Everybody, well almost, wants to be able to work from home. Add ‘home’ to any job and it will become lucrative enough. Being able to make a living while being at home promises to be such a pleasant opportunity. But all that glitters is not gold.

Home-based medical transcription adds more challenges to the already challenging medical transcription profession. It is not for the faint-willed. Only the most dedicated and disciplined can work as a home-based medical transcriptionist. Why, you ask. Well, let me take you through the difficulties in medical transcription from home.

You are responsible for your office

Your work at home begins with setting up your home office. It is from this office that you will be starting out a new career. Therefore, don’t convert just any corner of your house into your office. Your office has to be spacious, comfortable and peaceful. Setting up the office also means getting all the equipment and furniture in place. You need to get a comfortable working chair for yourself or you’ll end up damaging your neck and back. And you will need a phone dedicated completely to your work. In the conventional office, your employer takes care of these things; at home, you are your boss!

You are responsible for the security and confidentiality of medical information

One of the biggest responsibilities you have as a medical transcriptionist is the security and confidentiality of medical information that passes through your hands. You have to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for data security. Now, this is not an easy task in any way.

You are responsible to keep yourself focused and motivated

Distractions are aplenty when you work from home. You have to keep distractions away and remain focused over long periods of time. Moreover, the medical transcription work may tend to become monotonous in the long run; it is up to you to keep your interest intact in the work. Yes, you have got to keep yourself motivated.

When working from home you are responsible for just every aspect of work. Now, doing everything right to earn goodwill is not easy. This is why it is important you figure out whether home-based medical transcription is for you or not.

It’s easy to say. “I want to work from home as a medical transcriptionist.” There, done. Now, where’s the work? I mean, the job is well paid, the hours great and I can work whenever I feel like it, can’t I? Sorry to burst your bubble.

The pay, starting out, is good but not great and you have strict deadlines so you can’t really work when you want and take frequent vacations. Take a couple of days off and someone else will step in and do the work. Then you can take all the time off you want – and don’t want, since you will no longer have a job.

Even though you work from home, a career as a medical transcriptionist is just that – a career. As with any career, it has to be nurtured and developed at a steady pace. Initially, your income will be quite low, it is only the most experienced transcriptionists that can command top dollar. If you ever get to that level then, yes, you too can command top dollar.

Your career starts with comprehensive training, in fact, Your career will be dogged by continued training as you learn new diseases and medical terms.  Once you have completed that training you will need to advertise yourself to the medical world at large.

You will sit waiting, watching your inbox, praying for work – and it will be slow in arriving. Over time, as you build a reputation as a top class medical transcriptionist, that work will start to flow faster.  So, while the theory of working from home is that you can work when you want, in reality, you cannot – once a job arrives in your inbox you will have a set time limit to complete the task. There is an upside, of course. Like all careers, put the time and effort into it early and you will find that as time goes by you can: earn good money, work the hours you want and even take the days off you want – you just have to earn that right first.

There are medical transcriptionists who have turned their career into very successful businesses. Because they are highly proficient at the work they do, they are able to recruit less experienced transcriptionists to their business. The business person then accepts work, which is farmed out to those less experienced personnel. Does it work? It can and in many cases does.

Because of the transcriptionists reputation, they find they are receiving more work than they can handle. One solution is to take on someone new to the profession and let them gain experience.  They are not paid the full rate since they are still learning the ropes. The experienced medical transcriptionist reviews the transcription before it is sent on.

Over time, if taking on one employee works, the transcriptionist then takes on a second and third and so on. Before you know it, the experienced medical transcriptionist is no longer doing any transcribing themselves; they are spending their time reviewing work done and negotiating more work. As a business owner, they are paid the difference between what is paid to them and what is paid to their employee.

What many people don’t realize is that this is how a good many businesses start, including those outside the transcription niche. Can you do it? Are you a highly experienced medical transcriptionist that can turn work around on time every time with 100% accuracy? No – well keep working at it. When you find you are getting too much work at good rates then you can consider it. If you do meet those attributes, what are you doing here? Of course, if you’re looking to recruit, that’s a different matter. Just let us know your requirements.

When you choose home-based medical transcription, you are thinking about the many benefits you will reap as a result of your decision. However, home-based work is not all about benefits; it has its share of challenges. One of the biggest challenges is handling distractions. Everything at home has the power to take your mind off work. How do you keep distractions at bay? Here are some guidelines I have come up with.

• 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 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.
• Don’t prolong your breaks for a sneak peak into the latest issue of your favorite 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 on 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.
• Inform your family, friends, and neighbors about your work timings and tell them that you will be unavailable during that time.
• Don’t get online unless your work demands. When you are online, stay away from networking sites.

Please share your ways of keeping distractions at bay.

