Medical Transcription - myths and realities

Unless you have some sort of super anti-spam e-mail blocker installed on your computer, you have probably received e-mails with titles such as "Make $150,000 a year as an at home medical transcriptionist - no investment required". Many of these e-mails are nothing but solicitations to try and get you to buy some sort of e-book, or other item, that will teach you how to become a medical transcriptionist. While remembering that many of these e-mails are nothing more than spam, it is equally important to remember that many of them are legitimate.

To start with, medical transcription is one of the fastest-growing of the medical related career fields. A study conducted about 6 years ago found that transcription, and related fields, would continue tremendous growth for many years to come. This is due in part to the rapid advance in the number of retiring "baby boomers". As well, virtually all medical career fields are nearly recession proof, as no matter what the economic climate, people are always going to need medical care; thus, doctors and other medical professionals are always going to need medical transcriptionists.

In essence, a trained medical transcriptionist can take the notes (most commonly being voice recordings) of doctors, nurses, etc., and translate them into various forms, including medical reports, charts, etc. Potential medical transcriptionists will need good listening skills, as medical terminology may sound the same, but have different meanings depending upon the context in which it's used. The final results of a medical transcriptionists work must be 100% accurate, as this work is what's used to document a patient's medical history. As well, a transcriptionist's work may be utilized during certain legal proceedings, so everything must always be perfect. Legal matters can hinge entirely on the accuracy of the transcriptions. And, no matter what the outcome of the proceedings, all transcripts most generally become a matter of public record.

A medical transcriptionist is normally employed in one of the following 4 ways:

In an actual hospital
In a doctor's office, clinic, or other outpatient medical care facility
In labs, medical schools, third-party transcription services, etc.
As independent or "home-based" medical transcriptionists

Most appealing to potential new transcriptionists is the possibility of working from home. While being home-based has its benefits, it has its challenges as well. The lack of a normal "9 to 5" work schedule, and structured office environment are two good examples of such challenges. As well, if you decide to become home-based, you will likely need to form your own business legally, set up your tax requirements, etc. All of this is really not anywhere near as difficult as it may sound. But all potential home-based transcriptionists will want to keep these things in mind.

Visit the Medical Transcription Network for more information.

Medical Transcription - medical transcription home business

The medical transcription industry continues to grow. As the need for individuals in this field keeps growing, the options for working at home also grow.

Starting a medical transcription home business is a good area to start in if you would like to work at home and receive the same pay you would if you were in the office. There are a couple of ways to work in your home-based MT business. One way is to find a traditional employer who gives you all the benefits of working in-house, but who allows you to do this from home. This is more likely to happen if you have worked for this employer in an office already. Another way to set up a medical transcription business is to accept clients through advertising. This would be a freelance MT business.

If you are going to start your own business, remember that it might take some time getting clients. Don't forget that you are not limited in location. You may be able to find clients for your medical transcription business through the internet. As demand increases, the needs for your services will increase.

Though you want to charge the going rate for medical transcription, working from home allows you to be flexible with fees. You can charge somewhat higher than somebody working in an office because your client does not have to pay for insurance or a pension for you. Working in your own home business also allows you to set your own hours. If you want to work full time, you can. If you want part-time hours, this is not a problem. If you want vacation time, just be sure you don't accept work that will not get done before you go.

If you like to be there to take your children to school and pick them up afterwards, a medical transcription business is a good option. It will pay more than most work-at-home jobs but offer all the benefits of being at home. You don't have to worry about the commute or the parking. With a medical transcription business, you can work in the morning or, if you are a night owl, work in the evening.

Many people prefer to work from home. Few can actually make a living this way. Medical transcriptionists are among these few, and opportunities are expected to grow in the coming years.

If you are interested in a job that allows you the flexibility to stay home, consider a medical transcription business. It is one of your best options for working from home.

For more information on starting a medical transcription career or making more money as an MT visit http://www.AskTheMT.com – an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions.

Medical Transcription - continues to grow

The medical transcription industry continues to grow. As the need for individuals in this field keeps growing, the options for working at home also grow.

Starting a medical transcription home business is a good area to start in if you would like to work at home and receive the same pay you would if you were in the office. There are a couple of ways to work in your home-based MT business. One way is to find a traditional employer who gives you all the benefits of working in-house, but who allows you to do this from home. This is more likely to happen if you have worked for this employer in an office already. Another way to set up a medical transcription business is to accept clients through advertising. This would be a freelance MT business.

If you are going to start your own business, remember that it might take some time getting clients. Don't forget that you are not limited in location. You may be able to find clients for your medical transcription business through the internet. As demand increases, the needs for your services will increase.

Though you want to charge the going rate for medical transcription, working from home allows you to be flexible with fees. You can charge somewhat higher than somebody working in an office because your client does not have to pay for insurance or a pension for you. Working in your own home business also allows you to set your own hours. If you want to work full time, you can. If you want part-time hours, this is not a problem. If you want vacation time, just be sure you don't accept work that will not get done before you go.

If you like to be there to take your children to school and pick them up afterwards, a medical transcription business is a good option. It will pay more than most work-at-home jobs but offer all the benefits of being at home. You don't have to worry about the commute or the parking. With a medical transcription business, you can work in the morning or, if you are a night owl, work in the evening.

Many people prefer to work from home. Few can actually make a living this way. Medical transcriptionists are among these few, and opportunities are expected to grow in the coming years.

If you are interested in a job that allows you the flexibility to stay home, consider a medical transcription business. It is one of your best options for working from home.

