RSSWork as a medical transcriptionist from home!
Working from home can be a very exciting, lucrative, and viable alternative to the nine to five grind, especially in today’s economy. Sometimes, though, we tend to romanticize the experience. We dream of ourselves, after having become financially independent, sitting on our 100 foot yacht, eating shrimp cocktail somewhere in the Bahamas for most of the year, while only doing one day of work a week. While I’m not going to rule out that possibility, though I’m still not there, I am going to say that working from home does take more effort than we think.
Take medical transcription, for instance. It doesn’t sound terribly difficult (how hard can it be to write down what people say), and the general idea isn’t, but it does require fastidiousness to details and some formal training. The training and attention to detail, however, are essential steps to succeed in the business and, if you are serious, will make your work at home experience that much better.
When medical personal talk, diagnose, take notes, discuss, and do their work, they need to record that information for a patient’s medical history. The work of a transcriptionist is to put this information into a patient’s medical records. This requires not only attention to detail, both visually and aurally, but also training in the terms and procedures.
Why be fastidious about detail?
Medical records, as you can well imagine, are vital to a patient’s health. What would happen if the doctor was talking about administering the patient Zantac but the transcriptionist wrote it down as Xanax? You’d get a hyperactive heartburn sufferer, and probably a lawsuit to boot. In other cases, it could be far more life-threatening. So it is critical that you pay fastidious attention to detail.
How much can a medical transcriptionist make?
According to answers.com, medical transcriptionists can make between $10.22 to more than $17.06 an hour. If you are fully trained with certification by a college, or the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity, you can make anywhere between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, depending on whether your work part or full time.
Why do I need training?
As with any profession, this one has its own jargon, technical terms, short-hand, and slang. If nothing else, you need to be familiar with those terms. The methodology of recording this information, combined with the seriousness of the subject matter, necessitate formal training. The nice thing, though, is that you can get training in various formats today. You can go to a traditional college and receive training there, or you can do the training from online universities or courses. If you do it that way, you’ll be able to schedule around it and make it work for you. Some of the coursework might include:
- Anatomy
- Medical terminology
- Medical law
- Physiology
- Pharmacology
Do your research!
When you are looking for a training program, you’ll want to make sure that you know what you are getting into, so you don’t get scammed and so that you get the highest quality education that you can for this next step in your career. Because you’ll be working with language, you’ll want to find a program that has strong courses in English grammar. Other things you’ll want to look for include: anatomy and physiology courses, pharmacology, and lots of practice with dictation tapes from real medical professionals. It is important to get as much practice as you can in before you actually start up!
Once you get trained and certified, then you’ll be able to start freelancing from home and making money! In your certification process they will give you good information on where to look to start getting contracts and you’ll be able to find out who you can talk to to get good information.
Filed Under: Work From Home
August 4, 2011 at 2:46 am |
Wow, this is in every respect what I neeedd to know.
August 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm |
Whomever wrote this, you know how to make a good article.
October 17, 2011 at 2:05 am |
Stands back from the kebyorad in amazement! Thanks!
October 17, 2011 at 1:07 am |
Why do I btoehr calling up people when I can just read this!
October 17, 2011 at 2:08 am |
I was looknig everywhere and this popped up like nothing!