What Can I Do As a Certified Medical Transcriptionist?

Certified medical transcriptionists have gone through either a two-year associate program or a one-year certificate program to become qualified for their position. They also need two years of experience working in acute care doing dictation for specialty surgery areas. They typically are required to take pre-employment tests to begin working for clients. The job is appealing to people with significant family obligations because they can work from home, although they do need a designated office space in order to give their work their full attention.

Salary

• Whether a medical transcriptionist works from home or in a physician's office plays a role in her salary. An office worker typically puts in a standard 40-hour week, whereas someone freelancing at home can work as many hours as she wants. Transcriptionists get paid by the amount of lines they transcribe or hours they work. The average wage for a medical transcriptionist was $15.41 per hour in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Independent contractors typically do not receive any type of benefits, although employees in physicians' offices may.

Career Outlook

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a strong job outlook for medical transcriptionists through 2018, although some jobs are being outsourced to India. Employment is expected to rise about as fast as average compared with other careers. Medical transcriptionists can find jobs with clients who typically include specialists, chiropractors, medical doctors and dentists. They may find work in hospitals as well.

The Transcription Process

• Medical transcriptionists write what doctors dictate from recordings, although they may not copy it down verbatim. The recording may include bits of unrelated conversation, jokes and personal messages to the transcriptionist that she is not meant to transcribe. The transcriptionist is responsible for sorting out what is relevant for transcription.

Job Duties

• Medical transcriptionists play an important role in the health of the patient. They must effectively transcribe medical jargon and need to be familiar with it. A spelling mistake can easily mean a patient receives the wrong treatment. Medical transcriptionists who know what they are doing can help ensure that paitients are correctly diagnosed and treated. They are expected to learn enough about medicine that they can see inconsistencies and correct them to help keep patients healthy.

Other Skills

• Medical transcriptionists who work in offices may take on some duties of a medical receptionists including sorting mail and answering the phone. A strong knowledge of English is a necessary skill for medical transcriptionists. Some work with traditional technology involving transcribing dictation through a headset with a foot pedal that can pause and replay, in which the report is generated from the transcriptionist. Others work with newer equipment employing speech recognition technology, in which the doctor's dictation is electronically translated into a draft report that the transcriptionist must format and double-check for grammatical and spelling errors.