For more information on starting a medical transcription career or making more money as an MT visit http://www.AskTheMT.com – an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions.

Medical Transcription - Viable work at home career

Medical Transcription: A Viable Work At Home Career
By Sharon Davis

Are there really viable work at home jobs out there? This is a question that I'm asked almost daily. The fact is, there are most definitely careers that can be done from your home and there are people who are actually successful in those jobs. One of the fastest growing industries happens to be one that can be done from home: Medical Transcription.

>>A Growing Industry

Medical Transcription/Billing is an industry that is exploding. It's prestigious and in demand. According the the U.S. Department of Labor, "Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2010. Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population."

Transcription is one of those jobs that many people know can be done from home, and so the interest level is very high. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there trying to capitalize on that interest. The results are over-priced and sub-standard courses.

All too often, I receive emails like this one from one of our readers. She wrote:

Hello Sharon,

I am emailing you to inform you of a work at home job listing that I contacted in our local paper. It was concerning Medical Billing at home. The name of the company is *****, Inc. They sell software for Medical Billing purposes. Before I sent them any money I decided to check out their website www.******.com and then the local Better Business Bureau from the area that they are located which is near Los Angeles, Ca. The report came back today and it is not favorable. I thought you might want to know about this supposed home based business so you could inform your other members and visitors.

Sincerely,

Margaret

This is what inspired me to research the field and determine what the options are for those who are looking to enter it.

>>What Do Transcriptionists Do?

Transcriptionists listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other healthcare professionals and transcribe them into documents such as operating room notes, autopsy reports, discharge summaries and other documents which then become part of a patient's medical record. In order to be able to transcribe information accurately, medical transcriptionists must understand medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, diagnostic procedures, and treatment.

>>What Kind of Training Must MT's Have?

In the course of my research, the first thing I learned was that you can't just jump into a career as an MT without training. This is a detailed, professional (and fascinating) career which requires technical knowledge. The American Association for Medical Transcription defines the requirements this way:

"Medical understanding is critical for the professional medical transcriptionist. The complex terms used in medicine are unlike the language of any other profession.

Medical transcription requires a practical knowledge of medical language, anatomy, physiology, disease processes, pharmacology, laboratory medicine, and the internal organization of medical reports. A medical transcriptionist is truly a medical language specialist who must be aware of standards and requirements that apply to the health record, as well as the legal significance of medical transcripts.

Reports of patient care take many forms, including histories and physical examinations, progress reports, emergency room notes, consultations, operative reports, discharge summaries, clinic notes, referral letters, radiology reports, pathology reports, and an array of documentation spanning more than 60 medical specialties and subspecialties! Thus, the medical transcriptionist, or medical language specialist, must be well versed in the language of medicine. ".

Medical transcription is a medical language specialty, so you can see that it requires not only the proper training, but also an investment in reference materials and a commitment to ongoing learning as technology and terminology changes. Equally important to the long-term success of a Transcriptionist is having the right personality for the job. Some qualities that successful MT's share are:


Independent by nature
Word Specialist
Perfectionist
Detail oriented

It's also important to note that most companies require candidates for telecommute MT positions to have on-site experience- as is the case with most all telecommute jobs. In many cases, 2 years of experience working in a hospital or doctor's office is required. If this is a field that you are truly interested in, getting those 2 years under your belt and then being qualified to telecommute is a pretty good deal.

>>Training Options

The second thing I found was that there sure were a lot of courses out there. They ranged in price from a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand! I was overwhelmed! It was then that I realized that I would need some help. I found a great place where working MT's hang out and support each other. If you are seriously interested in this field, you'll want to visit this site. It's called MT Stars (http://www.mtstars.com).

The course that I decided to recommend at 2Work-At-Home.com is offered by MedTrans, Inc., which has been in operation for almost a decade. Founder Mary Park-Youhanaie began by working from home as a medical transcriptionist. She saw the opportunities that medical transcription could offer to other individuals. When Med Trans, Inc. began hiring transcriptionists and then discovering that more training was needed, Ms. Park-Youhanaie decided to draw on her past as a college level educator and medical terminology training to develop Medical Transcription Made Easy.

Whichever course you choose, just be sure to do your homework by checking with the Better Business Bureau and asking for references.

The bottom line is, for the right people, Medical Transcription is the real deal when it comes to viable work at home careers.

Resources

MedTrans
http://www.2work-at-home.com/transcription

American Association for Medical Transcription
http://www.aamt.org/

MTStars
http://www.mtstars.com

Sharon Davis, Work-At-Home expert, author and consultant, helps people to achieve their goal of working at home, telecommuting or starting a home business. http://www.2Work-At-Home.Com List of other articles of interest: http://www.workathomearticles.net Subscribe: http://www.2work-at-home.com/subscribe.shtml

Medical Transcription - Is it a good opportunity?

Is medical transcription still a good income opportunity? The statistics below indicate that there are plenty of opportunities for medical transcriptionists.

According to the BLS, "Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population.... Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to amend patients’ records, edit for grammar, and identify discrepancies in medical records."

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountablility Act (HIPAA) has increased the need for more accurate record keeping or else stiff fines may be imposed. Medical Transcriptionists are needed to help health care providers comply with HIPAA.

Here's some more quotes from the U.S. Department of Labor:

• Job opportunities will be good.
  
• Many medical transcriptionists telecommute from home-based offices as employees or subcontractors for hospitals and transcription services or as self-employed, independent contractors.
  
• Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014.
  
• Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population. Older age groups receive proportionately 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 easily be shared 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. 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.
  
