When working as a medical transcriptionist you will absolutely need a medical dictionary. It will save you loads of research time. The best one we have found is Stedman’s Electronic Dictionary.
This product is in the neighborhood of 100 dollars but it is well worth it.
Here is the link to learn more or purchase:
Q: What can a “newbie” MT expect to earn after graduation?
A: I don’t have a simple answer for questions on beginning income for post graduate students who are placed by Med Workshops. When you work from home in this field, you are not on an hourly or salary pay scale. I know you will earn at least 5 to 7 cents per line depending on the company and the difficulty of the transcription they would like you to do. I don’t know how fast you will be or how many hours you will work. For instance you might want to work 10 hours, but the company only has 8 hours of dictation- or maybe it will be vice versa.
Rule of thumb on this is- give yourself three months or so to earn and learn after graduation. If possible, keep your other job if you have one. This is a tough field to learn. However, once you gain some experience you will begin to enter what the MT calls “the zone”. You’ll be able to do your MT typing without struggling at it or maybe it’s that you won’t have to think as hard. Because of auto correct, macros and your growing skills, you will begin to fly through your transcription. This is a new language and also, a hand, foot, eye and ear bit of coordination. The people who are really good, belong in another league and earn very good money. They can also find work almost anywhere in the U.S. quickly.
What is internship really like? Here’s what a newly graduated student/intern had to say:
“It feels good to be wrapping everything up and moving on to actual transcription!!
I just finished my internship last Friday so I will actually get paid for all the work I did this week. Yea! I am enjoying learning tons of new information but I would definitely never say that this process is easy. Xxxxxxxx Company most definitely expects you to figure out a lot of things for yourself. Unfortunately the only way to do so is trial and error, but I suppose they expect the new people to make mistakes. I was transferred to a new crew this week, which will be my permanent crew. The proofer, Pat, has been great!! She is very helpful and answers all my questions in good detail. I can tell that I will learn a lot from her. I am up to doing about 60-70 minutes of dictation a day which takes me 4-5 hours and keeps me very busy since I still have a full time job as well. I still struggle with some doctors that don’t speak clearly or who use a lot of unfamiliar terminology. When I get assigned those doctors I only do about 30 minutes of dictation. I’m starting to feel more comfortable with my work and am looking forward to improving my speed and being able to transcribe many doctors. I will keep you up to date on my progress!”
Students should be ready for a minimum of 6 hours a day for internship. Any less time and they will never get a feel or rhythm for it. This is a crucial point. Medical Transcription Typing – transcription- is in large part a rhythm skill. It isn’t just absorbing facts, it’s also gaining understanding and work rhythm. The speed comes from the rhythm. Given less time daily on Mentored Internship, the intern will never gain comfort which leads to speed.
Q. What kinds of reports will I be typing in an entry level position as a Medical Transcriptionist?
A. Most entry level positions are found working for doctors in private practice who dictate office notes, letters, initial office evaluations, and history and physical examinations.
Office Notes: The physician will dictate this after talking with, meeting with, or examining a patient. It is sometimes also called progress note, chart note, SOAP note, or followup note, and it is a description of the patient’s problem, physical findings, and the physician’s plan of treatment. It sometimes may include laboratory tests. They vary in length from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages.
Letters: The physician will often use a letter, still considered a medical document, to provide information to another doctor, insurance companies, or government offices regarding a patient.
Initial Office Evaluations: This is dictated after the first visit of a patient and is similar to the History and Physical Examination.
History and Physical Examinations (H&P): This report is more formal than an office note and includes information in regards to the patient’s chief complaint, history of present illness, past medical history, family and social history, review of systems, and the physical examination.
Other reports that may be typed include Consultations (when one physician refers a patient to another), Emergency Room reports (when patient has been seen at the emergency room in the hospital), Discharge Summary (when patient leaves the hospital), and Operative Reports (report of operation performed). Although these are not common in entry level positions, they may be required from time to time.
Q: I read in some places that as an MT we are supposed to correct reports. Other places state that an MT should type exactly what is said. What is the correct thing to do?
A. Training should be based on verbatim transcripts, so students will learn to type exactly what the dictator says, which is first and foremost in this career. The task of a medical transcriptionist is to convert medical dictation to accurate and complete medical reports. Accuracy of medical content is the most important requirement and should be the top goal of every professional medical transcriptionist. Transcripts may differ in format and style, but there should be no difference in medical content. Newbies who attempt to change things may not recognize that what they are doing could also be changing the meaning. Therefore, until a person gains experience in the field it is most important to type verbatim. At Med Workshops, we train our students to become familiar with this concept from the very beginning.
Q: My spellchecker was on when I typed my chart notes, but now the Proofreader is telling me that I missed some words or “guessed” at some terms. I am really upset! Does this mean that my spellchecker is bad?
A: No, it does not mean that your spellchecker is bad, but it does mean that you are totally reliant upon this tool and not proofreading your own work before turning it in. For the most part, a medical spellchecker will help you by catching most errors, but only in spelling, not in meaning! It should never totally replace the skills you need to develop to check your own work. This is what separates MTs from Robot Typing Machines. For example, there are many terms within medical transcription that sound alike, or that the spellchecker will recognize as a medical term. But this does not mean that the word you chose was the correct one for what you were typing. It merely means that it is a medical term and is spelled correctly, but you have to be the one to decide if that term is being used correctly. If you are not 100% sure, then you must leave a blank. Never guess, or simply use a term because it passed your spellchecker.
Q: I had some personal errands that I had to do today. What happens if I can’t turn my work in on time?
A: The nice thing about working from home as a medical transcriptionist is that you can plan your days according to your personal schedule. However, this job is not unlike any other job, and work that has been assigned to you must be completed and turned in when due. We cannot tell a physician that their work was not completed because our MT had some personal errands to run. You will need to schedule your day so that all tasks, personal and work related, can be completed.
Q: I have been looking into those word expansion programs and am thinking about purchasing one to help increase my speed and productivity. What would you recommend?
A: Personally, I would say don’t waste your money! I did when I first started in this career and found it to be one other thing that was too difficult to make work. What I would suggest is to go to the Internet or your nearest office supply store and pick up an inexpensive book on the Microsoft Word program you have and learn all about auto correct! Word expansion programs are actually nothing more than a glorified auto correct which you already have in Word. Make that your best friend – learn how to use it; how to insert words, sentences and even paragraphs that will help you in your medical transcription typing.