Prepare for your new medical transcription career with the flexibility and convenience of distance education. As a medical transcriptionist, you will transcribe the dictated words of doctors to create error-free reports. Allied's Medical Transcription Course teaches you how to use common medical abbreviations, symbols, punctuation and grammar, while helping you to increase the speed and accuracy of your typing.
Once you complete your medical transcription training and start your medical transcription career, you can choose to work from home. And creating a comfortable and functional home office is essential to your productivity - especially when you may be spending hours at a time sitting at your desk and working on your computer.
Check out this video from CNET TV and gain insight on how to create a ergonomic home office that may reduce carpal tunnel risks, including choosing the right keyboard and proper mouse placement.
One of the most attractive benefits of a medical transcription career is the opportunity to work from home. Here are some tips to help keep your work-at-home medical transcription career sane, productive and happy.
1. Create a Work Space. Whether it's an entire room or the corner of a room, designate a space as your official office. Next, stock your space with all the necessary office creature comforts: functional desk, computer, office supplies, etc. The idea is to create an environment that places your mindset into work mode - and not wandering off to pending household chores, daytime television or an unnecessarily long poolside break.
2. Set a Schedule. Set a goal to get up, begin your work and end your day around the same time every day. Not only will you be more productive on a set schedule, but your clients will know when to contact you. Managing client inquiries with prompt responses will show your clients that you are an organized medical transcriptionist who can be relied upon for future work and referrals.
3. Get Dressed. Sure, you could stay in that oversized, Garfield t-shirt you slept in all day - the one with the fresh coffee stain - and your clients will never know. However, starting your day with a shower and comfortable clothing that you wouldn't mind answering the door in will make you feel better, and more than likely, more productive.
4. Stay Organized. Keep your work space tidy. Items like bookcases, draw organizers, in-baskets, etc. can keep you sane. And instead of making your to-do list in the morning, make it at the end of each work day. The status of your day's tasks will be fresher in your mind.
5. Avoid Distractions. Close the door to your office. Set aside specific times during the day when you return phone calls and emails - and make sure your clients are aware of these times. And if you are a mom with young kids at home, do your best to get them tuned into your routine and try to keep them occupied with a variety of activities, like crafts, play dates, naps, morning pre-school, etc.
Want to become a medical transcriptionist? The good news is that this career field is projected to provide long-term opportunity. Learn about the career outlook with some fast facts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
- Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow by 11 percent from 2008 to 2018, about as fast as the average for all occupations.
- Job opportunities will be good, especially for those who are certified.
- Employers prefer medical transcriptionists who have completed a postsecondary training program.
- Many medical transcriptionists telecommute from home-based offices.
- Medical transcriptionists held about 105,200 jobs in 2008.
- About 36 percent worked in hospitals and another 23 percent worked in offices of physicians. Others worked for business support services; medical and diagnostic laboratories; outpatient care centers; offices of physical, occupational, and speech therapists; and offices of audiologists.
- Demand for medical transcription services will continue to be spurred by a growing and aging population. Older age groups receive proportionally greater numbers of 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 be shared easily among providers, third-party payers, regulators, consumers, and health information systems.
- Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to amend patients' records, edit documents from speech recognition systems, and identify discrepancies in medical reports.
- Contracting out transcription work overseas and advancements in speech recognition technology are not expected to significantly reduce the need for well-trained medical transcriptionists. Reports transcribed by overseas medical transcription services usually require editing for accuracy by domestic medical transcriptionists before they meet U.S. quality standards.
- Hospitals will continue to employ a large percentage of medical transcriptionists, but job growth will be in other industries. An increasing demand for standardized records should result in rapid employment growth in physicians' offices, especially in large group practices.
- Wage-and-salary medical transcriptionists had median hourly wages of $15.41 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $13.02 and $18.55. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $10.76, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $21.81.
- Compensation arrangements for medical transcriptionists vary. Some are paid on the basis of the number of hours they work or the number of lines they transcribe. Others receive a base pay per hour, with incentives for extra production.
Ready to get started? Call (888) 822-2923 to prepare for your medical transcription career. Opportunity, reward and challenge await you!
Are you considering a career path or transitioning into a new field? What about a career in the health care industry that allows you to work from home? If that sounds appealing, than a career in medical transcription may be the perfect choice for you. With the proper training, like from an AHDI approved medical transcription program, you can work from home, set your own schedule, keep family close and enjoy career portability - perfect for military spouses who move often.
The health care industry is growing fast. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics-(BLS) projects the health care industry will generate 3 million new wage and salary jobs through 2016, more than any other industry! And medical transcription is part of this growing field. But, what if working from home isn't ideal for you? A career in medical transcription offers a broad range of exciting opportunities in a variety of health care/medical related settings, such as:
-Hospitals -Emergency Clinics -Doctor's Offices -Mental Health Facilities -Long-Term Care Facilities -Forensics Units -Medical Examiner Offices -Quality Control -Nursing Homes -Government health Facilities -Medical Transcription Instruction -And More!
