The medical transcription profession has been a lucrative one for a long time now. What makes it so popular? Let’s analyze the reasons.

For starters, the entry into the medical transcription profession is easy. The profession does not ask you for formal qualifications or any kind of experience. Everyone is eligible to become a transcriptionist though not everyone can. Why? Because you need a certain aptitude for the profession.

Given that it doesn’t have any stringent prerequisites, the profession pays really well. And your income increases as you gain experience and proficiency in the field.

Another quite unique feature about medical transcription is that it is highly flexible. No other profession offers as much flexibility as this one. You can choose to work from home. You get to choose your work timings even if you work in an office. You even get to say ‘no’ to work you don’t like when working as a home-based transcriptionist.

The medical transcription profession also provides immense job satisfaction. As a medical transcriptionist, you contribute to the cause of making your nation healthy. You realize how critical your work is and feel proud of it.

The victorious emergence of the profession from the current recession has proved that it is stable and secure. Now, which other profession can claim to be as stable?

The profession hands over to you some of the biggest skills you could ever learn: patience, dedication, self-motivation, independence, and time-management. These skills stay with you forever and help you achieve success in all spheres of life.

You get the idea. If this post makes you interested in medical transcription, start looking into the profession’s expectations and challenges to find out if you fit in the scheme of things.

If you are interested in getting into the medical transcription profession, here’s what you should learn about:

• The expectations the profession has of the medical transcriptionist
• The challenges the profession throws at the medical transcriptionist
• The benefits and perks of the profession
• The medical transcription process
• The required aptitude for the profession

Once you have understood the benefits and challenges of the profession, you need to find out if you are suitable for the job. You should look for a medical transcription course only after you have ensured that you are fit to handle the profession. Let’s have a look at what the job is like in this profession.

The medical transcriptionist filters relevant medical information out and discards the irrelevant information and noise from voice recordings. He/she analyzes 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 follows up with doctors for additional information.

The medical transcriptionist is required to analyze the transcribed text and give a logical flow and meaning to it. He/she ensures that the transcribed text is correct grammatically. He/she ensures that there are absolutely no inconsistencies in the medical record. He/she checks the medical record for spelling errors and make necessary changes. Before the delivery of the record, the medical transcriptionist proofreads the record thoroughly. He/she incorporates the changes suggested by doctors and reviewers after the review rounds.

Now that you have a fair understanding of medical transcription work, you will be able to make an informed decision as to whether you want to join the profession or not.

The fact that medical transcription doesn’t ask for qualifications or experience makes the entry easy. However, this makes people think that the job is too easy. This is far from the truth. The medical transcription profession doesn’t have any prerequisites because it expects an aptitude from aspirants, not degrees or experience.

The medical transcription profession doesn’t suit everyone because of the kind of challenges it throws at people. For starters, the profession has deadlines knocking on your door everyday. Not everyone is comfortable working with daily deadlines. Add to that the pressure of meeting high standards of quality. The profession expects 98 percent accuracy with respect to major and minor errors and 100 percent accuracy with respect to critical errors. This means that the profession has zero tolerance when it comes to critical errors! Now, that can’t be easy.

The medical transcription work is such that you cannot use the knowledge you gained in the training for too long in the profession. You are required to keep updating your medical knowledge on a regular basis. Now, how many of us really like to learn once we have got a job? You should be willing to and capable of learning while you are working. The profession also expects you to research independently and extensively while creating medical records. Talking of records, I must tell you that medical transcription is not just about transcription; it is about creating accurate and complete medical records.

The medical documents you create are used by the healthcare and insurance industries. In fact, they are critical for the smooth functioning of these industries. Now, you understand why medical transcription is far from being easy.

What adjectives have you come across in context with medical transcription? If you have been following this blog, you  know that we call the medical transcription profession a specialized one. We also call it a responsible one. “Challenging” and “flexible” are a couple of other adjectives used to describe the profession. What is it in the job that makes it all this? Why is it specialized, responsible, challenging, or flexible? Let’s analyze.

The medical transcriptionist starts a typical day with filtering medical information from the voice recordings, discarding the noise and other irrelevant information. Next, he/she analyzes the filtered, transcribed information to understand if it has meaning and relevance. He/she follows up with doctors for missing information and consults reference materials to ensure all the information in the medical record is accurate. Now, this is why we call the profession specialized and responsible.

The transcriptionist is likely to come across incomprehensible recordings quite frequently. He/she may even encounter some difficult reviewers and doctors who are unwilling to help. The transcriptionist is required to research extensively in order to make sure that the records he/she creates are complete and accurate. Furthermore, he/she is required to keep updating his/her medical knowledge in spite of the deadlines. These are the reasons we call the profession challenging.

The profession allows one to choose his/her work hours and timings. You can choose to be a part-time transcriptionist. You can also choose to work from just any location on earth. Now you know why we call medical transcription flexible.

Is there any other adjective that comes to your mind? Do let us know.

In the long run, it is the good medical transcriptionist who will be in demand. There are a number of factors that differentiate a good medical transcriptionist from a bad one.

A good medical transcriptionist will not commit critical errors. And if you do commit such an error, you are not just a bad transcriptionist but a fatal one. While the overall quality goal is 98 percent accuracy, the profession has zero tolerance when it comes to critical errors. And it is obvious. 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.