• In addition, reports transcribed by overseas medical transcription services usually require editing for accuracy by domestic medical transcriptionists before they meet domestic quality standards. Speech-recognition technology allows physicians and other health professionals to dictate medical reports to a computer that immediately creates an electronic document. In spite of the advances in this technology, the software has been slow to grasp and analyze the human voice and the English language, and the medical vernacular with all its diversity.
  
• As a result, there will continue to be a need for skilled medical transcriptionists to identify and appropriately edit the inevitable errors created by speech recognition systems, and to create a final document.

Hospitals will continue to employ a large percentage of medical transcriptionists.

Above are direct quotes from the web site of the U.S. Department of Labor, http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm#outlook

Rest assured. There are still plenty of opportunities for people who want to work at home as a medical transcription.

Medical Transcription - A Decent Living or a Scam?

Home Medical Transcription : A Decent Living or a Scam?
by Stephen Bucaro

No doubt you have seen many ads by medical transcription schools claiming that you can make big money typing medical transcription at home. Can you really make a good living doing medical transcription at home, or is it just another
scam? In this article, you'll learn the honest facts about home medical transcription.

Can you really make a decent living doing home medical transcription? Yes and no.

Yes - Many people are earning $50,000 to $80,000 or more per year typing medical transcription at home. They work
where they want, when they want, and as much as they want. The amount of medical transcription work that needs to be
done FAR exceeds the available transcribers to do the work. When I say the demand exceeds the supply, I mean the
situation is desperate.

No - Reading a few booklets and listening to a few tapes will not make you into an instant $50,000 per year medical
transcriptionist. If you're not ready to commit to between six months and a year of hard study and practice, find
another means of earning a living.

Typing medical transcription is not like typing a letter to your mother. It's far more challenging. Below are some of the challenges you must be prepared to meet.

1. You must have a good understanding of medical terminology. You need to know how to spell the names of the latest medical conditions, drugs, medical tests, treatments, and procedures, and just knowing how to spell them is not enough. Because of challenge #2 decribed below, you need to have some familiarity with medical conditions and what tests, drugs, and treatments are related to that condition. It's difficult to learn this with a mail order medical transcription course. This type of knowledge comes from experience.

You don't need to be familiar with ALL medical terminology. Many transcriptionists specialize in specific areas such as gastroenterology or opthalmology. However, when you want to go on vacation, you'll need someone else to take over your work while you're gone. In reciprocation, you'll need to cover for someone else when they go on vacation, and they may be transcribing to a different field than you're familiar with.

2. You need to be able to extract the transcription from a noisy electronic recording. Unfortunately, many doctors mumble, garble, don't enunciate, don't speak up, or talk too fast when they dictate. Combine the above problems with a thick, foreign accent and you can have real dificulty understanding what the doctor is saying. In many instances, the only way you will be able to decipher what the doctor is saying is if you are familiar with medical conditions and what tests, drugs, and treatments are related to that condition.

Doctors dictate "on the fly". They don't have time to think about proper sentence construction as the words emanate from their mouth. Frequently the sentence they started doesn't make any sense or has an error by the time they get to the end. Do you edit what the doctor said, or just type the jiberish as dictated? Usually a doctor appreciates when you clean up their dictation. On the other hand, medical documents are often presented as evidence in legal actions. You're taking on liability if you change what the doctor actually said.

Many transcriptionists have their own group of doctors that they type for and eventually become familiar with the
idiosyncracies of each doctor. This makes understanding what they are saying much easier; however, when a you go on
vacation, someone else will need to cover the doctors while you're gone. In reciprocation, you'll need to cover for someone else when they go on vacation. You won't be familiar with how the doctors dictate.

3. To make the earnings cited above, you need to be able to sit and type for long hours. You need to isolate yourself
from the noise and distraction of other human beings (and some pets) and pound on that keyboard hour after hour. As
I stated earlier, the amount of medical transcription work available far exceeds the available transcribers to do the work. Some transcriptionists let greed take control of them and sit at the computer for 16 hours seven days per week. They get accustom to a $100,000 a year lifestyle. But what does it do for their health?

Medical transcription companies charge more for "fast turn around". Some pass part of this money onto the transcriptionist, others just demand the work get done immediately. In either case, fast turn around work prevents you from controlling your own working hours.

Now that I've discouraged you, the fact is that many medical transcriptionists do work where they want, when they want, as much as they want, and earn a respectable living. If you're up to the challenge, how do you became a medial transcriptionist?

Training...

You'll need to be proficient in the use of a computer. You'll need to be a fast typist. If you can't type as fast as the doctor dictates, you'll be working hard with the foot pedal to move back and forth in the recording. You must be comfortable using a Word Processing application such as Microsoft Word or Workperfect. You'll need to know how to format documents and how to use macros. If you don't use macros you'll be typing the same phrases over and over.

If you decide to sign up for a medical transcription course, make sure the course provides plenty of authentic
dictations. You cannot become a medical transcriptionist by just reading medical terminology. You need to hear it
spoken. Just listening to terms being pronounced is of limited use. You need to hear the terms used in a sentence.
Simulated medical dictations are fine, but you need some practice with actual medical dictations.

Find a course that teaches basic anatomy and physiology along with terminology.

The best way to learn...

The best way to learn is with on-the-job training. If you have a doctor friend or family member who does dictations, ask them if you can transcribe a low-priority dictaion for practice. If you're working at a clinic or hospital as a secretary or receptionist, investigate how the transcription gets done and volunteer to help.

Start out with a specific type of transcription such as letters or office notes in specficic specialities. As you get more experience, your speed will improve and you can branch out into other types of transcriptions for other specialties.

