Medical Transcription Trends

The deadlines in medical transcription are difficult, you have heard. And you have heard right. But deadlines are not your only worry in medical transcription. In today’s post, we will look at a couple of factors that affect your productivity and quality.

Quality of voice recordings

Meeting deadlines does not just mean delivering medical records on time; it means delivering quality records on time. And what do you need for quality? Knowledge and focus? Yes. But knowledge and focus come later; first comes the quality of voice recordings. Let me explain.

Your productivity and quality is largely dependent on the quality of voice recordings you get. A poor recording requires you to put in more effort and time to make sense of it. While you may keep a buffer for bad recordings as you plan your work, you cannot be prepared for consistently poor recordings. They not only eat up your time, they affect the quality of your work adversely.

Now, what are you supposed to do if you get incomprehensible recordings consistently? You need to raise an alarm. There must be something the doctors are not doing right. They may be recording information in a noisy environment or they may be approaching the recording very casually. You need to bring this to the notice of your employer. If you are a freelancing medical transcriptionist, you have got to tell your client. Of course, should be diplomatic, highlighting how the quality of the voice recordings affects the quality of the records that you are creating. It is important you don’t start living with poor quality of input.

Unplanned work

Imagine having planned a day of work and your employer/client gives you some additional “urgent” work. You leave everything else to attend to the new work and later realize that you are lagging behind in the previously planned work. While unplanned work will come your way every once in a while, don’t accept it if it happens too frequently. Because if it is happening too frequently there is something wrong with the management of your employer or the expectations of your client. You cannot afford to risk your goodwill because of such work. Learn to say ‘no’ when your routine gets disturbed. However, help your employer/client if the work seems really urgent. But after you have completed such work, let them know that you won’t accept such work in future.

Isolation

Typically, you have no guidance or supervision of any kind in medical transcription. Absence of supervision requires you to take care of every aspect of work on your own. You have to handle crisis situations completely on your own. While this may make you a better medical transcriptionist in the long run, it definitely gives you a hard time on a day-to-day basis. In order to deal with isolation, try to work only during stipulated hours and spend the rest of your time with family and friends.

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