MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION

Answers to Commonly Asked Question

  1. What is medical transcription?
    • Medical transcription is the process of accurately and swiftly transcribing (typing from dictation), formatting and proofreading medical records dictated by doctors and other medical experts. The resulting document is a one-time final draft and becomes the patient’s permanent and legal healthcare record. Moreover, the typed document maintains the dictator’s style and content, but with all discrepancy and inconsistencies removed. Professionals performing the transcription process are called Medical Transcriptionist (MT) or Medical Language Specialist (MLS).
    • The material most commonly transcribed includes is but not limited to patient history and physical records, clinic notes, office notes, consultation notes, operative reports, patient discharge summaries, laboratory reports, x-ray/ultrasound/CT reports, pathology reports, referral letters, psychiatric evaluations and an array of documentation spanning over various medical specialties.
  2. To which industry sector does the field of medical transcription belong?
    • Medical transcription is still a relatively new field and classified under BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). Medical transcription is generally labeled as an information technology (IT) enabled profession. This means that those personnel working as MTs utilize computers and communication technologies to adequately perform their jobs. However, MTs do not need to possess computer programming or maintenance skills, and only need to be above average users of computers.
  3. How does the medical transcription business work?
    • The typical medical transcription process starts by receiving medical dictation in the form of voice data files. Conventionally, dictation was sent on physical media such as audio cassette tapes and CDs. However, the modern practice is that medical professionals record their diction as computer-readable files and send them via the Internet to the transcription company, where the MTs listen to the dictation and convert it to a typed document. These typed files are then finally sent back to the customer. This helps in many ways such as reducing administrative cost and shipping charges, as well as increasing the productivity.
  4. Who are the usual clients MTs work for?
    • As mentioned above, medical transcription involves transcribing medical advice of various types. Therefore, its customers are from a variety of healthcare settings. These healthcare institutions include public and private hospitals, clinics, laboratories, radiology/pathology departments, pharmaceutical companies, medical research journal publishers, insurance companies, legal offices and associations representing the healthcare industry.
  5. Why do customers outsource dictation to instead of getting it transcribed in their own country?
    • The modern trend in companies is to focus on their core competencies and outsource all those jobs that are not directly part of those competencies. This is the reason why organizations and institutions in the healthcare sector, whose prime job is to provide healthcare services and not perform transcription, outsource all such tasks to specialized MT companies.
    • Furthermore, the internet serves as an excellent medium to enable the outsourcing of many jobs.
  6. What skills and background knowledge does one require to become an MT.?
    • Medical transcription requires a practical knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, disease processes and the internal organization of medical reports. In addition, the MT should posses above average listening and English comprehension skills, as well as proficiency in the use of personal computers and MT specific software.
    • An ideal person who can quite successfully be trained as an MT is someone possessing a bachelor’s degree in biological/health sciences and having basic computer literacy. Such person can undergo a two to five-month intensive training program at a reputable transcription company or MT training institute, and can relatively quickly enter production under the supervision of experienced managers.
    • Personnel wishing to adopt MT as their profession must keep in mind that an MT is paid for speed and accuracy with which he/she transcribes the dictation. Of speed and accuracy, accuracy is certainly more important.
    • It is very interesting to note that in countries such as Pakistan, India, Philippines and Hungary, a large number of qualified doctors (MBBS degree holder) are actively entering the transcription field as MT (initially) and later progressing to Quality Controller (QC) Managers for large transcription service providers. This is a strong indicator that doctors also wish to ride the IT wave and explore alternative career options, which provide them with an ideal opportunity to use their specialist knowledge in an IT environment.
  7. Is there any certification program for MTs.?
    • Yes. The globally recognized professional qualification for MTs is to attain the designation of “Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT)”. This certification is voluntary and can be obtained only through the successful completion of both parts of the core certification exam administered by the “Medical Transcriptionist Certification Program (MCTP)” at the American Association of Medical Transcription (AAMT) in the United States.
    • It should be noted, however, that MTs do not require to be certified or licensed in order to practice their profession in any country of the world, but many employers are now recognizing the CMT qualification and some even give a salary differential to CMTs.
  8. Do the trainee MTs get certificates after successful completion of the Mt trainee program at eVoiceScribe?
    • Yes. However, the eVoiceScribe MT training program is somewhat different from those being offered by other MT training institutes. We train MTs intensively so that they can be absorbed internally for our own projects.
    • We follow, in addition to other educational tools, the internationally accepted and very comprehensive American Health Professions Institute (HPI) System Systems Unit Method or SUM Program. The course covers medical terminology, medical documentation, medico-legal concepts, pharmacology, laboratory procedures, diagnostic modalities, surgical procedures, etc. Moreover, our students spend considerable time in improving their PC usage skills as well as listening to actual dictation from doctors.
  9. Does Medical Transcription make an attractive career choice?
    • This is undoubtedly one of the most important questions a person considering to adopt MT as a profession would ask. Some pressing reasons why health/biological science graduates and doctors should consider making a career in the transcription industry are:
      • Healthy state of the medical industry
        It is often said that the medical industry is virtually recession proof. In fact, by every account, health-related spending is increasing world over, as people become more educated and better off. In other words, the healthcare industry (supported by advancements in technology, especially computers and communications) will develop tremendously in the coming years. Personnel who have knowledge of medical science supplemented by that of information technology would certainly do much better.
      • Outlook for MT business
        According to an industry estimate, around 80 billion lines of transcription are done in the US alone. If transcription jobs in other countries such as Europe and Canada were added, this figure would go much higher. Although much of the work is performed within the periphery of these countries, the emerging trend of outsourcing is growing, thanks to the development of internet infrastructure. In short, there is no shortage of assignments in the ever-growing healthcare industry.
      • Portable skills
        Medical transcription is a portable skill. An MT has full freedom to move from one country to another without the fear that his/her skills would not be recognized. Professional and geographical mobility is certainly a huge advantage in this profession.
      • Challenging and rewarding job
        Medical transcription provides unlimited, intellectual challenges, and the opportunity to constantly learn and update one’s knowledge base. MTs make a very positive contribution to quality patient care and service. Since healthcare is a rapidly growing area, the demand for quality documentation is on the rise. The profession has a high level of job security and skilled MTs almost always receive a premium for their services.
      • Career expansion opportunities
        As MTs gain more experience and mastery of their field, they may choose to become Quality Control (QC) Managers, Team Supervisors and even Department Heads of transcription companies. Some experienced personnel also opt for careers as editors for pharmaceutical journals and research publications.
      • Experienced MTs with entrepreneurial spirits have even become owners of their own transcription companies.

Mission & Vision

Mission:
To help and facilitate patient care by providing the best quality medical transcription, billing and coding services at the most reasonable price within the best turn-around time available.

Vision:
The core purpose of our organization is to deliver superior, efficient and quality customer-focused outsourcing services to healthcare providers with no geographical limitations, striving to serve the healthcare industry globally and aiming at facilitating patient care.