The amount of medical transcription work that needs to be done far exceeds the available transcribers to do the work.
Yes, you can make a decent living doing home medical transcription. You can work where you want, when you want,
and as much as you want. But, medical transcription is an occupation only for those who are prepared to meet the
challenge.

Copyright(C) 2005 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit http://bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit
http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

Medical Transcription - job opportunities

In spite of the somewhat sluggish economy, in specific fields job opportunities are truly abundant and simply waiting to be tapped by qualified applicants. As a result of new technology and techniques, new skill sets are required but because the required skills have changed faster than the overall workforce, the numbers of qualified applicants has actually been decreasing for the past several years as workers rush to brush up and improve their talents in order to be considered "qualified" and in the mean-time, companies wait to fill these in-demand jobs.

From legal assistants or paralegals, pharmacy technicians and nurses, various training programs are now being made available for the public... including medical transcriptionist aspirants.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, becoming a medical transcriptionist represents one of the top ten job opportunities in the country. Medical transcriptionists are those people who create the legal documents which health care professionals like physicians, registered pharmacists, therapists, registered nurses, dieticians and chiropractors all rely on and use as reference materials.

The potential topics under which a medical transcriptionist could find themselves working in are incredibly varied and they range from Medical Terminologies, Medical Law and Ethics (HIPAA), In-Patient or Out-Patient Medical Transcription to Human Anatomy.

This wide range of potential topics is one of the big reasons why becoming a medical transcriptionist is not for just anyone. People who aspire to become medical transcriptionists need to undergo proper education from medical transcriptionist schools, which teach and train them in the various fields that they need to master in order to become a certified medical transcriptionist.

Medical Transcriptionist schools will also be able to help you better prepare for the Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) examination. Various medical transcriptionist schools offer training courses for potential medical transcriptionists. Aakers Business College, TechSkills, National College and PC Age are just some of the medial transcriptionist schools that can be found in the country.

Some medical transcriptionist schools even offer the option of training online via the comfort of ones own home. By simply having access to the internet, students from online medical transcription schools can actually access the available training modules and other medical transcription related materials that they will need in order to pass the medical transcription training.

More and more Medical transcriptionist schools are moving to this modern method of teaching because it expands their potential market due to the fact that many of their medical transcriptionist students are quite busy and value the option to take the medical transcription training at their own pace and being able to enjoy the convenience of setting their own schedules.

With the current high demand for medical transcriptionists, it's not surprising to see entrepreneurs jumping into the fray and taking advantage of this opportunity by setting up all sorts of medical transcriptionist schools... all geared towards training their students for an exciting medical transcriptionist career.

Apart from the necessary training that one acquires from medical transcriptionist schools, it's also important to note that any top medical transcriptionist will also possess excellent listening skills. Solid listening skills are truly and indispensable requirement in this field because medical transcription requires that the medical documents you are transcribing be perfect in every way possible. Health care professionals are relying more and more on those transcribed medical documents when it comes to going about their everyday business. Whether it be filling prescriptions or doing some type of research, it's simply vital that the transcribed information they receive is accurate.

Just a small slip or momentary loss of concentration could result in unexpected negative consequences for a patient because so many health care professionals rely so heavily on the medically transcribed documents they receive as the basis for making their diagnoses and prescribing medications.

Although the potential to earn a substantial income lures many into the medical transcriptionist field, it doesn't automatically mean that they are cut out for the position. To succeed you must be extremely dedicated, patient and be able to handle the weight of responsibility that comes with the title - Certified Medical Transcriptionist

Sabrina Hall is a contributing writer to:
http://www.total-transcription.com/
http://www.totalparalegal.com/
http://www.eyeonnursing.com/

Medical Transcription - Start up checklist

Below are some of the tasks involved in starting a secretarial service or medical transcription business.

• Write a business plan.
  
• Determine what services you want to offer. What medical specialty will you specialize in?
  
• Determine what kind of clients you want to target.
  
• Determine a space where you will set up your home office or select a business location.
  
• Purchase equipment and office supplies: computer, software, printer, desk, and computer chair, pens, paper, paper clips, and stapler.
  
• Choose a business name.
  
• Verify that the name is not used by someone else.
  
• Register your Fictitious Business Name (D.B.A.) if you will operate your business under a name other than your personal name.
  
• Check if the business name is available as a domain name (e.g. yourname.com) and register the domain name.
  
• Get a separate phone line. If you plan on advertising in the Yellow Pages, you may need a business line.
  
• Create sales/promotional materials.
  
• Design a logo.
  
• Design and print business cards.
  
• Design flyers or postcards.
  
• Design letterhead (print it from your computer).
  
• Design a fax cover sheet.
  
• Design invoices/sales receipts.
  
• Write sales letters.
  
• Design a web site or have one designed. Select a domain name and hosting company. Check out Five Star Web Design for affordable web design.
  
• Get an email address.
  
• Get a business license. (check with your city and state)
  
• Order Yellow Pages advertising and other advertising.
  
• Call everyone you know and introduce your business.
  
• Open a business bank account.
  

You will need to take additional steps if you'll have employees, a business partner, or will incorporate. Procedures vary from state to state. Check with your city and county to find out what legal requirements you'll have to comply with.

Refer to this checklist often when starting a secretarial service or medical transcription service to check what steps you'll need to take next.

* * * * * * * * * *

Resources

Get free business cards at Vista Print. Click here for more information.

Shop Office Depot for Customized Business Cards, Stationery, and More!