Medical transcription is not for everyone. This is because the profession is not just about transcription. It is about creating medical records. You need much more than just transcription skills to become a good medical transcriptionist.

Not everyone can handle the expectations and challenges in the profession. It all begins with the deadlines. Every task in the profession has a deadline attached. Deadlines could be daunting for some people. And these deadlines don’t come alone; they bring along with them expectations in terms of quality. You have got to produce good work in time.

The flexibility of the profession is what makes many interested in it. A lot of transcriptionists choose to work from home. However, working from home adds more responsibilities to the transcriptionist’s list. He/she has got to balance work and home, ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and deliver high quality work to maintain credibility and keep work coming in.

A medical transcriptionist is also expected to keep learning as long as he/she is in the profession. Even while dealing with difficult deadlines, the medical transcriptionist is required to keep updating his/her medical knowledge. Now, studying is something not everyone wants to do. And with the high productivity and quality goals in the profession, continuous learning can be too much for some.

Somehow, the medical transcriptionist is always on his/her toes when dealing with medical records. It is important that you don’t let the expectations in the profession get on to you. Take your time to figure out if you should join the industry before you commit to it.

Yes, home-based work makes you an entrepreneur. You are no longer just an employee. Do you understand how many more responsibilities you have on your shoulder? Home-based medical transcription is a business. Are you ready to handle this business?

Start with making a good office space for yourself. Find a place that’s not frequented by others at home. Make sure it is noise-free. Most importantly, it should help you be productive.

Next, get everything you need to run this business from home. When buying furniture, make sure it is extremely comfortable. You will be spending a lot of your time in the home office. Get yourself all medical transcription aids. And yes, get a phone dedicated to your work; you don’t want other family members keeping the phone busy or answering calls from your client.

Equip your computer with the latest firewall and anti-virus software and keep them updated. Also, you need to get a secure FTP connection in order to transfer work files. Learn to encrypt e-mails so that work related e-mails cannot be compromised in transit. Make sure your computer and the FTP site are password protected.

Take measures to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This will make you a credible medical transcriptionist.

Treat work as work; don’t become too comfortable because you are at home. Being disciplined at work will help you find time for yourself, family and friends.

Do drop in a line if you have concerns about starting your own home-based medical transcription business.

The thought of working from home sounds oh-so-delightful. Well, ask the ones who work from home. They will have another story to tell. Home is home to a number of distractions, all vying for your time and attention. It is difficult to focus on work when you see so much around. In today’s post, we will look at how a home-based medical transcriptionist can avoid distractions.

First, make sure your family, whether they are at home, and your friends, know that you work from home. Make them aware of your working hours. If you have young children at home, make them understand your work timings. Get them taken care of while you are working.

Next, don’t prioritize household work when you have work pending. You cannot let domestic worries trouble you at work. Attending to domestic needs is important but they should not take precedence over your work or you will find your work as well as your credibility at risk. It is important that you treat your home office as an actual office from where you cannot attend to your household responsibilities.

One of the biggest distractions for a lot of people is the television. In medical transcription, there is no scope of TV. You cannot afford to switch it on even during your breaks. Try to finish your work before your favorite program so that you don’t ruin your work or feel guilty.

Like the television, the Internet is a huge distraction. Close all your e-mail clients and social networking sites while you are working. In fact, don’t access the Internet during your working hours unless your work demands it.

Now, these are the most basic tips to avoid distractions. You will be able to come up with more as per your needs and working style. It is important that you don’t let work take over your life but it is also important not to let other things get bigger than work during working hours.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), among other things, sets standards to ensure the privacy of health data. Since the medical transcriptionist is an important part in the creation and maintenance of healthcare documents, he/she has to adhere to the guidelines suggested by HIPAA.

HIPAA not only expects you to deliver accurate records but also wants you to work under certain specifications. HIPAA’s expectations revolve around ensuring that the patients’ health information is always kept confidential. What can you do to ensure compliance with HIPAA? Let’s find out. 

The access of the health data should be limited to you.

• Make sure your computer is not used by anyone else.
• Do not use the computer for personal work.
• If you work from home, make sure your working space cannot be accessed by other people including your family.
• Protect your work with passwords.

Ensure utmost security of data.

• Keep the anti-virus software and the firewall updated.
• Keep the firewall on when you are on a network.
• Use a secure FTP connection to transfer medical transcription files.
• Encrypt work-related e-mails.

Ensure continuity of your work in case of a problem.

• Back up your work regularly.
• Make multiple copies of your backed-up work and keep them at different locations (apart from your office).

If you work from an office, you don’t have to worry about conforming to HIPAA standards as the medical transcription company will be equipped to handle that. However, if you work from home, you have to take all the measures possible to ensure that you are HIPAA-compliant.