What Determines The Time It Takes to Transcribe a Medical Report

Transcribing a medical report is not the same as typing. You listen first, understand the dictation, research unfamiliar terms, then type. Unfortunately, the process is sometimes time-consuming. A minute of recording can take anywhere between 10-15 minutes to transcribe. But what determines the time it takes to transcribe a medical record?

Since a lot of transcription services charge by the hour, it’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of the factors that affect transcription turnaround time.

1. Regional Accents
The stranger the accent of the physician, the longer it will take to transcribe the medical report.

2. Number of Speakers
If the physician is dictating inside a noisy place,  it will be more difficult to transcribe the report.

3. Experience
Experience plays a big role in transcription time, for e.g., knowledge of a subject (familiarity with medical and drug terms) can greatly reduce research time and improve transcription speed.

Familiarity with the phycisian’s style and the words they commonly use will also help improve transcription time and accuracy.

4. Speed of Speech
 If the physician speaks really fast and with very few pauses, the recording will definitely take a lot of listening and proofreading.


5. Use of Technical Terms
Physicians that include very technical terminologies such as anatomical and pharmaceutical terms require a thorough research for the spellings used and therefore will take longer time to transcribe.

6. Your Typing Speed
If your typing at the speed of even at least 50 wpm, it would approximately take you 10-15 minutes to jsut transcribe a 1-minute audio file. But if you have a typing speed more than this, you could finish transcribing approximately 8-10 minutes.

7. Audio Quality
Recordings made without using microphones most of the time have that background noise or ‘echo’. These recordings need several rounds of listening and therefore take longer to transcribe.

Here is a simple/ideal guide to a medical transcriptionists turnaround time for a 1-minute audio dictation:

A simple recording (with no background noise, audible voice, and familiarity with the subject) will take approximately 10 minutes: 5 minutes to transcribe, 3 minutes to edit, and 1 minute to proofread.

But for Complex dictations (heavily saturated background noise, inaudible speaker, unfamiliar terms, and strong accents)will take approximately 15 minutes to finish: 8 minutes to transcribe, 5 minutes to edit, and 2 minutes to proofread.

It helps to know what determines the time it takes to finish a medical report.