A Medical Transcriptionists career could pay off well for those seeking to update their career training. As thousands of jobs are being outsourced and sent overseas in every sector, for those fortunate enough to be within the employment ranks as medical transcriptionists, this sector is projected to grow faster than average for all jobs through 2013. Demand for medical transcription services will be fueled by a growing and aging population. Older age groups receive more medical tests, treatments, and procedures that require documentation. 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.
Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to and identify discrepancies in medical reports, amend patients’ records, and edit documents from speech recognition systems . An increasing demand for standardized records should result in rapid employment growth in physicians’ offices, especially in large group practices. Medical transcriptionists held strong employment representation with about 105,000 jobs in 2004. About 4 out of 10 worked in hospitals and another 3 out of 10 worked in offices of physicians. Others worked for business support services; medical and diagnostic laboratories; outpatient care centers; and offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists, and audiologists.Compensation methods for medical transcriptionists vary. Some are paid based on the number of hours they work or on the number of lines they transcribe. The higher earners can forseeably expect more than $20 an hour.
Work conditions that some would envy are what many Medical Transcriptionist encounter. Professional transcriptionist can look forward to working in comfortable settings such as hospitals, physicians’ offices, transcription service offices, clinics, laboratories, medical libraries, government medical facilities, or their own homes. Many medical transcriptionists telecommute from home-based offices as employees or subcontractors for hospitals and transcription services or as self-employed, independent contractors.
Many medical transcriptionists work a standard 40-hour week. Self-employed medical transcriptionists are more likely to work irregular hours—including part time, evenings, weekends, or on call at any time. The future of medical transcriptionist jobs appear to be healthy and bright and shows no sign up declining anytime in the foreseeable future.
A Medical Transcriptionist Career Could Be Just What The Doctor Ordered
A Career In Medical Transcription: Is It For You?
You’ve very likely heard of someone who is making a good living as a medical transcriptionist. He or she might even be working from the comfort of their home. And you’ve probably asked yourself if this might be a career option for you.
It may well be. Let’s take a look at the facts.
What exactly is medical transcription? In the course of their work, doctors and other healthcare professionals make dictated recordings of various things including physical examination observations, patient history, operative reports, referral letters, discharge summaries, observations regarding imaging data and so on.
A medical transcriptionist listens to these recordings and transcribes them into medical reports, correspondence, etc. She listens to a segment of recording, pauses the playback and keys in what is said before moving on to the next segment. She may do some editing for better grammar and clarity.
The transcribed document is sent back to the health care provider who then reviews it for accuracy and gets it signed. These documents become part of the patient’s medical history records and perhaps insurance records.
To be effective at this job, you should understand medical terminology well. That includes anatomy, pharmacology, diagnostic procedures, treatment assessments and more.
Many distance education programs, colleges and vocational schools offer post-secondary training in medical transcription. Having a degree is not essential. With a home-study course, you can usually pick up the necessary knowledge within a year, often in less than nine months.
You can find work in hospitals, laboratories, physician’s offices, firms offering transcription services, government medical facilities and so on. Working from home is also a possibility and many employers offer work-at-home options for transcriptionists. Apart from that, many individuals work as independent contractors.
With experience, it is possible to move into supervisory positions, which include editing work, teaching, consulting, etc.
What equipment would you need, if you wanted to do medical transcription at home? Not very much -- a computer with a medical spellchecker, printer, a transcriber and reference books are about all you need. To help you save on the actual typing, a word expander utility might help. If you are on a tight budget, buy second hand equipment will do just as well.
Medical transcription work does call for certain skills and mindset. Apart from basic computer skills, you must be detail oriented. If detail work bores you to tears, this might not be the career for you.
You must know typing, although speed will come with practice. You should also have excellent listening skills and grammar skills.
If you’re planning to work from home, it is essential to be comfortable with working alone and meeting deadlines. You must be a self-starter who can work consistently without being driven by a boss.
Given the growth in health practices and hospitals and the need for standardization of records, the demand for medical transcription services is likely to keep growing. You should carefully analyze the pros and cons of this field before venturing into it. Medical transcription provides a rewarding and fulfilling career for many people and it can do the same for you too.
A Medical Transcriptionist Resume Will Highlight Your Unique Skills And Qualifications
A Medical Transcriptionist in short MT positions, require a certification with training, specific skills like fast type writing, listening skills, and a specific field like Radiology, Operations report OR emergency reports handling etc.
Do make sure your mention your knowledge on industry standards like HIPPA requirements etc.
Below is a list of things that should appear in your resume.
Your knowledge history like training, certifications etc have to be highlighted.
The quality you can deliver in terms of % accuracy.
mention your type writing speed.
Your years of experience in the MT field, and if you could explain in detail which field you were transcribing: opthology, nephrology etc.
Give a brief description about the employer: what they are doing, if they are not well known.
Whether you prefer to work from home. If so, you have the required computer and other MT hardware at your home.
List your merit details like name of the institution, city, state, degree, major, year awarded and GPA.
Mention your entire job related skills, computer proficiency and language skills to make your resume stand out.
Use some technical jargon to convince the employer. Experience in
Coordinated and requisitioned all patient diagnostics, Maintained census and dietary records, operating room reports, autopsy reports and maintenance in physical examination documentation.
Mention any technical or computer qualifications and personality development, diploma in medical transcription etc done as a course with its content in brief, the duration, institute and also its result.
Mention your current and recent clients with specialties like internal medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, and ENT/head & neck surgery etc.
Mention how you have reduced the costs and saved money in your department or the organization in general by any means.
Highlight any other achievements that have benefited to your department and obviously your organization in general.
Medical Professionals
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