Medical Transcription Trends

Today, jobs are scarce, unemployment is at an all-time high and people are scared. Many people are turning to work-at-home jobs, hoping for some semblance of a pay check. Medical Transcriptionists are popping out of the woodwork, many hoping for some quick bucks and easy job. But, they are fooling themselves. If you truly want to make it and be a Medical Transcriptionist, be prepared to work.

Employment of Medical Transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014. Many of these transcriptionists won’t make it; they are the ones that expect overnight success, overnight jobs and overnight riches.

Demand for medical transcription services in the future will be spurred on by a growing and aging population. This will make the need for services greater, payments higher, and the better you are, the harder you work, the more money you will make and the more successful you will become.

A high level of demand for transcription services also will be sustained by the continued need for electronic documentation that can easily be shared among providers, third-party payers, regulators, consumers and health information systems.

Despite what you might hear, contracting out transcription work overseas and advancements in speech recognition technology are not expected to significantly reduce the need for well-trained Medical Transcriptionists. Outsourcing transcription work abroad — to countries such as India, Pakistan, Philippines, and the Caribbean — has grown more popular as transmitting confidential health information over the Internet has become more secure.  However, the demand for overseas transcription services is expected only to supplement the demand for well-trained domestic Medical Transcriptionists.

So, in the long run, the job outlook for the Medical Transcriptionist is secure. Work hard, network and know your job. You will be rewarded and be happy you did.

With much work, good training and a lot of perseverence, a home-based Medical Transcription business can be quite lucrative. Medical Transcriptionists, in a basic description, convert dictated medical records of patients or recorded conversations between the doctor and his patient into written records.

The job opportunities for a home-based Medical Transcriptionist are almost endless. As long as there are patients going to the doctor there is a need for  Medical Transcriptionists. There is no age limit to being a Medical Transcriptionist and anyone can be an MT regardless of his or her current profession.

The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) requires an MT to have:

1. Above-average knowledge of English grammar and punctuation
2. Excellent auditory skills
3. Advanced proofreading and editing skills,
4. Versatility in use of transcription equipment and computers
5. Highly developed analytical skills

All these are essential in order to ensure quality, accuracy and reliability of the transcribed medical record.  Even if you did not graduate from a medical and science course, you can still establish your own Medical Transcription business and become a successful MT by enrolling in Medical Transcription training programs designed to provide you with knowledge of medical science, medical and surgical procedures, medical language, diagnostic procedures and others. At the same time, these courses are designed to enhance your typing and listening skills.

Medical transcription can be more than a home business. Tt can be a profession. Apart from having medical, typing and transcribing knowledge and skills, a professional Medical Transcriptionist must have dedication and great enthusiasm for this kind of work. Getting ahead means advancing your skills, getting certified and never giving up.

The faster you can type, the more Medical Transcription work you can get done. For an at-home business like medical transcription, typing well and accurately could mean the difference between an average business and ever-increasing profits. Have you lived with the “hunt and peck” method most of your life? Or perhaps you want to increase your speed and accuracy.  For those of you who have grown frustrated with how long it takes you to type a document, now is the time to learn the proper technique. It will be a challenge. Your brain and your hands have grown accustomed to typing the wrong way. The one problem with learning a bad habit is that you have to unlearn it.

To improve your typing speed, invest in typing tutor software. These programs teach keyboard and number pad memorization. Learning proper finger placement on the “home row” is essential to typing success. With the proper foundation your typing speed will increase.

Two good programs on the market are MacMillan Typing Tutor 9 for the PC and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 17 for PC and MAC.  The latter program takes you through the basic principles of typing, using fun games and timed tests at every level to increase speed and accuracy. Once a particular level is mastered, the program allows you to move on to the next.

For those who need a refresher course to increase typing speed, online services are available to assist you. The key to your success is practice, practice, and more practice. Typing speed tests to increase your speed are available free on the Web. You are given a sample paragraph to type. Once you are done and hit “submit”, the speed and accuracy of your work are translated into WPM (words per minute). You can practice with as many paragraph samples as you want.

Everything today has gone digital, and Medical Transcription is no different. This fact has changed the scenario and the work environment quite a lot through the years. At one time, Medical Transcriptionists (MT) had to take trips every week to the client offices for audio tape pickups and delivery of work.

