Medical Transcriptionist
Program Information
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In your job, you listen to physician dictation and then transcribe it into a document that becomes part of the patient's permanent medical record. A doctor's dictation can be about almost anything related to patient care: consultations; discharge summaries; history and physical; letters; surgery and procedure reports; progress notes; and radiology reports. Transcriptionists are also referred to as "medical language specialists" who develop a good "ear" for medicl erminology and can recognize and understand words that might seem foreign to others.
But transcription isn't just listening to doctors read off reports. Unlike court reporting, which provides an exact record of what was said, medical transcriptionists often must edit and "make sense" of dictation. Good language and grammar skills help transcriptionists document what the doctor has described on the dictation equipment. While keyboarding skills are a must, good transcriptionists understand medical terminology, exercise good judgment, understand enough about medical diagnosis to recognize inconsistencies, ask questions, and verify information.
Medical transcriptionists can work in a variety of places and in a variety of ways. Many transcriptionists work in the medical records departments of hospitals. Others may work for physician offices or long-term health facilities. Still others run "freelance" businesses and work for a limited number of clients or only when needed. Some work for insurance companies.
Entry-level medical transcriptionists earn $9 to $10 per hour.