Misconceptions and Truths About Medical Transcription

There have been many misconceptions about medical transcription. Some say it provides a good source of income, while others say it gives them the time to spend quality time with their children working at home. But the whole true story is nothing compared to that.

All the sweet talk about medical transcription is all very tempting and darn too delicious to bite, and before you realize you've past to the point of no return. Here are some misconceptions and truths about medical transcription which you may want to ponder before pursuing a medical transcription career.

1.  Medical transcription offers a good source of income. It is now a misconception due to the fact that more and more physicians are now using EMRs which in effect reduces dictated files for medical transcriptionists. Remember, medical transcriptionists live by the number of dictated files, and so when dictated files are depleted, our source of income is also depleted.

2.  Medical transcriptionists are still in demand. Ask any medical transcriptionist you know and ask him, "If medical transcriptionists are still in demand, why is it that the salary is decreasing?" The answer lies within the Law of supply and demand. The increase of medical transcription schools and companies increases people who train and employ for medical transcription. In effect, more there is more competition over the number of dictated files that needs to be dictated and a decrease in the pay rate. Not to mention there's now EMRs competing with medical transcription services.

3.  Medical transcription offers you to work at your own pace. In reality, there is what we call TAT or turnaround time. Which means we need to complete a minimum number of reports in a time period. So if you work at your own pace any time of the day, you will find it hard to reach the minimum quota.

4.  Medical transcription is an easy job. Who ever told you its an easy job? Here, every dictation is treated as a challenging job as some dictations are hard to transcribe and most drugs and anatomic terms are quite difficult to decipher.

5.  Medical transcription is just a typing job. Its not just any typing job. Its a special typing job. You have to train for this job. Everybody knows how to type, but typing the correct words is another story. In medical transcription, the words you are typing must be coherent with the topic of the report. Otherwise, you produce an error which will damage the whole report itself, in return affects the physician's assessment.

6.  Anybody can be a medical transcriptionist. The supposed basic qualifications to be a medical transcriptionist is that a person only needs to have an excellent knowledge in english and good typing speed. But in fact, there are many skills a medical transcriptionist must possess. He must be well trained and knowledgable in the medical field, this is where the successful are differentiated from the unfortunate.

7.  Medical transcription is just like Data Entry. In medical transcription, you must have well atuned skills such as listening, hearing, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary and plain common sense.


8.  You can spend quality time with your family if you work at home. When you work at home, there's two things you will have to worry about. One is your work, and the other is your home. Consider this example. A stay-at-home mom with 3 kids has two work for pay and at the same time take care of her children. But which one is more important? Her work? or her children? She can't do them both right? So why spend your working hours at home if you're already busy at home? In short, Working at home might distract you doing you work. That's reality. You can't choose both.
    I am not discouraging you to take up medical transcription as your career choice, I am just giving you points to ponder so that you can have a better grip on the decisions you make. In turn, this decisions will shape your future. Whether, you want to become a medical transcriptionist or not is all up to you.

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