Medical Transcription - Rapid employment opportunities

There are distinct objectives to consider when trying to choose a career, including knowing yourself, knowing your options, knowing how you constitute decisions and addressing any barriers to your decision-making. Effective career decision-making requires an abundance of work and energy; this is necessary to establish some degree of satisfaction with your career choice. One such career that has emerged as fulfilling, provocative, well paying and in demand is medical transcription. The employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012. A growing and aging population will spur demand for medical transcription services.

Basically, a medical transcriptionist listens to dictated recordings made by a healthcare professional, and transcribes them into medical reports, correspondence, and other administrative info. While listening to the recordings, using pause techniques, sentences are keyed into a word processor, editing as necessary for grammar and clarity. Documents produced include discharge summaries, history and physical examination reports, operative reports, consultation reports, autopsy reports, diagnostic imaging studies, progress notes, and referral letters. These are returned to the health care provider for review, signature, or correction. These documents eventually become part of the patients’ permanent files, in addition to required insurance documentation.

To understand and accurately transcribe dictated reports into a format that is clear and intelligible for the reader, medical transcriptionists must understand medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, diagnostic procedures, pharmacology, and treatment assessments. As a result, medical transcriptionists should have completed postsecondary training in medical transcription, offered by many vocational schools, community colleges, and distance-learning programs. Completion of a 2-year associate degree or 1-year certificate program, including coursework in anatomy, medical terminology, legal issues relating to healthcare documentation, and English grammar and punctuation, is highly recommended, but not always required.

Working conditions are generally comfortable settings, such as hospitals, physicians’ offices, transcription service offices, clinics, laboratories, medical libraries, government medical facilities, or at home. Many medical transcriptionists work from home as employees for hospitals, and transcription services or as self-employed, independent contractors. The average salary for a medical transcriptionist is between $10.87 and $15.63. With experience, medical transcriptionists can advance to supervisory positions, home-based work, editing, consulting, or teaching.

With the increased demand for standardized records, there will be rapid employment growth in offices of physicians or other health practitioners, especially in large group practices. Medical transcription is a career that should fit your lifestyle, and bring you prosperity, and fulfillment.

Jay B Stockman is a contributing editor for Online Medical Transcription Services Visit http://theonline-medical-transcription-services.com/ for more information.

Medical Transcription - Equipment needed

What equipment do you need to operate a secretarial service or medical transcription business?

To start a secretarial service or medical transcription, you will need a computer, major word processing program, a printer, and one or more transcription machines, also called transcribers.

You don’t need a high-end computer to provide word processing and medical transcription services.

Most computers come with a word processing program. I recommend using Microsoft Word because most of your clients will use it.

You can get either an inkjet printer or laser printer. Many secretarial services and medical transcription services start their secretarial service with an inkjet printer because they are less expensive than laser printers. A laser printer provides better quality printouts and faster speed. You need a laser printer if you provide graphic design or resumes.

You may need a fax machine if your clients want to fax you work. At first, you can use your computer to send and receive faxes but you'll only be able to send faxes of documents you have in your computer.

To provide transcription services, you will need a transcription machine. Transcribers have a headset and foot pedal. The foot pedal allows you to stop and rewind the cassette while having your hands available for keyboarding. Until you have a transcription client, you won't know which size cassettes you'll get. Talk to your prospective clients before buying any equipment. Or call secretarial services and transcriptionists in your area and ask what size cassettes they are getting.

Transcription machines are available from Sony, Panasonic, Olympus, Lanier, Sanyo, and Dictaphone. Office Direct has a large selection of transcription machines at http://www.officedirectinc.com/SyStand.htm. Check local office supply stores such as Office Depot (http://www.officedepot.com) and OfficeMax (http://www.officemax.com).

You can buy new and used transcription machines, computers, and other equipment at a fraction of the cost at http://www.ebay.com.

Check out this web site for used equipment:http://www.mtdaily.com/ads.html
You can start your secretarial business with just a computer and printer. Buy additional equipment or software when a project requires it.

Medical Transcription - Transcribing teleseminars

Leva's Comment: If you are providing medical transcription or business transcription, consider transcripting teleseminars. Transcribing teleseminars and regular seminars is one of the best paying transcription jobs there is. Most people providing teleseminars do them on a regular basis so you'll get repeat business. Regular seminars and workshops provide you with a lot of transcription hours. They are not the easiest transcription jobs but they amount to large transcription jobs.

Here's the article indicating the demand for transcribing teleseminars.

* * * * *

Teleseminars programs are the number one most versatile method of building businesses available to consultants, authors, entrepreneurs, and marketing and training firms period. How can you maximize you teleseminar’s return on investment? This question was raised on Great Teleseminars newly launched blog “Daniel Janal’s Great Teleseminar Tips”, http://www.greatteleseminars.com/blog.

One of the ways is to offer transcripts from the seminar. If you aren't offering your customers the opportunity to order transcripts of your teleseminars, you are missing out on a golden opportunity to increase your income by a big factor. Transcripts can add another $10-$100 dollars to your bottom line for each transcript ordered. If you have 100 people on a call and 20 people order the transcript at $15, that's another $300 in your pocket. The rates you charge should depend on the quality of your content (more for harder to find information) and the audience (more for corporate markets with site licenses).

What is a transcript?

Quite simply, it is a word-for-word printed account of your teleseminar. As we talk much more informally than we write, it is a good idea for you to clean your transcripts up for grammar and style. When you look at a seminar transcript, you might see that you've re-started sentences, stumbled over words, or have become redundant. By editing your transcript, you can make yourself sound masterful.

