Are You Cut Out to Work at Home in Medical Transcription Mom?

This is not my story - it's my wife's story. I'm a writer among other things. She's the home medical transcriptionist! She had been working in medical offices for 30 years and wanted a change - namely to work from home. This was just the opportunity she needed to pursue a dream... to work at home doing medical transcription. Here's what we learned together about this process.

Unlike most articles you'll read, this one could save you thousands of dollars.That's what it will cost you to get trained in medical transcription. That's money you'll have wasted if the field is really not for you.

For starters, you need to know who employs medical transcriptionists these days. Please note that many "telecommute" using DSL or other broadband internet connections so one does not have to live "near" any of these entities to work in the field.

• Doctor's offices or clinics
• Hospitals
• Transcription services
• Radiology and pathology departments
• Insurance companies
• Medical libraries
• Government
• Legal offices
• Veterinary medical facilities

There are other smaller niche markets, but you'll discover them once you get working in the field.

Now that you've seen the variety of companies that hire folks to do Home Medical Transcription Work - how can you know if you really want to do this before investing $4,000 in training and tools?

First, people ask me often, is it possible to get medidcal training in transcription and work from home? Yes, if you have the right knowledge and training.

In fact, if you have a DSL connection you can make decent money from anywhere in the United States doing home medical transcription. No, all the work ISN'T going overseas! Industry insiders say that soon, Home Medical Transcription will be joined with Medical Coding to be an even better opportunity.

Before we go any further, let me reiterate something. This is not "armchair speculation" about Home Medical Transcription Work.

Everything written here is based on my wife's efforts to create her own Home Medical Transcription business and what we learned along the way.

It's like "reality TV" without the TV and eating crawling, slimy bugs I suppose...

So what are the prospects for home medical transcription (or any transcription job for that matter)? Everyone fears that all the work is going overseas.

One local doctor told a young person I know that voice recognition software would elminate the job. It's just as likely that videolinks to major teaching hospitals can eliminate local doctors, but I don't see the medical schools hurting for patients. But here's the prospect NOW according to the facts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Job Outlook

Job opportunities will be good. Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014. 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 easily be shared among providers, third-party payers, regulators, consumers, and health information systems. Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to amend patients' records, edit documents from speech recognition systems, and identify discrepancies in medical reports.

Contracting out transcription work overseas and advancements in speech recognition technology are not expected to significantly reduce the need for well-trained medical transcriptionists. {Emphasis added...}

Earnings

Medical transcriptionists had median hourly earnings of $13.64 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.50 and $16.32. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $9.67, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $19.11. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of medical transcriptionists in May 2004 were:

General medical and surgical hospitals $13.83
Offices of physicians 13.40
Business support services 13.40

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.

Here are two quick tests to determine whether home medical transcription is a possible career for you. Together they won't cost over $100. It's better to spend this small amount than sink thousands of dollars into training, books, and software then never use it!

Here's the first test:

Can you type quickly? or Can you learn to type quickly?

If you haven't typed in a while or have never typed, see if your local adult education, public library or One Stop Career Center have typing instruction software to test yourself and/or get your typing up to speed.

If you can only type with one finger per hand, this ISN'T the career for you.

Failing that, try a typing program. They're pretty cheap online.

OK, you can type.

Now what's the second test?

Can you learn the Language of Medicine?

You have to know every bit as much about medical language as the physicians you type for... sometimes it will seem you know more if you are a multi-speciality transcriptionist.

Before getting into training that's completely over your head so much that you freak out and quit, give yourself a head start. It's expensive at $55 but not as expensive as starting a course and quitting!

Besides, if you get this and are in the Oak Horizon's course (see link below), it's one less book you'll have to buy. I learned about it through Oak Horizons. Here's the book: The Language of Medicine with Animated CD Rom

If you can type quickly and the medical language intrigues you instead of frightening you, then you're a GREAT candidate for home medical transcription! Congratulations.

Best of all, you can participate in a class and KNOW you are qualified. It's not because you were "suckered in"!

What about training?

My wife was fortunate to learn from the folks at Oak Horizons. This was an "online" course that she managed to do mostly on dial up, but the company is headquartered locally and so we had personal access to whomever we needed.

The course is online but offered in connection with local community colleges.

Otherwise, there's no "online" medical transcription course we can really talk about from experience.

My wife's biggest problem due to our contacts was finishing school - she was tempted to quit because she started picking up clients right away!

Most students weren't so fortunate because they weren't marketing and promoting themselves. That's what made all the difference in the world for us.

But even if you don't have contacts, your training provider can help. Ours was a great resource linking students to companies who hire folks to work at home in medical transcription.

If you're an aspiring work at home mom and have passed the tests I've given, home medical transcription may be just the field for you.

What if you don't meet these tests? At least you haven't wasted thousands of dollars on learning a career that you can't do and won't love!