Medical Transcription: A Viable Work At Home Career

A Growing Industry

Medical Transcription or Billing is an industry that is exploding. It's prestigious and in demand. According the the U.S. Department of Labor, "Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2010. Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population."

Transcription is one of those jobs that many people know can be done from home, and so the interest level is very high. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there trying to capitalize on that interest. The results are over-priced and sub-standard courses.

What Do Transcriptionists Do?

Transcriptionists listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other health care professionals and transcribe them into documents such as operating room notes, autopsy reports, discharge summaries and other documents which then become part of a patient's medical record. In order to be able to transcribe information accurately, medical transcriptionists must understand medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, diagnostic procedures, and treatment.

What Kind of Training Must MT's Have?

In the course of my research, the first thing I learned was that you can't just jump into a career as an MT without training. This is a detailed, professional (and fascinating) career which requires technical knowledge. The American Association for Medical Transcription defines the requirements this way:

"Medical understanding is critical for the professional medical transcriptionist. The complex terms used in medicine are unlike the language of any other profession. Medical transcription requires a practical knowledge of medical language, anatomy, physiology, disease processes, pharmacology, laboratory medicine, and the internal organization of medical reports. A medical transcriptionist is truly a medical language specialist who must be aware of standards and requirements that apply to the health record, as well as the legal significance of medical transcripts.

Reports of patient care take many forms, including histories and physical examinations, progress reports, emergency room notes, consultations, operative reports, discharge summaries, clinic notes, referral letters, radiology reports, pathology reports, and an array of documentation spanning more than 60 medical specialties and sub specialties! Thus, the medical transcriptionist, or medical language specialist, must be well versed in the language of medicine."

Medical transcription is a medical language specialty, so you can see that it requires not only the proper training, but also an investment in reference materials and a commitment to ongoing learning as technology and terminology changes. Equally important to the long-term success of a Transcriptionist is having the right personality for the job. Some qualities that successful MT's share are:

• Independent by nature
• Word Specialist
• Perfectionist
• Detail oriented
• Training Options

It's also important to note that most companies require candidates for telecommute MT positions to have on-site experience- as is the case with most all telecommute jobs. In many cases, 2 years of experience working in a hospital or doctor's office is required. If this is a field that you are truly interested in, getting those 2 years under your belt and then being qualified to telecommute is a pretty good deal.

The second thing I found was that there sure were a lot of courses out there. They ranged in price from a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand! I was overwhelmed! It was then that I realized that I would need some help. I found a great place where working MT's hang out and support each other. If you are seriously interested in this field, you'll want to visit this site. It's called Transdyne.


Whichever course you choose, just be sure to do your homework by checking with the Better Business Bureau and asking for references.

The bottom line is, for the right people, Medical Transcription is the real deal when it comes to viable work at home careers.
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Medical Transcription Field has Strong Growth for the Future

medical transcription career field is projected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014. Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population. Older age groups receive proportionately greater numbers of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that require documentation."

Medical transcription is a $25 billion business. The Department of Labor predicts an 18 percent to 26 percent growth in the industry. Part of the growth is because HIPAA regulations require all hospitals to convert medical records to digital format. Another reason is the country's aging population, which will create more medical records.

In addition, there's a shortage of 50,000 qualified transcriptionists. Many US companies are outsourcing to transcriptionists overseas.

The medical transcription field continues to be an essential part of health care even with all the world's technological advances. This will continue due to the fact that computer's don't do dictation, as we know it.

window.google_render_ad(); Voice recognition technology still cannot accurately read the human voice for all spoken words. It takes a doctor a long time to teach a computer, with voice recognition software, to be able to recognise their speech.The accuracy and detail required in medical transcription means there will be a career in medical transcription for many years to come.Digital medical transcription has opened up many new doors for those wanting to work at home.

It has never been easier to work in freelance medical transcription. Other training that is associated with medical transcription is that of medical coding and medical billing.Medical transcription degrees can be obtained by completing courses with a medical transcription school. Once you have completed a degree and gained experience consider specialising.

When you are working in the medical transcription field and you specialize, it has a dramatic impact on your income potential.

