# Medical Trascription anyone?



## fransean (Dec 21, 2002)

I have been looking for work at home opportunities and wondered if anyone has experience in medical transcription from home? I know that there is training needed and sounds like it can be expensive. I don't want to start something like that unless the end result is worth it.

Bev


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

I have been a medical transcriptionist for 8 years, and it is not easy, but if you really want a way to make money at home and are willing to work hard for it it is worth it. I was lucky enough to get my classes in at the community college before they cancelled the classes, but I hear the local ROP still offers the classes. You also have to pretty much "kiss off" the first six months of work as training and don't expect to make a lot of money, but then you are rolling once you have developed your ear. There is no class that can do for you what just hours on the system will do. The classes are intended to teach you some basic format and rules and basic medical terminology, and then you find out that there are 10 words for one, and every doctor uses a different one. I don't want to discourage you, but you have to commit yourself to quite a bit of frustration and keep in mind that there is a light at the tunnel. I have seen way too many women get into thinking that it is only typing and it will be easy, but it is definitely a way to make decent money (based on your skill - you are paid by the line) at home and have a lot of flexibility. I will be glad to answer any other questions.


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I have been in it for nearly 19 years. Thing I'm seeing now though is that since we are going to speech recognition, almost everyone is going to it, there is not enough work to keep everyone busy as it was when we just typed. Yes, you can make good money, but you have to put in very long hours in which to do it. I work 12 hours a day 3 days and week and 8 hours a day the other 4. I never see a day off and we are making LOTS of money, but the hours it takes to make it are incredible and if your account doesn't have any work at the moment, you have to "flex" and come back and try to make it up before the end of the pay period. Some places require you work so many holidays per year, whether you have plans or not. I am getting to the point that I wish I was no longer a transcriptionist. I don't have any free time anymore.

I was better off working for someone else.

That said, a great school to learn this is Andrews School of Transcription. She also teaches coding. She's got a test on her website and you take the test. If she feels you have the skills necessary, she will take you on as a student. If you don't pass the test, she won't take you on and she has been a transcriptionist for 30 years, so she knows what she's talking about. She also has this test on there so that you can save your time and money if it is not a good thing for you. She doesn't want to cause anyone to speak against her school after they paid for the course and then didn't do good at it.

Good luck to you if you decide to do this. I also am willing to help people get into it. For some folks its a wonderful thing. It was for me for a very long time, but I'm getting way burnt out on it.


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

And I don't work nearly as much as you or for as many years, and electronic charts and voice recognition will eventually put us out of work unless we do editing. I also used to get paid by the gross line and now the 65 word count is the norm, about a 20% cut in pay or in my case like you said more hours. Used to be able to take care of the kids and only work three to four hours a day, now it is five to six. I think medical transcription will be around for a while, but work is getting scarce depending on how the agency is set up. With mine there is plenty of work the first week of the pay period and then you have to fight for it because all the girls that took the week off before are now on and hogging everything. I wish I could do all my lines in the first week, but not enough time and my fingers have pretty much had it, been typing for a living for 22 years now, and they are not as nimble as they used to be. Medical transcription could be for you, really depends on how much time and money is involved in your personal case.


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## fransean (Dec 21, 2002)

Wow, thanks for all the input. I am going to have to think about this and look into that school you mentioned. Taking a practice test at this point would probably help.
Any more information that you think would be helpful is great.

I am hoping that this might be the "portable" work option that would fit my needs.

Bev


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## vicki in NW OH (May 10, 2002)

M-TEC is another good training school. Andrews and M-TEC are the 2 best schools. I am enrolled in M-TEC and almost done with the course. They also have a preenrollment test, and their placement rate is 98-100 percent.


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

The portability!! I am hoping to move out of state eventually, and I can go anywhere I want, with internet!! Are you on DSL? I am limited by being on satellite. Some of the nicer formats are on a VPN, and require true high speed, both up and down, DSL, cable and fiberoptics of course fit this bill, but satellite does not due to the slow download speed. When we make the move high speed internet will be at the top of the list; it improves your speed and thus your hourly rate!!