A good medical transcriptionist will not panic when faced with a crisis. The medical transcriptionist is 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.

A good medical transcriptionist will not let others have access to his/her work. 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.

A good medical transcriptionist will not miss 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.

A good medical transcriptionist does not flag inappropriately. 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.

So, are you a good medical transcriptionist? You can be.

If you are new to medical transcription or perhaps only been working on the fringes of medical transcription, gaining a full time career can seem to be a difficult task. It doesn’t have to be and a simple marketability analysis could soon provide you with pointers to improving your job search success rate.

So what is a marketability analysis? As the name suggests, it’s an analysis of your current skills and history. Employers are generally seeking the best medical transcriptionists they can find. Medical transcription training alone is often not quite enough. This is the most difficult period to get through for new transcriptionists.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t any work for new transcriptionists – there is. Generally speaking, if you’re new to the field you will receive the less technical and easier jobs to do. They pay less and often go unwanted by more experienced medical transcriptionists. This is the kind of work you can cut your teeth on and start to build a reputation.

A marketability analysis is not a one off event. It is something you should do on an annual or bi-annual basis. It can help to identify areas where you are weak and areas where you lack experience. With this knowledge you can consider further medical transcription training, or targeting to these areas for more work to help build your experience.

If you are operating as a medical transcriptionist from home then you are essentially running a business. Like all businesses, you need to undertake SW0T analysis, marketability and general promotion activities yourself. Sometimes it can be hard to self assess – don’t worry, when it comes to medical transcription marketability analysis tools, you’ve come to the right place.

The medical transcriptionist has a responsible job. In fact, the profession is a specialized one. Though the profession does not have any prerequisites, it expects a certain aptitude in an aspirant. Do you have it in you? In today’s post, we will look at the aptitude and other things you should know about the profession.

First, let’s look at all that you need to join the field.

• You should have an above-average command over the English language.
• You should possess good hearing skills.
• You should be comfortable handling the computer.
• You should be able to work with stringent deadlines on a daily basis.
• You should be able to handle work on your own.
• You should be able to keep yourself motivated.
• You should be willing to learn everyday.
• You should be comfortable in doing extensive research for your work.

Now, let’s look at some other facts you should know about the medical transcription profession.

• You will need to undergo intensive training in medical transcription.
• You can choose to work from home as long as you can ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
• The profession expects you to meet all deadlines and quality goals and ensure confidentiality and security of medical data.
• You can choose your work timings and the number of hours you want to work even if you work in a medical transcription company.
• You can work from any part of the world.

The profession has benefits as well as challenges. You should look at all its pros and cons before joining it.

I have always asked you to find out if you and the medical transcription profession suit each other even before you start looking for the medical transcription course. I have insisted on this because medical transcription is tough. What makes it tough? Let’s find out.

The deadlines in the medical transcription profession are extremely stringent. The best way to handle such deadlines is to plan ahead. However, the deadlines in medical transcription don’t give you much time to plan. Most of the work has a 24-hour turnaround time. In fact, there are some tasks that need to be delivered in as little as four hours.

The medical transcriptionist cannot be casual when it comes to the quality goals in the profession. The medical records created by the transcriptionist are extremely crucial to the smooth functioning of the healthcare industry. A careless error can impact the safety of a patient. The overall quality goal of the medical transcription work is 98 percent accuracy and you are not allowed even a single error when it comes to critical errors. Meeting quality goals along with meeting deadlines is no small task.

This profession requires one to work independently, without any supervision. Tough deadlines and high quality goals when accompanied with incomprehensible dictations and difficult reviewers can wreak some havoc in the transcriptionist’s life. Add to this the pressure of working on your own. Medical transcription is made for the tough.

Education for the medical transcriptionist does not end with the medical transcription training. The transcriptionist has to keep updating his/her medical knowledge on a daily basis. And then there is the requirement of extensive research in order to create accurate and complete records. Learning and research does not only need time and effort but also need one to be willing.

Medical transcription is tough work, but not for the disciplined. If you are disciplined enough, you can do well in the profession.

Medical transcription, in the simplest words, means transcription of medical information. But what the term doesn’t tell you is that it means creating a complete and accurate medical record by means of transcribing voice records and putting sense into them by logical analysis and research. This is what makes the medical transcriptionist’s job a responsible one.

Let’s look at what the transcriptionst has to do.

He/she starts with filtering medical information from the voice recordings, discarding the noise and other irrelevant information. Next, he/she has to analyze the filtered, transcribed information to understand if it has meaning and relevance.

If there are gaps in the recording or some of the parts are incomprehensible, the transcriptionist has to follow up with the doctors for information. He/she may also be required to consult reference materials for additional information.

Once the transcriptionist gathers all information, he/she has to analyze it and give a logical flow and meaning to it. Next, he/she has to make the text understandable and grammatically accurate.

Once the medical record has meaning and relevance, the transcriptionist has to make sure there are no inconsistencies of any kind. He/she has to review the record for information accuracy and spellings.

The transcriptionist’s job does not end with delivering of the medical record. He/she is required to incorporate the changes requested by the reviewers. There may be multiple rounds of reviews until the final record is ready.

That’s a lot of work, wouldn’t you say? The medical transcription is definitely a specialized profession.