Keep in mind that different medical transcription job opportunities will require different levels of experience. What's important is that you are pursuing a career with growth opportunities in an industry that needs qualified workers to fill demand - and that can be you.
Interested? Learn more about a medical transcription career and why you should choose an AHDI approved medical transcription program from an accredited school. A new career you can be proud to call your own is more attainable than you think. Get moving today!
Allied Schools is pleased to announce that its comprehensive Medical Transcription Program is approved by the Approval Committee for Certificate Programs (ACCP), a joint committee established by AHIMA and AHDI that approves medical transcription certificate programs.
The ACCP approval committee is the process used by AHDI to identify quality medical transcription education programs that have been evaluated by a peer review process against a minimum set of standards for entry-level medical transcription professionals. The approval designation assures healthcare providers that graduates of Allied Schools' Medical Transcription Program possess the necessary job skills to attain success in entry-level medical transcription positions. Students are guided through a comprehensive curriculum providing them with more than 425 hours of instruction in the requisite medical terminology/English grammar skills and medical knowledge base (anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, laboratory medicine, medical specialties and procedures), and medicolegal requirements that ensure integrity and privacy in the documentation of patients' healthcare records.
The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) is the foremost professional organization for healthcare documentation experts, including medical transcriptionists and others dedicated to the integrity and privacy of the healthcare record. AHDI (formerly AAMT) was established in 1978 as part of an effort to achieve recognition for the medical transcription profession. Today, AHDI exists to set and uphold standards for education and practice in the field of medical transcription that ensure the highest level of accuracy, privacy and security of healthcare documentation for the U.S. healthcare system in order to protect public health, increase patient safety and improve quality care for healthcare consumers. AHDI is committed to optimizing the execution of healthcare delivery by providing timely, accurate and relevant clinical information. For more information about AHDI, go to www.ahdionline.org.
With the prevalence of speech recognition software in the health care industry, many are left to wonder if this will affect today's medical transcriptionists. The answer to this question is a resounding "no." Even as speech recognition software becomes more commonplace, there is still no substitution for human knowledge.
Speech recognition software provides a fast way to get words down on paper, but it is not foolproof. A trained medical transcriptionist is needed to edit the copy for mistakes - from content to grammar. Can software distinguish between these words: "dilate" from "die late," "cauterize" from "caught her eyes," and "nitrate" from "night rate." (Source: MT Daily)
Medical transcriptionists are required for their vast amount of knowledge, including editing skills and medical knowledge. They need to edit mistakes resulting from incorrect translation, punctuation or grammar; and check for consistency and any wording that doesn't make medical sense. It is imperative that medical reports be error free - which can only be assured with the involvement of a medical transcriptionist.
As advanced as innovative voice recognition software has become, there will always be a demand for flesh-and-blood transcribers to apply the human touch needed to discern language nuances and to "train" the technology to identify certain areas of confusion and to correct possible misinterpretations. In addition, trained transcriptionists have the expertise necessary to interpret the tricky nuances of medical terminology - something speech recognition software is unable to do.
In fact, experienced transcriptionists spot mistakes or inconsistencies in a medical report and check to correct the information. Their ability to understand and correctly transcribe patient assessments and treatments reduce the chance of patients receiving ineffective or even harmful treatments and ensures high-quality patient care.
Bottom line: there's no substitution for the knowledge of trained medical transcriptionists.
Long commute? "Not at all," says the medical transcriptionist, who routinely conducts her job duties from home.
Medical transcription is one of the career paths that naturally lends itself to working from home. Today's modern workplace offers the flexibility and freedom to perform medical transcription duties from a remote home office. With a computer and transcription equipment, people have the same tools they would find in an office setting - only this office is located within their house.
An at-home medical transcription career provides advantages for both the employer, such as the doctor or health care provider, and their employees. Employees gain the ability to work effectively without sacrificing quality time with their families or sitting through endless traffic jams. And employers enjoy more highly-satisfied employees, along with significant cost savings and other benefits.
Actually, with the right equipment, medical transcription professionals can work when and where they want - when the kids go to school or after the family goes to bed at night.
It is the job of the medical transcriptionist to accurately record the notes made by doctors, nurses and other medical professionals into their patients' files, and one of the benefits of this job is that it can be done from virtually anywhere.
Workers who wish to take advantage of a work-at-home medical transcription opportunity should start by getting their medical transcription education - an online medical transcription course is an ideal way to learn at home, at their own pace. Once their education is completed, they sometimes need to establish relationships with local doctors or health care providers before they can work from home. A little hard work and dedication can lead to an ideal work-from-home career.
Today's employees have more flexibility and freedom than ever before. Technological advances and changing employer perception have opened the door to at-home careers. Medical transcription is an ideal way for people to work from home, build a solid career and experience the reward of being there for their family - with a steady career that's on the rise.