By editing your transcripts, you can also add other material that you forgot to include in the seminar. You might have great thoughts that come to mind, but you couldn't fit them into the live teleseminar. Now, you have the opportunity to add those gems to the transcript.

You can also add additional sales and marketing materials to the transcript to provide you with opportunities for additional income. Of course, any site you have mentioned during your talk will be a live hyperlink, so you should be sure to include your affiliate programs if they are relevant to the session.

How do you sell transcripts?

There are several ways to sell transcripts.

1. Offer the transcript as part of the initial ordering options.

2. Offer the transcript as an upsell after they order the seminar. This is what marketing guru Alex Mandossian calls the "Want fries with that" strategy. He reports a very high conversion rate when he offers the transcript on the up-sell page, or order confirmation page.

If your shopping cart doesn't have an up-sell page, I highly recommend using http://www.MyEasyOnlineStore.com

Dan Janal has been called the Larry King of Teleseminars. He is the president and owner of Great Teleseminars Audio Production Studios, http://www.GreatTeleseminars.com and PR Leads, http://www.prleads.com He has produced more than 500 teleseminars for speakers, authors, trainers, coaches and businesses.

Medical Transcription - Transcription guidelines

Transcription is one of the most profitable services you can provide in your secretarial service. You can provide medical transcription, legal transcription, and business or general transcription.

Provide these guidelines to your transcription clients to get quality transcription work, avoid time delays and mistakes, and reduce transcribing fees.

1. Use a good quality microphone. Position the microphone near all speakers.

2. Check the batteries in the dictation equipment.

3. Use tapes designed for voice dictation. They filter out background noise. Demagnetize and clean tapes regularly.

4. Erase the tape before dictation and indicate the end of the transcription to avoid transcribing old materials.

5. Rewind the tape to the beginning of the dictation.

6. Dictate in a quiet environment. Turn off the TV and radio. Distance the microphone from air conditioners and fans. Avoid noise, music, and acoustics in restaurants, outdoors, and airplanes.

7. Speak clearly. Instruct people not to talk simultaneously. Identify all speakers.

8. Don't eat or drink when dictating.

9. Discuss the purpose of the transcription and style preferences with the transcriptionist. Do you want a verbatim transcript for legal purposes? Do you want to include sounds like uh, um, hmmm? Do you want to indicate laughter and long pauses?

10. Avoid delays and costly revisions by spelling unusual words and words with questionable spelling, i.e. Kathryn, Katherine, Catherine, or Caterine. Provide supporting documents and words the transcriptionist may not be familiar with such as technical terms, names, streets, and cities.

Instruct your transcription clients to provide you with a high quality recording to get an accurate transcript at the lowest possible price.

* * * * * * * *

Looking for typing work at home? Start a secretarial business. The Secretarial-Business-in-a-Box provides instant tools you need to start and run a successful secretarial service. Free articles and business start-up newsletter at

http://www.startasecretarialbusiness.com.

Characteristics of a Quality Medical Transcription School

First and foremost, a good medical transcription school will have a comprehensive curriculum designed specifically for medical transcription training. This does not mean some off-the-shelf program that mixes and matches curriculum and study material from a hodge-podge of medical and non-medical sources. You are looking for a solid A to Z curriculum that was designed by Medical Transcriptionists specifically for medical transcriptionists. There is a big difference. You don’t want a version of anatomy that is adapted from a veterinarian course. Yes, this sounds crazy, but you would be surprised at what you will find out there!

You are looking for a medical transcription school that teaches you the medical terminology, human anatomy, physiology and disease processes, abbreviations and plurals, and a host of other foundation material — all from a medical transcriptionist’s perspective.

Second, and of no less importance, the medical transcription school that you select must have an extremely strong focus on practical application. All the text-book training in the world is insufficient without a strong practicum to go along with it. Sitting in a classroom without applying what you are studying would be like memorizing vocabulary and learning to conjugate verbs in a foreign language and then assuming you could immediately go to that country and speak fluently with the natives. It just isn’t realistic. It takes a lot of practice before you can start actually doing it well.

The best medical transcription schools will not graduate you until you can demonstrate a level of practical competency. And guess what? The way many doctors dictate reports is more reminiscent of a foreign language than anything else. Slurred speech, poor grammar, rapid wording, and run on sentences only serve to exacerbate an already complex and specialized language — the language of medicine!

But in the end, the best way to select the right school is to find out where the national medical transcription employers are recruiting. You can rest assured that they are doing their homework. They will not be in the habit of hiring graduates from institutions that have not proven themselves capable of producing productive graduates. Getting a good job with a great company is really what counts isn’t it? In the ideal world you want the employers to come to you!

About the Author

Chris Dunn created http://www.medicaltranscriptionschool.com in order to help stay-at-home-moms, and others, to find a great career that can fit into their schedules. Visit his site to learn more about this awesome career path.

Is Medical Transcription Certification Necessary?

Becoming a certified medical transcriptionist is really a personal choice. At present, there is no requirement for MTs to become certified at this time.

To become certified you will need to pass an exam given by the AAMT (American Association of Medical Transcriptionists). This is a two part exam, written and practical and takes about 5 to 6 hours to complete. It is a very in depth exam and most MTs take a prep course before taking the exam.

The exam consists of two parts. The first part is a written exam which consists of 120 multiple choice questions about anatomy, physiology, medical terminology, English and grammar, etc. The second part of the exam is a practical test where you transcribe several different reports.

Once certified it means you can use the letters “CMT” (certified medical transcriptionist) behind your name. You must recertify every 3 years.

