Monday, August 10, 2009

Challenging Work Found in Medical Transcription

By Jan Snewo

Medical transcription is not a field for the faint of heart. Requirements include the expected and the unexpected. For example, it is expected that a job applicant will have a working knowledge of medical terminology, including physiology and anatomy terms, pharmacology terms, and the names of many diseases. But the truly professional medical transcription worker will also be familiar with the latest technology of speech recognition.

Transcription services are always looking for qualified individuals who can handle the work. Though medical transcription as a field does not yet have formal requirements, the individual with the best chance at being hired will be in possession of a one year certificate program diploma or even a two year associate's degree.

How so? Typically, a patient consults a doctor once or twice a year. In this visit, the physician asks probing questions, discusses ongoing or new problems, performs an exam, and possibly orders some lab work done. A diagnosis may be made, treatment options discussed. When the patient has exited the office, the doctor records all of this into a hand held recording device, which will later be used by the medical transcription professional.

Medical transcription services utilize the services of a trained professional to convert spoken medical dictation into typed text. This document is essential to the patient's continued care. After the professional has produced it to the doctor's satisfaction, the text is entered into the patient file, to be reviewed at the next visit.

Transcriptions of video or audio files, whether for the corporate world or the hospital milieu, necessarily require workers who have been well trained. Transcription services workers will normally be trained in a community college setting. But there are other options: online courses, certificate or diploma programs, or old fashioned on-the-job training.

In a non-hospital setting, or a non-doctor's office setting, medical transcription jobs involve the meticulous recording of medical consultations, pre-surgical exams, medical exams for liability insurance or even disability claims. This latter may, of course, also involve legal transcription services. In all cases, familiarity with medical jargon, as well as basic anatomy and physiology, is a must.

In the past, doctors did not avail themselves of professional transcription services. They would jot down hand written notes to themselves, often using indecipherable hand-writing, or worse yet, personal abbreviations, which made it impossible for other care-givers to figure out a patient's medical history. Thankfully, today things are different. Providers of medical transcription services receive doctor's dictation via digital or analog equipment. Sometimes directly through their home computer!

Whether the medical transcription services professional chooses to work from home via "tele-commuting," or in a clean and comfortable modern doctor's offices, this career is in demand and provides an indispensable service.

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