TASP stands for Transcription Application Service Providers. Today there are many web based application service provider platforms that cater to different types of large, medium, small and also individual home based MTSOs (Medical Transcription Service Organizations).

The TASP type of files routing system is very efficient. It manages the entire process or life cycle of the document, right from the time of dictation at the hospital / physician’s location to sending it for transcription/editing to the MT and back to the medical professional. This type of system does save a lot of time and money when compared to the earlier transcription methods. There are dial-in systems that take dictations. Playback happens when the residing codec (analog to digital converter) creates a digital sound file that the medical transcriptionist can play back and transcribe.

It has been known that there are visually impaired transcriptionists who can quite effectively use TASP software during medical transcription. There are many companies that have come out with TASP software that are available online.

Online transmission of files in a TASP is always done by encryption of all files using 128 bit encryption, making it totally safe and secure. One of the biggest advantages of TASP is the fact that clients do not have to invest in any kind of infrastructure at all because all that is required is an online connection and a computer for operation.

When working from home as a Medical Transcriptionist, it helps in getting clients if you are registered. Being registered and having credentials makes you more professional in the eyes of potential clients. The process starts with applying to take the exam through the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT).

Most Medical Transcriptionist’s work a standard 40-hour work week, either from their home or working in an office. Many transcriptionists choose this field of employment due to the flexibility the job allows in schedule. Therefore, as a transcriptionist, you can work as much or as little as desired. Most medical transcriptionists are paid by the line, or by the hour, so the more you work the more you earn. Deadlines are important so if you do agree to take on a certain amount of work, you must be prepared to turn it around in 2-3 days.

Typing

Typing is probably the most necessary skill for transcriptionists. The more words per minute you are able to type, the more money you’ll be able to earn. However, in addition to typing fast, one must also be highly accurate. There is no room for error when it comes to medical record keeping. Medical transcriptionists must also be familiar with medical terminology, which is covered in the training course.

Jobs and Salary

Job growth is expected to be above average, but it is not as high as some other medical fields due to outsourcing to overseas companies and development of speech-recognition software. Currently, speech recognition software has not had the quality needed to replace live medical transcriptionists so unless and until the technology improves the job outlook will continue to be very strong. The BLS projects the field to grow by 14% in the period ending in 2016. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average pay for medical transcription is about $28,000 – $30,000 per year.

Pros and Cons

The training for medical transcription is relatively easy to acquire in terms of cost and time investment, when compared to some other medical careers. Again, flexibility of schedule is another major plus for this profession. Also, if you are seeking a job where you can telecommute from home, medical transcription could be an excellent choice.

On the other hand, the pay is not always spectacular. According to the BLS, transcriptionists must sit still for long periods of time on a repeated basis. Therefore, they can suffer from related health issues such as carpal-tunnel syndrome, eye-strain, and other physical maladies. If you really thrive on working with people, you may find the work a bit monotonous. There are many ways to combat the cons in the business of Medical Transcription and the rewards can be quite advantageous.

There are more than a few ways to make errors when working in the field of Medical Trascription, but one of the biggest – and most common – is to make mistakes in your transcriptions. Doctors rely on perfect records, yet often the dictator’s speech, grammar, spelling and handwriting are far from perfect and it’s up to you as the transcriber to figure out exactly what they are trying to say and get it right.

If you find it very difficult to understand a particular dictator, try these approaches:

• If your transcriber/software has a “tone” adjustment, make sure it is set to make the dictator’s voice sound “raw” – i.e., little or no bass. Do the same if you have a “bass” control. Removing as much bass as possible allows the words to be heard more clearly. Unfortunately, it may also accentuate any static on the tape/digital audio file.
• Try adjusting the tape/digital audio file playback speed from very, very slow to fast. Sometimes varying the speed of the tape/digital audio file will allow you to pick up on what is being said. If transcribing from tape, try unplugging your headset and playing the tape out of the transcriber speaker, if there is one.
• Try having someone else listen to the passage you are having trouble with (remembering confidentiality issues, of course). Make a note where the unintelligible section is on the tape/digital audio file, using the counter, and come back later to see if being away from it for a while helps you to “listen anew.” One or a combination of all these approaches will sometimes help.