Certification is highly regarded in some circles of the MT field and some MTs believe it opens doors for better opportunities.

Personally, I feel medical transcription certification is a personal choice. Although, certification gives you the opportunity to prove your skills as an MT, not being certified does not take away from them.

I have never run across a physician or account manager who has asked me whether I am certified or not. They are merely interested that I can efficiently complete the work, follow all the privacy regulations and charge them a reasonable rate.

I don’t know of any MTs who have lacked opportunities due to not being certified either. Again, the choice is a personal one and for some it is a great sense of personal achievement.

If you do decide to become certified, it will be a great personal achievement. It will take a time and financial commitment. At present, the AAMT fee for the CMT exam for US and Canada is $195 US dollars for AAMT members and $275 for non AAMT members. You must also have 2 years experience working as an MT.

Mila Sidman is an experienced MT and owner of http://www.AskTheMT.com -an informative website dedicated to answering all your medical transcription questions.

Medical transcription - what is medical transcription?

Medical Transcription is the process of interpreting and transcribing the dictation made by doctors or other health care professionals regarding patient status, treatment procedures, diagnoses, prognoses, etc. With medical transcription of dictated data from physicians, the medical transcriptionist may also edit the text that is produced by voice recognition software. Medical Transcription is the translating of dictations made by a doctor. As a result, it requires an extensive knowledge of medical, pharmacological and anatomical terms.

In the past medical transcriptionists would listen to dictations and type it themselves, but with the dawn of technology and voice recognition software, this has become unnecessary and today, for the most part, the medical transcriptionist merely edits the output of the software. However, the editing process can range from a few corrections to major changes because voice recognition software still hasn't been perfected and probably never will be due to the wide variety of speech variations and dictating habits of health care professionals.

Aside from medical knowledge, a quality transcription requires a transcriptionist to have excellent listening skills because they must be able to simultaneously interpret dictation while typing, they must also have an exquisite knowledge of English and grammar, proofreading and editing skills, a high state of analytical skills in order to analyze and convert spoken words into meaningful writing, as well being adept in the use of transcription equipment and computers.

Medical Transcription has been seen as writing in ancient caves and in documents of lost civilizations, but still the purpose of medical transcription and the medical transcriptionist remains the same and that is to keep a record of a patient's medical status and treatment.

However, it wasn't until the late 20th century that Medical transcription was recognized as a profession. Initially, those who did medical transcription were labeled as typists, word processors, medical secretaries or dictating machine operators. This was and still is a highly unjustified job title for those who practice medical transcription because the profession requires a wide knowledge of medical terms. Thus, in 1999, Medical Transcription was assigned its own job classification and those practicing it were officially called medical transcriptionists.

Medical Transcription as a profession is very underground and most people might not have heard about it. However, medical transcription is an essential profession in the every growing health care industry... especially to health care staff that does not have the time to put into writing every single bit of information that they gather from patients. As a result, the demand for qualified medical transcriptionist professionals is continually growing and because the number of new procedures coming into the market doctors don't have the time to transcribe all their findings.

Medical Transcription as a profession is very versatile as well. Medical transcriptionists, can acquire after a few years of education, work from medical transcription firms. Medical Transcription firms receive dictations made by doctors and in turn, these orders are turned over to medical transcriptionists to be transcribed.

A medical transcriptionist can also work full or part-time at home. Currently, the American Association for Medical Transcription is governing body in the United states that certifies Medical transcriptionists, although you won't need a certification to be able to work as one, a certification form the AAMT, will surely increase you're "market value" and credibility.

Medical transcription is no longer merely listening and transcribing the words dictated by a doctor. Medical Transcription is evolving and now requires specific education centering on medical language, knowledge of Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, anatomy, physiology, disease processes, medical science and procedures, medical instruments, pharmacology, laboratory instruments, laboratory test results, medical reference material techniques and many more.

Kevin Erickson is a contributing writer for: http://www.total-transcription.com and http://www.eyeonnursing.com and http://www.totalparalegal.com.

Online Medical Transcription Course? The Truth

Online Medical Transcription Course? The Truth.
by Chuck Huckaby

Should you take an Online Medical Transcription Course?

The question has at least 2 right answers... depending on YOU!

The answers are:

Yes, if you want a career that can be completely home based and let you earn up to $30,000 per year (or more)!

No, if it's the WRONG career move for you.

If it's the WRONG move, then taking an Online Medical Transcription Course (or off line for that matter)

If you're NOT cut out to be a medical transcriptionist, you could invest $4,000 in books, software, and training (not to mention a brand new computer) and never make a penny doing medical transcription.

So, for better or for worse, I'm going to try to tell you how to decide if an Online Medical Transcription Course is right for you.

From our experience, your choice in an Online Medical Transcription Course should be based on the credentials of the owners of the school.

There are many Medical Transcription schools online and off line that turn out a completely inferior transcriptionist.

In other words, such schools are good at taking your money but not producing qualified trainees.

When Renee chose a school, she chose one where the owners conducted a free orientation at our local community college. Even though the couse was entirely online, it was sponsored by the community college.

Community colleges tend to be so "image conscious" we were sure they'd never sponsor anything remotely "interesting" or "relevant" to the work at home field if the program weren't entirely legitimate. In fact we later learned this program was approved for retraining people who'd lost factory jobs. Is your school state approved for training workers?.

So when the owners were endorsed by working with our community college, we were fairly certain their Online Medical Transcription Course was "for real". If you're just taking a course without such a local endorsement, you may want to investigate DOUBLY HARD.

