some of those mistakes.

• Presence of critical errors in medical records: While the overall quality goal is 98 percent accuracy, the profession has zero tolerance when it comes to critical errors. A critical error is defined as the one that can impact the safety of a patient’s health. Thus, it is important that you are extremely cautious when creating healthcare documents.
• Intentional or unintentional sharing of medical information: 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.
• Missing deadlines: 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.
• Inappropriate flagging: 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 to research. Missing to flag certain instances or flagging incorrectly is not acceptable.
• Panic during a crisis: The medical transcriptionist is required to work independently. However, when you are faced with incomprehensible recordings, difficult reviewers, and other such things, you would want guidance. The key here is not to panic. You should consult seniors, your medical transcription company, and your peers for help.

The medical transcription profession is a demanding one. It expects you to meet extremely stringent deadlines and high quality goals. It also expects you to keep the medical data secure. The medical transcriptionist cannot be complacent or he/she risks ruining his/her career. Today, I’ll talk about four mistakes that you should not commit if you want to do well in the profession.

Taking random, unplanned breaks: When you have to take a break, take logical breaks, not random ones. Avoid getting up in the middle of a task. In fact, you should take logical breaks compulsorily.

Attending to domestic chores during the planned working hours: You cannot let domestic worries trouble you when you are working. Attend to them only once your work is done. You have to learn to treat your home-office as an actual office from where you cannot attend to your household responsibilities.

Watching TV during your working hours: TV and medical transcription don’t go together. You cannot let other sounds distract you while you are transcribing. Don’t watch the TV even during your breaks as you run the risk of prolonging your breaks and lose focus.

Social networking while working: When working, close all e-mail clients and networking websites. I agree you need a minute’s break from time to time, but you cannot be online the whole time you are working. You can chose to access the social networking sites for a few minutes as a reward after you have completed a certain number of tasks.

These mistakes can cost you dearly. It is important you make an effort to keep yourself focused and motivated.