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.

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.

How do you start a typical working day? How do you approach all those medical transcription deadlines? Each of us has a way of working that is different from other professionals. My ways work best for me but may not work at all with you and vice versa. However, there are certain things that all of us should include in the way we approach our medical transcription work.

When it comes to flagging medical documents, we cannot work with our own rules. The thumb rule is to flag appropriately and responsibly. Flagging is required when a document has some information missing in it. Sometimes, however, people flag documents because they are reluctant to research. Then again, there are those times when a genuine flagging case is ignored. As a medical transcriptionist, you have got to avoid both such occurrences or you will end up ruining your work as well as your goodwill.

Working with the same kind of information again and again makes us experts to an extent. And we start guessing while creating healthcare documents. Guessing is a sin when you are creating something that has the power to impact the safety of patients. Also, you stand to lose your credibility as a medical transcriptionist. Even if your guess does not put someone at a health risk, your guessed information can cause problems in claiming insurance.

You are likely to come across incomprehensible recordings some time or the other. However, if you are receiving them inconsistently, there is something wrong. You have got to let the doctors know that they are sending you poor dictations. I know, it’s easier said than done. But letting them know is much better than ruining the records and spoiling your time and credibility.

If there is anything else you would like to add to these tips, feel free to share it with us.

The medical transcription profession is challenging and the work is far from being simple. The medical transcriptionist doesn’t just transcribe, he/she creates medical records to be used by the healthcare and the insurance industries. Handling the work is no cakewalk. So, how do you ensure that you produce quality work consistently? Here are some tips.

• Keep everything within reach. 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 take on too much 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.
• Flag appropriately. Don’t flag too soon or 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.
• Keep doctors informed of poor dictations. This will make your life easy. 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.

Remember that discipline, organization, and common sense will help you cope with the work on a regular basis.

Medical transcription is not an easy job, especially with its high quality goals and demanding deadlines. It can tire, trouble, and completely exhaust you. What can you do to make work and life easier for you?

• Start with relaxing. Easier said than done, huh? I know, with deadlines knocking on your door, you cannot quite relax, but you have to take a break in order to work well. Take a break after completing a logical set of tasks. This will help you get back to the next set of tasks with more vigor.
• During work, make use of shortcuts. Hey, no, not what you mean. Use the shortcuts that technology offers. Your word processor and the computer have several shortcuts that can save valuable seconds and minutes. Once you get used to using them, you will find your work getting done faster.
• Get hold of that abbreviation expander. Every time you come across an acronym, you don’t have to leave everything and look for its expansion. The medical abbreviation expander will expand all those terms for you. However, make sure that you review your document once all terms have been expanded.
• Customize your word processor. You will be surprised to find out how easy your work becomes when you customize it for your documents.

If you make these tips a habit, you will save yourself time and pain. You can make your life easy by doing simple things that help improve your productivity.

Keep watching this space for some more useful medical transcription tips.

Home is a strange place. At times, it bores you to the hilt, and at others, it keeps you horribly engaged giving you no time to think. Now, if you choose to be a home-based transcriptionist, you are probably looking at being comfortable apart from enjoying the other benefits of home-based work. However, too much comfort can make you complacent and even lose focus. Distractions are present in every nook and corner of your home. It could a phone call, the television, the internet, the kitchen, your kids, neighbours, and several other sights and sounds from inside and outside your home.

In an office, you are compelled to finish work within a given time, but at home, you allow yourself the flexibility of raiding your fridge, surfing channels, and checking latest updates on the networking sites. As home-based medical transcriptionist, you have to be really careful not to be carried away by distractions. Let’s look at ways you can avoid being distracted during work.

• Don’t attend to domestic chores when you are working. Let the kitchen sink sulk with a heap of utensils in it. Don’t prioritize anything else over your work.
• Make a work routine and stick to it. Inform everyone at home about your working hours and ask them not to disturb you.
• Put your phone on answering mode. You can check your messages when you take a logical break. Make sure your business phone is active though.
• Don’t prolong your breaks for a sneak peak into the latest issue of your favoritism magazine. Prolonging breaks can disturb the flow of work.
• Don’t switch on the television during your working hours. If you have your favorite show coming during your working hours, either record it to watch later, or adjust your work hours so that you are done with your work when your show starts. Or, just change your taste!
• Inform your family, friends, and neighbors about your work timings and tell them that you will be unavailable during that time.
• Don’t make personal calls during your work hours. You may be tempted to call family and friends, but your calls may get extended for a long time, disrupting your routine. If talking to loved ones keeps you motivates, call them but limit your calls to a few minutes.
• Don’t get online unless your work demands. When you are online, stay away from networking sites.

You will know what causes distractions for you. Avoid them at all costs. I have discovered the television becomes my enemy whenever I work from home. I have vowed that I will turn it on only when I have finished work, everyday, starting today. Wish me luck.