Areas to Specialize In

• Autopsies • Cardiology • Dermatology

• Endocrinology • Family Practice • Gastroenterology

• Internal Medicine • Multi Speciality • Neurology

• Obstetrics/Gynaecology • Oncology • Ophthalmology

• Orthopaedics • Pathology • Paediatrics • Podiatry

• Psychology • Pulmonalogy • Radiology

• Rehabilitation • Reproductive Endocrinology

• Surgery • Urology • And Others


A career in medical transcription shows a promising job outlook with growth expected to continue for many years to come. Good job prospects can be supported by the fact that the world has an aging population and an aging population requires more medical care.

Earnings for a medical transcriptionist are on the increase for competent transcriptionists, especially when they become specialists in one of the areas listed above.

When you are in the medical transcription field and you specialise you dramatically increase your potential for a higher income.

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Online Medical Transcription vs. Offline

There really aren`t many medical transcription services that still offer offline transcriptions, though you will still find them out there. In general, people prefer the instant gratification that the internet provides and the ability to rapidly communicate with the company.

Offline medical transcription usually takes longer, because of the delays in posting time and you will usually be limited to in-country transcriptionists, so the costs are going to be fairly high. This goes away with the ability to communicate online. When you use an online medical transcription service, you`ll be able to send your dictations instantly.

There are other advantages to working with an online medical transcription service, as well. For one, you can literally work with any company anywhere in the world, which means you can choose companies that are based in a foreign country to take advantage of the lower rates.

Whether you select an online or offline medical transcription company, be sure that they fit your needs before committing. You`ll find that there are a lot of different offers out there, so pick a good one!

I meet a lot of people who want to be medical transcriptionists. The appeal is of course that you can work at home, and as gas prices go up, the urge to save on it increases. And I always recommend the better online training courses to them. Why is that?

1. Numbers.

The most basic reason just comes down to numbers, as in number of students. Online schools can have more students than local schools, and so they are generally better known by employers around the country.

2. Reputation.

Pick a school with a good reputation with employers and you increase your odds of finding a job after graduation. This is huge. If your school is an unknown you may struggle to find an employer willing to hire you. They're not much on taking chances with something as important as people's medical records, which is why so many want either an education from a school they trust or two years experience.

3. Convenience.

Going to a local school probably means you have to physically attend class at set times. If your schedule doesn't work with that, tough. You can't learn what you need.

But if your classes are online you typically have a lot more flexibility. Many programs are at least somewhat self-paced. There may be scheduled times to have online chats with classmates and instructors, but you may also be able to contact your instructor by email or in the school's online forum.

4. Realistic Work Practice.

If you're scheduling yourself at home to get your class work done, you're also learning how to work at home. If this is your long term goal why not start as soon as possible? You'll also be learning what it is to have to ask people who aren't there for help when you need it. Even when you're an experienced transcriptionist there will be occasional words or phrases you just can't get, and you have to go online to figure it out. When you work at home you can't just turn to the person next to you and ask.

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Medical Transcription: How it is beneficial to medical practitioners and medical companies

Today’s world is a world of competition. You will find tough competition in almost all business industries. Nowadays medical transcription industry is growing as fast as anyone. Therefore healthcare professionals want their medical reports to be translated into text format in order to save time and money. Here, Medical transcription process comes into play.

Medical transcription is a process of writing whatever the doctor or medical practitioner says in a text or document format after doctor examines the patient. These pre-recorded medical words from healthcare professionals are translated in the form of a document or any other text format by professional medical transcriptionists. This process can be done at any place according to the medical professional’s convenience by using remote transmission technologies. It saves precious time of doctors and helps them in concentrating on their practice.

Medical transcription services provide number of advantages to Medicare companies, such as:
• Faster turnaround time
• Higher accuracy
• Improved workflow

Even in hospitals, they have to keep necessary documents of patients or say they have to maintain medical records. Medical transcriptionist transcribes dictations or recordings into a text record. These are then maintained in two ways, either as soft copy or as hard copy. But in today’s IT enabled world, soft copies or EMR (Electronic Medical Report) are more used than traditional medical documents as they are easier to maintain.

Medical transcriptionist is responsible for creating these reports. So it is obvious that he must be very well aware of medical terminology. He should be careful that medical records prepared by him should follow medical transcription standards. Some of these standards are AHDI (Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity), MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) etc.

In medical transcription process, medical transcriptionist also takes care of current medical industry. He constantly updates himself by researching latest medical tools, medical language and equipments. Thus he keeps providing best results to medical professionals and medical companies.

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