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## KindredSpirit (Feb 16, 2006)

Rowena and dunroven, how are you seeing Electronic Medical Records impact the industry?


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## Matt B (May 15, 2008)

I'm coming from a different point of view. I'm currently a Healthcare IT Director and I can say it won't be too many years before Voice Recognition will be so available that even the smallest Dr's office will have it. Although there is a certain "stubbornness" coming from the older docs that don't want to go towards more digital/paperless offices. Of course as the years go by there will be fewer and fewer of those docs as well. It may be useful for another 10 to 15 years but I can't imagine it lasting much longer than that.


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

Electronic charts and voice recognition will put us out of work. I agree the older doctors are being stubborn, but only a matter of time. I am sure they are teaching all the new doctors to use electronic charts for acute care (hospitals) and voice recognition or doing it themselves for clinical. My endocrinologist has a lap top he carries around with a template and he just hen pecks his way through and completes it as he is talking to me. No transcriptionist needed there. Voice recognition is hard for a lot of doctors, but my pediatrician is a clean careful speaker and has figured it out. I am hoping we have at least five to 10 years, but who knows. It really depends whether they force the doctors to go to in the hospitals, and I know the clinics are having to cut back somewhere, though I still do a lot of high end clinics who prefer to pay for it, but something will come along that will catch even their attention eventually. I would say to look into coding, much better pay, but a lot of the technology is rolling transcription, coding and billing all into one. A savings I hope we see passed on to us, but I doubt it. What do you think Matt?


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I thought at first that maybe it was just because I was so used to doing things the old way and didn't want to change, so I drug my heels but finally have moved into the world of Voice Recognition, ASR, as some companies call it, or speech recognition.

I have DSL, so it is definitely faster, but here's the thing that I have figured out, or at least think I have. Basically same number of patients are being seen, same number of reports being dictated, twice as many transcriptionists trying to do the same amount of work, and only half as many transcriptionists are now required (with the voice recognition). For many years we were sold the bill of goods that since we could do voice recognition twice as fast, we would make at least as much money and could possibly double our earnings. I never believed that, but I did try it and I do like the voice recognition as it just saves a little wear and tear on your hands, but basically, we are getting half the work since the same number of people are vying for the same number of jobs. This means we have to sneak in every second we can JUST to earn the same paycheck we were doing before.

There is, in my not so humble opinion, no way to make a good living doing this anymore. UNLESS, you work the night shift, and then you get a differential, but its really stressful to try to work that shift, especially if you have anything else at all going on in your life.

I too would value Matt's opinion.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

I don't do this, but my best friend does. She makes very good money at it and she has plenty free time. The difference with her though is that she doesn't do this for her own business. She works for United Health Services which in our area includes two of our biggest hospitals and all their little clinics. Her job mostly is transcribing x-rays and she picks up overtime whenever she needs it. Her employer pays for her computer and DSL connection and anytime she needs something replaced they do that too. She wears out her keyboards! 

She is able to work from home and run her own homesteading business of selling fiber, homespun yarn, eggs and now is getting certified to sell homemade mixes. One good thing about working for someone else doing the medical transcription is that she has all the same benefits as anyone else working a job because she is. She can sign on her computer early in the morning and be finished work by noon. Plenty of time to tend to her critters and she doesn't have to drive to the city to her job. She does have to go to inservices regularly though. 

Another thing is that some of the other people that work for the same employer have moved with their jobs to other states and still work for them and do the same job. 

I hope this gives you another option of doing this for a living. I'd do it, but I do not have DSL and that is something you have to have. 

katlupe


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

The problem with doing the job like your friend has, is that you have to be near one of the BIG hospital systems to do this. Not all hospitals will allow it or even think about it. In fact, most hospitals contract out to other companies such as the ones that Rowena and I work for and no way will they let their own transcriptionists do work from home. If we could just be on an 8 hour job, and with overtime when it is available, that would be great, but that's not the majority of the real world with medical transcription.