Avoid guessing about what you hear. If the problem dictation involves drug names, drug dosages, patient-described symptoms, etc., guessing incorrectly could have life-threatening implications if your error goes through the health system unnoticed. The safest, professional, and ethical approach is to leave a blank in the transcription, making sure to make a notification on the report about the area of dictation needing clarification by the dictating physician.

Of course, if there is a way to verify what is being said by contacting the actual dictating physician or his/her staff, this is the best, quickest and sometimes easiest way to handle questions about problem dictation passages.

Isn’t the medical transcription profession cool? It definitely is. And yet we ask you to think before stepping into it? Well, the profession is cool but it is definitely not for everyone. What is the point joining the field if you won’t be able to survive in it for long? So, think before making up your mind about the profession.

What should you think about? Well, why not start with thinking about the prospects of the medical transcription profession. Can it fulfill your expectations? Are you aware of what all the profession has to offer?

Next, think about what the profession expects of you. Do you know that the profession expects you to meet deadlines every day while ensuring the highest quality? Do you know that you are responsible for the security and confidentiality of medical information in your hands? Do you know that you are expected to keep learning beyond your training? Only if you are sure you can meet the profession’s expectations should you venture into it.

You also need to find all the small, annoying things you are likely to encounter in the profession. Like taking up home-based work and realizing how distracting the home can be. You will need to handle incomprehensible recordings, difficult reviewers etc. along with delivering quality records on time. Are you up for the challenge?

The profession is flexible in many ways but you can make use of the flexibility only if you are disciplined enough. Are you disciplined enough? And will you able to enjoy your work life? Make medical transcription your career only if the answer to these two questions is ‘yes’.

Why does the medical transcription profession not have prerequisites when it is clearly looking for an aptitude? Because the profession’s requirement cannot be spelled out as proper eligibility conditions. Why not? Well, go through the following list of requirements and you’ll understand why they cannot be called prerequisites.

• As a medical transcriptionist, you should possess an excellent command over the English language. You will need to make sentences clear, crisp, and concise. Every word in your transcript should sound right and make sense.
• A medical transcriptionist should be comfortable working with a word processor and well equipped to handle a computer.
• You should be comfortable working with deadlines. You will have to deal with some extremely stringent deadlines in this profession. Some will knock on your door every few hours.
• You should be comfortable working on your own. Being your own boss is one of the advantages of a home-based medical transcription job. However, you should be disciplined enough to handle work on your own.
• The medical transcriptionist needs to possess good hearing skills. You should be able recognize words and sentences clearly from a verbal speech or conversation.
• You should be willing to update your medical knowledge every day. A medical transcriptionist has to learn new medical terms every day. Also, he/she needs to handle tools and technologies entering the medical transcription world.
• You should be able to work for long without losing focus in this field. You may have to spend long hours listening to audios and typing out text. You should be able to handle big chunks of work.

Even though the profession has no stringent prerequisites, it is important you gauge your potential before you enroll yourself into the medical transcription course.

What are the three expectations the medical transcription profession has of you? If you cannot answer that, you are definitely not ready for the profession.

OK, I am digressing. And yet I should tell you that you should learn as much about the profession as possible before making a commitment to it. Now, coming back to the question I asked, the three expectations are:

• Delivery of medical records on time
• Highest quality of records
• and Confidentiality and security of data

While the first two expectations are considered individual expectations, the third one is often taken as the medical transcription company’s responsibility. While it is OK to think so, it is important the medical transcriptionist understands his/her individual responsibility too.

One needs to pay attention to the security of medical information irrespective of whether one works in a medical transcription company or as a home-based transcriptionist. How? Here’s a list of things you must take care of.

• Keep the medical data you are working on out of reach of anyone other than you.
• Use passwords to protect the medical transcription work on the computer.
• Make sure your anti-virus software is updated regularly.
• Make sure your firewall is on whenever you are connected to a network.
• When sending files to clients, make sure the files are transmitted over a secure FTP network.
• Ensure that the FTP site is protected with a password.
• Encrypt e–mails that contain queries and information on the medical records.
• Remember to backup the medical transcription work periodically on an external drive.

Keep watching this space for more information and practical tips on medical transcription.