Medical Transcription Trends

The medical transcription profession offers several benefits, and its home-based version goes a step ahead to offer comfort and flexibility. Let’s look at some of the advantages of the home-based medical transcription job.

• Comfortable working environment
  The home-based job offers you the comfort of the best working environment – your home. You can set up your office space in your house the way you like. You can choose comfortable furniture, a comfortable and quiet setting for your work.
• Flexibility of work hours
  In the home-based medical transcription job, you can choose when you want to work. While some people are at their productive best in the morning, others are productive in the night. You get to choose your work timings. However, it is important that you stick to a routine and not vary your timings everyday.
• Choice of work
  In a convention office, you have to work on every task that comes your way, irrespective of whether you like it or not. The home-based medical transcription job offers you the flexibility of choosing the kind of work you want to do. This job offers you choice, unlike a conventional office job.
• Savings
  With no commuting involved in the job, the home-based medical transcription job becomes a money-saving venture. Moreover, you need not worry about buying office wear for this job; you can work even in your pajamas!

The job brings along some challenges along with the aforementioned benefits. Click here to read an earlier post on the challenges of the home-based medical transcription profession.

Medical transcriptionists transcribe various kinds of reports. Each of this record is critical to smooth functioning of a hospital or a medical clinic. In today’s post, we will look at the most common reports that need to be transcribed.

Consultation report: This report typically contains information of the patient’s meeting with the doctor. It records prescriptions and other advice the doctor offers to the patient.

Diagnostic report: This report contains information on the diagnosis of a parent’s illness. This report contains an analysis of the patient’s conditions and symptoms and explains the concluding diagnosis.

Operation report: This report contains information on an operation performed upon a patient. This records the operation as well as the patient’s post-operation recovery.

Patient history: This report provides information about a person’s medical history. It records every medical problem, every diagnosis, every medication, and every treatment a person has ever undergone. Doctors use this report to treat the patient accordingly when a new problem occurs.

Discharge summary: This report is generated when a patient is discharged from the hospital. It contains the information on all the tests performed, problems diagnosed, and treatments given while the patient was in the hospital.

Departmental report: This report contains information on patients in departments. Every department keeps track of patients that are diagnosed and treated in it.

A medical transcriptionist learns to distinguish one report from another and delivers the final record in the format suited to the report. Though the reports differ in content, they do not differ in the money that one can make from them. Typically, every report pays equally.

Most jobs are advertised and available online for grabs, especially the medical transcription jobs. Is there a strategy for applying to these jobs? There is. In this post, we will look at the tips to apply for medical transcription jobs online so that one can get optimum opportunities.

• Tip #1: Go through the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section of a company website before applying. This will give you a fare idea of what the company expects of you and what you should expect of the company.
• Tip #2: If you are filling in a form for a job, make sure you understand each point in the form. Take your time to go through the instructions and fill in the form accordingly.
• Tip #3: Make sure that you submit your resume in the format specified by the company. While some prefer .doc files, others insist on .RTF. Sending your resume in any format other than the specified one may lead to outright rejection of your application.
• Tip #4: While filling in a form, try to put as much information as you can. Do not leave out any information for a later stage.
• Tip #5: Do not send your resume to every e-mail ID you see listed on the company’s website. Send your resume only to the hiring department or the human resource department.
• Tip #6: Attach a cover letter with your resume, unless specified otherwise, when sending it to an e-mail ID.

Keep a copy of the form or application with you. Also, keep a track of every place you have applied to.

While common sense and knowledge of medical terminology are the basic essentials to become a medical transcriptionist, you will also need technology by your side. In today’s post, we will look at a few tools (software) that you need to perform well as a medical transcriptionist.

Antivirus
Keeping crucial data on a computer has its flaws. Make sure that your antivirus software is updated. You cannot go about working as a medical transcriptionist without a good antivirus.

Firewall
Like an antivirus, a firewall is crucial to your computer’s functioning. Make sure your firewall is always updated.