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

Your friend is set up in one of the great leftover nitches of transcription. Radiology is a great money maker, and she has a rare situation. Local hospitals here require you to work at site for radiology. I agree that it is getting harder and harder. I fight for work half of the pay period and because I am doing so many clinic notes my time is substantially increased, I am a lot faster at acute care work and they are more efficient dictators for the most part, especially, which equates to a better hourly rate for me and less time behind the computer. I am setting myself a 5 year deadline to be out, and am hoping we have 10, but I think we will see the work just continue to dwindle, but maybe they will get rid some of the flakes! I cruise along with my regular schedule, and then the last three or four days of the pay period there is no work because all the girls that did not work for the last 10 days are on!! Ugh!


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## fransean (Dec 21, 2002)

Wow - There is a lot of information in this thread. 
I am thinking that maybe I should look into medical coding instead of transcription. Would that be the advice of those of you already in the field?


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I have heard that coding is much more difficult, but also more interesting. Also there are lots of coding jobs where you can be a traveling coder so if you are interested in seeing different places, that works too!

I have thought about it, but can't afford to go back to school for it.

Good luck though!

Hey Rowena, did you ever work for YOG (Your Office Genie)? That's where I started, way back in the old days.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

dunroven said:


> The problem with doing the job like your friend has, is that you have to be near one of the BIG hospital systems to do this. Not all hospitals will allow it or even think about it. In fact, most hospitals contract out to other companies such as the ones that Rowena and I work for and no way will they let their own transcriptionists do work from home. If we could just be on an 8 hour job, and with overtime when it is available, that would be great, but that's not the majority of the real world with medical transcription.



I'll have to tell her how lucky she is. She's not that crazy about her job. Though it is not really a BIG hospital, it is in a city but not a real big city. 

katlupe


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I didn't say a big hospital. I did say a big hospital system. There is a difference. Tenent owns several hospitals, all under one name. Kaiser is another, The memorials in Texas, Triumphs in several states, its not that each hospital is independently owned. Some hospitals are part of a bigger system, and the big systems, decide how the transcription will be done for each of their hospitals whether it is 2 hospitals or 25, that's what I was meaning.


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

No I never worked there. I worked in a local hospital for a year doing radiology and then came home with Medquist and moved out of there as soon as I could and have worked for a few other agencies since. Best work was for USC Norris Cancer Center, very informing and best paying was a small agency doing only ER reports and was paid by the gross line, that was the day!


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

Working on University and Norris Cancer Center now. Both accounts, with University USC as primary. Its not too bad, although I was working on Encino-Tarzana and liked it best. They have split their systems apart now, so we get Tarzana but not Encino. I work for Precyse now.


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## Matt B (May 15, 2008)

Rowena said:


> Electronic charts and voice recognition will put us out of work. I agree the older doctors are being stubborn, but only a matter of time. I am sure they are teaching all the new doctors to use electronic charts for acute care (hospitals) and voice recognition or doing it themselves for clinical. My endocrinologist has a lap top he carries around with a template and he just hen pecks his way through and completes it as he is talking to me. No transcriptionist needed there. Voice recognition is hard for a lot of doctors, but my pediatrician is a clean careful speaker and has figured it out. I am hoping we have at least five to 10 years, but who knows. It really depends whether they force the doctors to go to in the hospitals, and I know the clinics are having to cut back somewhere, though I still do a lot of high end clinics who prefer to pay for it, but something will come along that will catch even their attention eventually. I would say to look into coding, much better pay, but a lot of the technology is rolling transcription, coding and billing all into one. A savings I hope we see passed on to us, but I doubt it. What do you think Matt?


Medical Coding would be a good way to go. We do have some coders who work off site from their homes. Anything that requires the person to use a computer for 100% of their daily tasks (minus using the phone) could be an option for a work at home job now with the easy access to cheap high speed Internet. I work for a small hospital and I have one tech that works with me. She's still sort of new, but after she gets familiar with how everything works I could pretty much work from home myself.


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

Need a couple of extra home-based folks? I do have a 98.5% accuracy rating! HMMMMM?????


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## Matt B (May 15, 2008)

Heh, I think we're pretty well staffed right now. If something comes up I'll let you know.


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## Rowena (Feb 7, 2008)

Dunroven working on an old account of mine. I was with a little outfit that lost the account to a larger outfit, wonder if that was Precyse that long ago? Small world!


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