But there's more to this. A local community college can be wrong. We also suggest going to a school where the owners RAN A REAL MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION BUSINESS... preferably one contracted with a hospital or other large clients with a variety of medical specialities.

It's one thing to type for a single, slow speaking, courteous physician in one specialty. It's another thing entirely to type for 50 doctors from New York City who come from 10 different countries and represent 20 different specialties!

Rest assured though that the owner of an Online Medical Transcription Course who served large multi-specialty practices will know how to produce competent transcriptionists who can live anywhere, work over a DSL line, and make a good living. If you hope to do the same, you need THAT kind of training and NOTHING LESS!

The owners of Renee's school had the air of professionalism about them. They didn't dodge questions. They had plenty of "war stories" about the field and were honest about the earnings potential.

This leads me to another point. If a school says you can make $100,000 per year easily... run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.

To be safe, "on average" according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical transcriptionists earn around $30,000 per year.

Some will earn much more... if they have exceptional typing speed, exceptional hearing, and exceptional desire. Our owners had some transcriptionists who earned $50,000 to $100,000 but that wasn't the norm. Most just wanted a nice, stable income with a certain amount of flexibility.

While it's ok for schools to use their "in house" text books, for the most part, the texts studied and software used should be "off the shelf" commercial grade software and recognized medical texts. In the real world, you will need to upgrade software get new books as new medicines come out, etc. You can't rely on any single school to be expert in all the fields you'll need to master as a transcriptionist so - like a college - a great Online Medical Transcription Course should show you were to get current expert resources in the "real world". Schools only use 100% proprietary curriculum to maximize their own profits. You should be able to buy your materials somewhere besides the school to make sure you're getting the best deal too.

Finally, an Online Medical Transcription Course that's honest about the difficulty should do PRE-SCREENING of applicants.

Orientations, pre-study assessments, sample lessons etc. should be required.

Why? Medical Transcription requires as much pure knowledge as any other medical field. One complaint my wife heard was a fellow student saying "I thought I'd just be typing, not have to go to medical school!" But, really, it's like going to medical school for 3 to 12 months depending on whether you're full time or part time and how hard you'll work. No slackers need show up! This is not a nice slow paced typing job. It's a critical time sensitive component of the medical field with quick, 99.9% accuracy required! Many will not pass the test and you should test yourself to see if you will LOVE doing this work or fail out because you're really bored by it all! No school will turn away people who insist on paying, but some effort should be made to make people understand the magnitude of the task ahead!


Let's summarize: Legitimate Online Medical Transcription Courses should have these characteristics:

1. Owners should have a state approved school if possible 2. Owners should have real world experience in a multi-specialty environment
3. Owners should have been frustrated with the "average graduate" of other schools
4. Owners should be honest about the earnings potential 5. Owners should use recognized expert texts not just their own in house publications 6. Owners should prescreen applicants to screen out those who will just be wasting their money.

Chuck & Renee Huckaby publish an page related to Online Medical Transcription Course information that goes into these and other issues regarding being a medical transcriptionist more deeply and welcome your visit.

Chuck Huckaby publishes 1stHowToWorkAtHome.com. He and his wife Renee publish an information course about whether to enter medical transcription and how to succeed in the field if it's right for you... or how to avoid losing $4,000 by choosing the WRONG Career!

medical transcription - starting a medical transcription business

As a medical transcriptionist, I do get asked several times a month, how I got started in this business. So many people nowadays want to work from home, especially mothers with young children. That's the primary reason I started my home business ten years ago, so I could be there for my daughter. I didn't want someone else taking care of her after school instead of me.

It's really not hard to start a medical transcription business. The start-up costs are low compared to many other home-based businesses.

You need a form of education, via home study courses or by attending your local community college. You do NOT need a degree in medical transcription to start a business either. In a short amount of time, usually nine months or less, you can be working from the comfort of your own home, just like me.

You will need some equipment, such as a computer, a printer, a transcriber, and some reference books. All of which can be purchased second hand if need be. The latest and greatest equipment is not necessary to get started.

Now, there are some special skills you will need, outside of the education, which include:

* Excellent grammar skills

* Good Listening Skills

* Basic computer skills with a word processing program

* Research Skills

* Ability to type - your speed will increase with experience

* Must be detail oriented

* Ability to work on your own

* Ability to maintain work deadlines and be a self-motivator You will also need some computer programs such as a medical spellchecker and a word expander utility to cut down on the amount of actual typing you do. Some programs, such as Microsoft Word® include this type of utility. It is the best invention by far, in my opinion.

Basic bookkeeping is necessary, but not difficult. A good bookkeeper is great to have when it comes to taxes and advising you about saving money with tax deductions for your business.

Medical transcription is usually paid by the amount of work transcribed. Therefore, it is quite normal to charge your clients by the line. If you charge 13 cents per line and type 200 lines per hour, (this is a very comfortable speed to type) your hourly rate would end up being about $26.00.

Being self-employed does have some pitfalls. One must consider, as with any home based business, that once you become self-employed you are responsible for securing your own health insurance, and putting away money for retirement.

However, there are many positive things about being self-employed, as I'm sure you can imagine. For me, what I love the most, is the flexibility I have with my time. If I want to work late in the day I can, and if I want to work early in the morning, that's up to me. Running a home-based medical transcription business is a lot of fun.

Medical transcription is not for everyone, and it is important before venturing in to any business that you weigh up the pros and cons of it all and do what is best for your situation.

Michele Miller is a home-based business owner and author of an Ebook about starting a medical transcription business. Click here for more information about starting a medical transcription business.