This is a warranted question asked by a lot of people who are thinking about learning how to become a medical transcriptionist. The field of medical transcription is a huge one. You have general transcriptionist as well as specialized transcription experts. In my opinion, I’d say that the whole field of transcribing medical records is such that it will continue to grow as long as the medical field grows. And everyone knows that with the health care crisis this country is facing along with the threat of Obamacare being initiated, there should be more than enough medical transcription jobs to go around.

So if you find yourself asking the age old question of “Is there a need for Medical Transcriptionist”, you can be assured that in most areas, there will always be a need for hard working, experienced medical transcription personnel.

That’s not to say all areas have openings. It pays to do you due diligence and check out your local areas. I’ve heard that in some Metro areas that there are surplus of certain types of medical transcribers, but have not had first hand experience with this as of yet. Since I can’t possibly know the employment conditions in all areas, it will pay for you to check around before obtaining medical transcription training. It would be a sad thing to go through all that training only to find out there are no openings in your area.

Can I get Hired on With a Medical Transcribing Service in My Area?

You should first seek out a medical transcribing service to see just how good or bad your local job market is. But don’t take their word as gospel. Some services will tell new applicants anything to get them hired on and then tell them there is not work and try to shuttle them off doing something else, usually for a lot less money.

If you do decide to hire on to a medical transcribing service, do check their background out before signing on. Look them up with the Better Business Bureau as well as independent sources like Angies List. You may just find out that they are a new applicant mill running people through just to get low paying labor. Most legitimate medical transcribing companies will be happy to give you references and will probably even let you talk to some actual employees in the field.

Medical Transcriptionist Job Outlook

Job opportunities will be good. Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012. Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population. Older age groups receive proportionately greater numbers of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that require documentation. A high level of demand for transcription services also will be sustained by the continued need for electronic documentation that can be easily shared among providers, third-party payers, regulators, and consumers. Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to amend patients’ records, edit for grammar, and identify discrepancies in medical records.

Contracting out transcription work overseas and advancements in speech recognition technology are not expected to significantly reduce the need for well-trained medical transcriptionists domestically. Contracting out transcription work abroad—to countries such as India—has grown more popular as transmitting confidential health information over the Internet has become more secure; however, the demand for overseas transcription services is expected to supplement the demand for well-trained domestic medical transcriptionists. Speech-recognition technology allows physicians and other health professionals to dictate medical reports to a computer that immediately creates an electronic document. In spite of the advances in this technology, it has been difficult for the software to grasp and analyze the human voice and the English language with all its diversity. As a result, there will continue to be a need for skilled medical transcriptionists to identify and appropriately edit the inevitable errors created by speech recognition systems, and create a final document.

Hospitals will continue to employ a large percentage of medical transcriptionists, but job growth there will not be as fast as in other industries. Increasing demand for standardized records should result in rapid employment growth in offices of physicians or other health practitioners, especially in large group practices.

How Much Does A Medical Transcriptionist Make?

Medical transcriptionists average an hourly earnings of $13 to $18 in some larger metro areas. The middle 50 percent earned significantly more than newbies. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $12 per hour, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $20. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of medical transcriptionists in 2012 were as follows: General medical and surgical hospitals $16.20, Offices of physicians 17.00, Business support services 15.42

Compensation methods for medical transcriptionists vary. Some are paid based on the number of hours they work or on the number of lines they transcribe. Others receive a base pay per hour with incentives for extra production. Employees of transcription services and independent contractors almost always receive production-based pay. Independent contractors earn more than transcriptionists who work for others but have higher expenses than their corporate counterparts, receive no benefits, and may face higher risk of termination than employed transcriptionists.

What kind of medical transcription training do I need? What Are the Requirements?

Employers prefer to hire transcriptionists who have completed post secondary training in medical transcription, offered by many vocational schools, community colleges, and distance-learning programs. Completion of a 2-year associate degree or 1-year certificate program including coursework in anatomy, medical terminology, legal issues relating to healthcare documentation, and English grammar and punctuation is highly recommended, but not always required. Many of these programs include supervised on-the-job experience. Some transcriptionists, especially those already familiar with medical terminology due to previous experience as a nurse or medical secretary, become proficient through on-the-job training.

