Rewarding Career in Medical Transcription

Medical transcription is not a field for the faint of heart. Requirements include the expected and the unexpected. For example, it is expected that a job applicant will have a working knowledge of medical terminology, including physiology and anatomy terms, pharmacology terms, and the names of many diseases. But the truly professional medical transcription worker will also be familiar with the latest technology of speech recognition.

Transcription services are always looking for qualified individuals who can handle the work. Though medical transcription as a field does not yet have formal requirements, the individual with the best chance at being hired will be in possession of a one year certificate program diploma or even a two year associate’s degree.

In addition to this, legal transcription services or medical transcription services require the ability to work with numbers, to express complex ideas in standard English with correct punctuation, grammatical structure and spelling. Many services also require the worker to keep a transcription log, to return transcribed reports and collect the dictation tapes in a timely fashion.

Related opportunities may be found in legal transcription services. For example, a person trained in legal transcription may find himself or herself transcribing the notes from a deposition in a medical malpractice lawsuit. He or she may transcribe an audio file describing an autopsy, to be used in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Transcription services produce documents that may be printed in hard copy format, or retained only in electronic formats. Either way, accurate records are obviously extremely important. The provider of medical transcription services may be employed directly by the doctor (or physician’s group) but more likely, he or she is employed on a subcontracting basis via an agency.

In a non-hospital setting, or a non-doctor’s office setting, medical transcription jobs involve the meticulous recording of medical consultations, pre-surgical exams, medical exams for liability insurance or even disability claims. This latter may, of course, also involve legal transcription services. In all cases, familiarity with medical jargon, as well as basic anatomy and physiology, is a must.

With the necessary skills and education, the job seeker may be employed in the medical transcription services field in one of several ways. He or she may work directly for a hospital or a doctor’s office. He or she may subcontract for hospital or transcription services companies. Or finally, he or she may simply choose to be self-employed, and thus enjoy flexibility of hours.

Regardless of whether one chooses to specialize in legal transcription or in medical transcription jobs, the fact is that transcription services is a steady, even burgeoning field, one sure to reward the person who trains for it.