By Scott Knutson


If you've considered a career in medical transcription, you've probably already spent at least some time looking into the study options. And there are some serious decisions to be made when it comes to those training options. Should you study medical transcription in a classroom? Or would an online or correspondence course be better? It depends on your personality, your location and your needs.

Start by looking into schools in your area that offer medical transcription in a classroom setting. The sheer fact of your location in relation to any schools you'd be interested in attending may very well make the decision for you. While location is sometimes the deciding factor, don't let yourself be talked into taking what you consider to be second-rate medical transcription training just because it happens to be nearby. You can certainly get quality training from an online or correspondence school if there's nothing close to your location.

Your own personality - and limitations - should also play a role in your choice of training options. Do you work well without strict supervision and deadlines? Can you set goals for yourself and follow through? If your answer to those questions isn't a resounding "yes," you may not do well with online or correspondence training. There's a big difference between sitting in a classroom every day (or once a week) and being turned loose to do your own work. In a classroom, you're held responsible for keeping pace with the class. A correspondence class allows you to set your own pace. Some people simply need the structure of a classroom setting.

That's not to say that you have to attend classes in person to get that structure. Many distance learning programs allow students to "meet" with instructors and even classmates on a regular basis via computer. You simply set up a webcam at your location and you have the opportunity to interact with the teacher and even others taking the class. In some ways, this is the best of all possible worlds for the busy adult who still needs some structure to accomplish the goals of medical transcription training.

If you think the online "meeting" is a good idea for you, take a minute to look at your own computer and your connection. A dial-up connection with a slow computer may simply not be able to present the class in "real time." The lag can be annoying or even embarrassing, and you may find yourself losing out on some important points.

Regardless of what kind of training you choose, be wary of those offering claims that seem simply too good to be true. No one can guarantee that you'll find a job the week you complete your training and a school that offers those kinds of promises may very well be exaggerating other points of their training as well. Take time to be sure that any training facility you choose is reputable and that your hard work will end with training that will make you qualified to work in the medical transcription field. medical transcription online courses


I recommend The Step-by-Step Guide To Medical Transcription At home.
http://www.startasecretarialbusiness.com/medical-transcription.html

Medical Transcription - Career, Home Business or Both?

By Scott Knutson

One of the great things about a career in medical transcription is that almost anyone can set up an office to handle the duties of a medical transcriptionist or a medical transcription service. Even the office requirements are fairly generic, meaning this has the potential for a home-based business.

A computer and Internet connection are probably your biggest needs for medical transcription, though technology has truly come a long way in this field. More than ever, there are products that can help you along this path, making your work easier and aiding in your speed and accuracy.

If you know little about medical transcriptions, you may have the idea that a doctor or other health care professional records information on a tape recorder and the medical transcriptionist simply writes whatever is recorded. Digital recordings have greatly aided the medical transcription industry. No longer is there a need to deal with scratchy tapes and poor sound quality.

The industry is also making it easy to make dictation easy for your clients. You don't even have to have the physical recording device used by the health care professionals in your hand. There are several options for telephone recording. You can set up a recorder especially designed for medical transcription on your own telephone line and have your clients call in their dictations. These systems are secure and easy to use for both you and the client. And once you have the dictations onto your personal recording machine, you can choose what to do with the information. You can route it to another destination (your computer dictation software, for example) or transcribe directly from the recorder.

Many of the recorders come with easy controls so that you can start, stop, pause, fast forward or replay segments of the recording using your feet or voice. This leaves your hands free to do their typing.

There are also several types of software available that will help you do your job more efficiently. It won't take long to figure out that Microsoft and other typing programs aren't ideal for medical transcription. The terms and proper names - including drug names - are not likely to be recognized. Mistakes are also likely to fall through the failings of those systems. Using the programs especially designed for the medical transcription industry will allow you to more accurately evaluate your work.

With the technology and training available, you can see that it's a fairly simple matter to become involved in this industry. Many people even do so from the comfort of their own homes. However, this isn't the home business for the busy parent who wants to work a few hours during their toddler's daily naptime. Most deadlines associated with medical transcription are fairly tight and there's no room for error.

There's no doubt that medical transcription isn't for everyone, but it is an important part of the health care industry and one that provides a good living for those who choose to pursue this particular aspect.
Transcription
Transcription

I recommend The Step-by-Step Guide To Medical Transcription At home.http://www.startasecretarialbusiness.com/medical-transcription.html

Things You Will Need To Know To Become A Medical Transcriptionist

Here is a small sample of things you will need to know for medical transcription:

Medical word roots, prefixes, suffixes and combining forms, the building blocks of medical terminology.

Individual body systems: Musculoskeletal, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, genitourinary, nervous, lymphatic, integumentary, and endocrine.

Anatomy and physiology, human diseases, medical abbreviations, pharmacology, and diagnostic tests/ procedures.

Punctuation; capitalization; English grammar, transcribing numbers, figures, and abbreviations; proofreading and corrections; use of medical reference books; and ethics.

Report formats of history and physicals, consultations, operative reports, discharge summaries, and medical letters, as well as progress reports, also known as follow-up/ SOAP notes (SOAP is an acronym that stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan).

To read the full article Online Medical Transcription Schools - The Ease of At-Home Learning by Mary Ruff-King, please visit http://ezinearticles.com/?Online-Medical-Transcription-Schools----The-Ease-of-At-Home-Learning&id=782849

If you are interested in becoming a medical transcriptionist I recommend The Step-by-Step Guide To Medical Transcription At home.
http://www.startasecretarialbusiness.com/medical-transcription.html