The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) awards the voluntary designation, Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT), to those who earn passing scores on written and practical examinations. As in many other fields, certification is recognized as a sign of competence. Because medical terminology is constantly evolving, medical transcriptionists are encouraged to regularly update their skills. Every 3 years, CMTs must earn continuing education credits to be recertified.

In addition to understanding medical terminology, a medical transcription job student must have good English grammar and punctuation skills, as well as proficiency with personal computers and word processing software. Normal hearing acuity and good listening skills also are necessary. Employers often require applicants to take pre-employment tests.

With experience, medical transcriptionists can advance to supervisory positions, home-based work, editing, consulting, or teaching. With additional education or training, some become medical records and health information technicians, medical coders, or medical records and health information administrators.

What are the working conditions for Medical Transcriptionist?

The majority of these workers are employed in comfortable settings, such as hospitals, physicians’ offices, transcription service offices, clinics, laboratories, medical libraries, government medical facilities, or at home. Many medical transcriptionists telecommute from home-based offices as employees or subcontractors for hospitals and transcription services or as self-employed, independent contractors.

Work in this occupation presents hazards from sitting in the same position for long periods, and workers can suffer wrist, back, neck, or eye problems due to strain and risk repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. The pressure to be accurate and productive also can be stressful.

Many medical transcriptionists work a standard 40-hour week. Self-employed medical transcriptionists are more likely to work irregular hours—including part time, evenings, weekends, or on-call at any time.

What is the job outlook for Medical Transcriptionist?

Medical transcriptionists held about 101,000 jobs in 2002. About 4 out of 10 worked in hospitals and another 3 out of 10 worked in offices of physicians. Others worked for business support services, offices of other health practitioners, medical and diagnostic laboratories, outpatient care centers, and home healthcare services.

Medical transcriptionists listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other healthcare professionals and transcribe them into medical reports, correspondence, and other administrative material. They generally listen to recordings on a headset, using a foot pedal to pause the recording when necessary, and key the text into a personal computer or word processor, editing as necessary for grammar and clarity. The documents they produce include discharge summaries, history and physical examination reports, operative reports, consultation reports, autopsy reports, diagnostic imaging studies, progress notes, and referral letters. Medical transcriptionists return transcribed documents to the physicians or other healthcare professionals who dictated them for review and signature, or correction. These documents eventually become part of patients’ permanent files.

To understand and accurately transcribe dictated reports into a format that is clear and comprehensible for the reader, medical transcriptionists must understand medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, diagnostic procedures, pharmacology, and treatment assessments. They also must be able to translate medical jargon and abbreviations into their expanded forms. To help identify terms appropriately, transcriptionists refer to standard medical reference materials—both printed and electronic; some of these are available over the Internet. Medical transcriptionists must comply with specific standards that apply to the style of medical records, in addition to the legal and ethical requirements involved with keeping patient information confidential.

Experienced transcriptionists spot mistakes or inconsistencies in a medical report and check to correct the information. Their ability to understand and correctly transcribe patient assessments and treatments reduces the chance of patients receiving ineffective or even harmful treatments and ensures high quality patient care.

Currently, most healthcare providers transmit dictation to medical transcriptionists using either digital or analog dictating equipment. The Internet has grown to be a popular mode for transmitting documentation. Many transcriptionists receive dictation over the Internet and are able to quickly return transcribed documents to clients for approval. Another emerging trend is the implementation of speech recognition technology, which electronically translates sound into text and creates drafts of reports. Reports are then formatted; edited for mistakes in translation, punctuation, or grammar; and checked for consistency and possible medical errors. Transcriptionists working in areas with standardized terminology, such as radiology or pathology, are more likely to encounter speech recognition technology. However, use of speech recognition technology will become more widespread as the technology becomes more sophisticated.

