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Anyone a medical transcriptionist?/Know "At Home Professions"

IreneLF

IreneLF

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Location
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A friend and I attended a seminar last night sponsored by "At Home Professions", a business that offers an accredited course to become a medical transcriptionist.

Does anyone work as a transcriptionist either working from home or employed outside the home? Would you recommend it? Do you enjoy the job?

Anyone have anything to say about At Home Professions? We plan to do research about them but was looking for any first hand knowledge.

Thanks,
Irene
 
My husband types court transcripts for British Columbia courts. Not sure if they have the same system in the US but here in British Columbia, all court proceedings are digitally recorded. He then downloads the files, sticks his headphones on and types a verbatim transcript.

I did this for quite a few years when my children were younger, then when Greg blew his back out and had to leave his profession, I trained him. I then moved on to my practice and he works from home, which is good as he has other medical problems that would make it difficult for him to work a "regular" job. I still help out once in a while and refer to typing transcripts as my "night job."

The pros are obvious. The commute was great and you didn't need much of a work wardrobe - LOL!

The cons are not so obvious. If you are working around your children, it can be challenging to get work done. You must be extremely self-motivated to do this. I can remember working after my children had gone to bed, say 8:00 or so until late into the evening, then getting up at 5:00 to get more work done before getting they were up for the day. Or having to work all weekend because something is needed for Monday morning.

I also had a friend who looked into the medical transcription field - the course was tough because of the vocabulary. I've heard that medical transcription is difficult because doctors are not at all conscious of speaking up when they dictate - it's tough enough in a courtroom when you have a clerk there reminding everybody to speak loudly - I can't imagine transcribing a doctor mumbling for hours and hours.

Hope this helps a bit.
 
I am a medical transcriptionist. Please visit www.aamt.org (our national association) and read the important information on choosing a school and education approval. It is extremley important to choose the right school in order to get a job after completing the coursework. Feel free to email or PM me and I can give you loads of information.
 
My best friend and her daughter were both Medical Transcriptionists. Now only the daughter does it and sporatically at best. They have found that the hospitals are going to voice recognition systems now and that leaves little for them to do. My friend's other daughter has worked for a private group of docs for 15 years and still does their transcription for them from home even though she lives in MD and they are in NJ. I would not start this as a career now with many voice rec systems in place already and more are set to come in the future.
 
Thank you both for the info. The voice recognition issue was brought up at the seminar and poo poohed, so it is good to get a different point of view.

Thanks for the link. I've been reading the website and I get a better picture of how this works and exactly what certification you should have. This school's program would not do it. I've passed the relevant info to my friend as well.

irene
 
My wife (originally trained as an RN) compelted a medical transcription course a year or so ago, but has never attempted to work in the field. Bevause of her medical background, she did not find it too difficult. What we did do was to start looking at some web sites, BBS, etc. devoted to the profession and found that the really big competition right now is the sending of the work off-shore. Just as with many other thngs, it is jsut as easy to transmit a digital file to someone in Pakastan as it is in the US and to send the completed documents back just as easily. Clearly there is still job oportunity in the field, but you may want to find onf of the BBS and correspond with some in the filed before signing up. Here are a couple:
http://www.mtdaily.com/
http://www.mtgab.com/
Good Luck !
 
Thanks Frank,
Appreciate the feedback. Hadn't heard the outsourcing scenario before, but that makes some sense.
Although the medical field is growing in general, it seems transcritption is not something to first get into now, given what I"m hearing.
Thanks all,
Irene
 
I would not start this as a career now with many voice rec systems in place already and more are set to come in the future.

The statement above can be very misleading. What a lot of people fail to understand about our industry is:

1. Yes, there is voice recognition but there will always be a need for a live person to check these medical records. VR does not catch all the nuanaces, etc. of someone's speech, not to mention ESL (English Second Language) providers. VR does not handle ESL well at all. A lot of MTs are now becoming MT editors and Quality Assurance professionals.

2. Yes, there is outsourcing to other countries because there is a shortage of qualified MTs in the US.

However, there are several approved schools that have hundreds of students in their programs and graduates are finding great jobs with good pay. It pays to do your research to find the right program. AHDI has a voluntary certification program with 2 levels depending on experience.

I love what I do and we try to make the general public aware that we are not simply "typists." Our knowledge base is extensive in medical terminology, pharmacology, body systems, laboratory, etc.

MT has been a "hidden" profession for decades because a lot of us work from home. We are making strides to show the healthcare industry who we are and that what we do is vitally important to the industry. As the electronic medical records (EMR) becomes viable in the next several years it is important to maintain quality of the record. A mistake in your record will get transported to many other systems, thus making it difficut to correct.

Indeed, every patient has the right to read their own medical record and I strongly encourage everyone to do so.
 
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