Career in Medical Transcription
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Medical Transcriptionist is a person who assists physicians by transcribing, formatting, and proof reading their dictated medically oriented report of a patient’s health history. Medical transcription is an interesting and challenging career. It is the process whereby one accurately and swiftly transcribes medical records dictated by doctors and others, including history and physical reports, clinic notes, office notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries etc. Usually, the information dictated by doctors is recorded either into tape or onto digital voice processing systems. The process of medical transcription is transferring this information from voice to text.
Medical transcriptonists must possess the following essential attributes:
- Familiarity with medical terms
- Good typing skills
- Excellent listening skills
- Excellent command over English
- Ability to grasp different accents
- High level of concentration over long periods of time
Those aspiring to work from home should definitely have a look at this career. Housewives or those who have some compulsion to stay at home can make a career in medical transcription and can get decent returns too. In some companies, which offer ‘work-from-home’ opportunities, transcriptionists can opt to work out of home once they have reached the required level of proficiency. Home transcriptionists are allowed to retain files for a maximum of six hours from the time of download. The editing starts as soon as they upload the files. It is very important to stick to deadlines.
There are various courses available both part time and full time which one can pursue as per ones convenience. Those who are already working can opt for a part time course. The overall duration of the medical transcription training program varies anywhere from 18 months to 2 years, depending on the organization and the fee structure also varies based on the level of training offered by companies. The medical transcription training faculty comprises of doctors who are associate professors at medical schools, experienced MTs (medical transcriptionists) and English language teachers.
Apart from having convenient timings, medical transcription jobs pay very well. At entry level, medical transcriptionists are paid around Rs. 5,000 per month, which can exceed to Rs. 20,000 per month within two years. As a trainee, though, you’ll get about half of that. As you climb, you’ll get to become a reader and progressively, an editor, levels at which salaries will climb.
While considering a repute medical transcription career, it is important for any individual to make proper researches. A person can easily find authenticated medical transcription companies or training centers that offers quality training to candidates from the Internet. With less than six months of training, a person can head towards respectable earnings with varying professional medical transcription career prospects