Medical transcriptionists who work in physicians’ offices and clinics may have other office duties, such as receiving patients, scheduling appointments, answering the telephone, and handling incoming and outgoing mail. Medical secretaries, discussed in the statement on secretaries and administrative assistants elsewhere in the Handbook, may also transcribe as part of their jobs. Court reporters, also discussed elsewhere in the Handbook, have similar duties, but with a different focus. They take verbatim reports of speeches, conversations, legal proceedings, meetings, and other events when written accounts of spoken words are necessary for correspondence, records, or legal proof.

How To Become A Medical Transcriptionist

What Is A Medical Transcriptionist?

An individual who performs medical transcription is known as a medical transcriptionist or an MT, or (less frequently), a medical transcriber. A medical transcriptionist is the person responsible for converting the patient’s medical records into typewritten format rather than handwritten, the latter more prone to misinterpretation by other healthcare providers. The term transcriber also describes the electronic equipment used in performing medical transcription, e.g., a cassette player with foot controls operated by the MT for report playback and transcription. In the late 1990s, medical transcriptionists were also given the title of Medical Language Specialist or Health Information Management (HIM) paraprofessional.

What Are the Requirements To Be A Medical Transcriptionist?

There are no “formal” educational requirements to be a medical transcriptionist. Education and training can be obtained through traditional schooling, certificate or diploma programs, distance learning, and/or on-the-job training offered in some hospitals, although there are foreign countries currently employing transcriptionists that require 18 months to 2 years of specialized MT training. Working in medical transcription leads to a mastery in medical terminology and editing, MT ability to listen and type simultaneously, utilization of playback controls on the transcriber (machine), and use of foot pedal to play and adjust dictations – all while maintaining a steady rhythm of execution.

Where can I find Medical Transcription Jobs?

Jobs in as a medical transcriptionist are on the increase. The medical field is experiencing explosive growth in most areas which means that the job outlook for this field is very enlightening. Jobs in metro areas are in big demand and most new medical transcriptionist find jobs through placement programs with the school where they are students. Some larger medical facilities such as hospitals will hold job fairs, so it pays to stay up to date and in contact with the human resources department of the places you want to work in your area.

Do Medical Transcriptionist Have To Be Certified or Licensed?

While medical transcription does not mandate registration or certification, individual MTs may seek out registration/certification for personal or professional reasons. Obtaining a certificate from a medical transcription training program does not entitle an MT to use the title of Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT). The CMT credential is earned by passing a certification examination conducted solely by The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) as the credentialing designation they created. The AAMT also offers the credential of Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT). According to the AAMT, the RMT is a lower-level credential than the CMT. In addition to their certifications, the AAMT also offers training programs to aspiring transcriptionists. In lieu of these AAMT certification credentials, MTs who can consistently and accurately transcribe multiple document work-types and return reports within a reasonable turnaround-time (TAT) are sought after. TATs set by the service provider or agreed to by the transcriptionist should be reasonable but consistent with the need to return the document to the patient’s record in a timely manner. Whether one has learned medical transcription from an online course, community college, high school night course, or on-the-job training in a doctor’s office or hospital, a knowledgeable MT is highly valued.

Where Can I Get Training To Become A Medical Transcriptionist?

A Medical Transcriptionist is constantly challenged to learn in a very exciting occupation with interesting, ever-changing subject matter. There is always new medications and new procedures, previously unstudied specialties to learn, and new doctor-specific phraseology, accents and ESL to master. This is why it’s so important to research and choose the school where you’ll receive your medical transcriptionist training at very carefully.

As of March 7, 2006, the MT occupation became an eligible U.S. Department of Labor Apprenticeship, a 2-year program focusing on acute care facility (hospital) work. In May 2004, a pilot program for Vermont residents was initiated, with 737 applicants for only 20 classroom pilot-program openings. The objective was to train the applicants as MTs in a shorter time period. (See Vermont HITECH for pilot program established by the Federal Government Health and Human Services Commission).

How Much Medical Transcriptionist Salaries?

High school diploma or GED, plus range of 1 to 3 years’ experience that is directly related to the duties and responsibilities specified, and dependent on the employer (working directly for a physician or in hospital facility).

Salaries are usually paid on a per hour rate, but some places will pay a straight salary or on piece work. It pays (no pun intended) to find out before accepting work. You can expect to make anywhere from $10 to $20 an hour as a medical transcriptionist.