Speech recognition software
If you feel threatened by this software, don’t be. This speech recognition software cannot replace a human transcriptionist because of two main reasons. First, the software requires doctors to invest a lot of time working with it. Second, the results of the software are never 100% accurate. Instead of being a threat, the speech recognition software can take the pressure of your work. You only need to edit and make corrections to the text transcribed by the software.

Medical spell-checker
While the default spell-checker of a word processor checks for errors in English words, a medical spell-checker checks for errors in medical terms. One of the most helpful tools for a medical transcriptionist, the medical spell-checker is a must-have.

Medical dictionary
A medical dictionary comes to your rescue when you are unsure about some medical terms. Invest in a good medical dictionary software.

Medical abbreviation expander
As the name suggest, the medical abbreviation expander expands abbreviations of medical terms. This tool will help you save time and make accurate medical records.

Medical transcription style guide
The medical transcription style guide lists the dos and don’t of medical documentation, making sure that you deliver flawless records that meet all standards.

We will be back with some more useful information on medical transcription in the next post.

The need for medical transcription is expected to increase with time. The lifetime of an average US citizen is increasing, and with aging citizens, the number of medical records increases considerably. This is where medical transcriptionists come into picture, transcribing voice recording by doctors and converting them into complete medical records. The job of a medical transcriptionist, however, is laden with challenges. This post will look at a few of the challenges that accompany this profession.

Incomprehensible recordings
At times, you will find the voice recordings incomprehensible, causing a deadlock in your work. More often than not, you will need to recover from these deadlocks on your own. Your hearing skills are not enough to rescue you from such situations; you will have to use common sense to interpret the voices.

Deadlines
Every work has deadlines but the deadlines in the medical transcription profession may leave many a people disturbed. The profession has daily deadlines. While most work has a turnaround time of 24 hours, some work needs to be completed in as little as four hours.

Extended reviews
Medical transcription work requires reviews by experts and the doctors who recorded the voice information in the first place. The transcribed work has to be 100% accurate or it does not hold good. Medical transcriptionists may have to undergo several rounds of reviews – some unexpected – before a work gets the final nod of approval. This may leave many perturbed.

Least supervision
A medical transcriptionist has to work under minimal supervision. This requires him/her to be extremely discipline. Also, one has to overcome hindrances and deadlocks on one’s own. This puts a lot of responsibility on the medical transcriptionist’s shoulders.

Keep checking this blog for more information on the medical transcription profession.

The medical transcription field attracts many people but only a few make it to the top. How can one become a good medical transcriptionist? Read on.

Be disciplined
The medical transcription profession requires that you create a routine and stick to it. If you choose to work from home, make sure that you chalk out a proper routine. Do not let domestic worries distract you. Set up an office space to work efficiently. Also, let others be aware of your ‘office time’.

Manage time
You have to learn to manage time if you want to make a career in medical transcription. Do not become complacent if you have less work on hand or messy if you have a lot to do. Try to keep a buffer for every task when you estimate the time and the effort for it.

Remain focused
One of the most important skills for the medical transcription job is good hearing. Concentrate when you are listening to audio files. Your work may become monotonous over time but you have to remain focused if you want a career as an medical transcriptionist.

Keep learning
You cannot expect that your takeaways from your medical transcription training will last a lifetime. Expect to learn more with every task. Make efforts to learn new medical terms on a daily basis. Your willingness to learn will give you an edge over your peers.

With a projected increase in the number of medical transcription opportunities in the coming years, it is important that medical transcriptionists gear up to face more competition in the near future.

Welcome to Medical Transcription Trends Blog. Our task is to show you the best way to become a medical transcriptionist. Our hope is if you have not already developed the desire to work from home and become a medical transcriptionist that this blog will help you take that path. With thousands of medical transcription jobs going unfulfilled every year, the market place is flooded with a need for qualified talent.

We’ll discuss the future of medical transcription, point you in the direction of medical transcription job opportunities, and show you where you can get the best medical transcription training. Please come back often and join the conversation. Thank you.