Medical Transcription Training - Is A Medical Transcription Career Right For You?

Medical Transcription was one of the type careers that could only be done in the office of a physician or hospital at one time. However, since the career field has gone from the micro-cassette tapes to digital transcription the jobs have opened up for those wanting to work at home.

Medical Transcription is a career that is interesting to work in. You will be listening to the physician’s notes in regards to how the patients visit went on things such as symptoms, diagnosis, referral tests, and much more. Many notes are in regards to the results of tests done by radiology, blood work, etc.

Each report has its own report format for the type medical care they receive. Other words a GYN might have a little bit different format than an Oncologist might have.

The main thing is learning the terminology and report formatting. Of course there is more to it then just that, however that is the main thing you would be learning.

Now that Medical Transcription has went from tapes to digital you can live in one state and work from home for a doctor or hospital that might be thousands of miles away from you. This is because it can be delivered through your computer, Internet and the Dr.’s server.

It is important to know that when working at home it does take strict self discipline, self motivation and the ability to be organized. You would not have anyone telling you when to work or make sure you meet your deadlines.

While your typing speed is important in Medical Transcription; accuracy is a MUST! Your typing speed will determine how much you make per hour on average. Even though you are usually paid by the character line it still averages out per hour. However, your accuracy can determine if you have a job or not. They will only allow a 2% error in most cases. This means your accuracy must be a 98% or better to work at home as a Medical Transcriptionist. Of course you can use a typing tutor to improve both your accuracy and your typing speed. There are also text expander programs you can use to help with the typing speed part of things.
If you are considering a career in Medical Transcription it is important to do your research! There are many good schools both online and offline. However, watch out for the scams. Make sure the company has been established for several years or more. Also make sure they are willing to give you a physical address of where they are located. While both online courses and offline courses are good, we recommend using a course that is mainly on cd’s. The reason for this is because web servers can go down and if you are depending on studying on your schedule which might be limited if you already work full time; then you do not want to plan on studying online and then find that a server might have went down temporarily.

You can use Dial up, however we recommend by the time you are working for a doctor to have fast internet such as DSL, Cable, or Satellite. This makes your files download much faster.

To do Medical Transcription (digital) you would need a Digital Foot Pedal / Transcriber. These are not the ones with tapes. These play .wav files.

A Medical Transcriptionist can make a good income working at home. The income can have a wide range depending on where your doctor is located, how fast you can type and how many hours you work each day / week. The average for starting out is around $15 - $17.00 an hour. After a few years; many Medical Transcriptionist can make up to $23.00 + an hour. When you factor in not paying for fuel back and forth to the office, office wardrobe, etc. you actually are making more money with all the money you save.

A lot of people say they want to work at home to be with their children. While this is possible, it is important to know that when you are working at home it is just that “work”. You can’t work at home transcribing medical records and have your children yelling in the background. It is very important to either schedule your time around your kids or have a family member or friend come in and help with child care while you get your work done. Also, let others know when you’re planning to work so that they do not interrupt you with requests to run to the store, run errands, etc.

It is very possible to work at home with children; you just have to manage your schedule. This is where you’re organizing skills and self discipline will come in handy.

Here are some great keywords to use when searching for Medical Transcription Schools:

Medical Transcription Course Medical Transcription Schools Medical Transcription Class Medical Transcription Training Course Medical Transcription At Home Medical Transcription Training with Job Assistance

Make sure the Course / School you take does offer Job Assistance to help you through your 1st year at least. There are jobs out there for Medical Transcriptionist that are new, however it does help when you have assistance from the course / school you take your training from. Remember that every experienced MT had to start brand new to get their experience.