Medical Transcription

[texaschickmama]

Just wondering if anyone was still going to do the medical transcription at home? I plan on starting as soon as I have that cash in hand.

 

[Beekissed]

The market is now flooded with MTs that want to work from home and most of the companies are jaded with substandard MTs being hired on as new grads. I have been a nurse for 15 years, a massage therapist for 6, which means extensive medical terminology. Also, I have 3 years as a data transcriber. I am fast and good, with an excellent grasp of the English language and grammar. This means zippo, folks! I have passed numerous online exams, I can average 400 lines per hour and I still can't get a at-home job as a new grad. As I understand it, they want experienced MTs and they are a little tired of recruiting new grads that can't cut it, so they are a little leary of dealing with new grads now.

If anyone knows of a company that is willingly hiring new grads to work from home, please fill me in, as I have applied to nearly 50 companies in the past few months.

Also, be very careful of what online school you choose. For these companies, there are only a few they will even consider. Andrews and M-tec (not Meditec) are the best schools from what I have heard.

All the other hype you hear or read about MTs and how available the jobs are? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Save your money, hire on with the local hospital as an MT, do your "experience" in-house and, then, maybe then, you can get a job working from home!

 

[texaschickmama]

I'm looking into CareerStep. Everything and everyone that I have talked to have been more than pleased with them. Also, they have links right on their homepage to the companies that grads are working for. I realize the first 2 years are basically a training period, but at least you get paid something.

 

[Beekissed]

Career step is supposed to be a good, reputable school. I hope you were more successful than I! I chose the wrong school and this may have been the root of all my troubles. I chose Meditec and most of the companies hadn't even heard of them! They offered little, to no, support of their students, one didn't receive grades, so there was no transcript to present to these companies. The list goes on. Wish I had done the proper research before investing my money and time in that little venture!

 

[texaschickmama]

So sorry to hear of your misfortune with your school. I have been researching CareerStep over a year now. I have gotten on their forum and chatted with the grads and students. The woman that started it was a single mom and I just loved her story. Anyway, I agree, researching the school is key.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

For anyone seriously considering medical transcription, the very first step is to visit www.ahdionline.org and really explore the site. Be certain you look at the school approval program: http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/eduprogramapproval.cfm . Make sure whatever school you choose is on that list! I cannot overemphasize this. Companies only seem to hire grads from schools that are on this list. Go anyplace else and likely you will have wasted your money, no matter WHAT the recruiters from the schools may tell you to the contrary.

The school you choose makes all the difference between success and failure in this field. Wrong school = no job. Guaranteed. The schools on that list not only teach you what you really need to learn to be successful, they also actively work with the companies to make sure their grads get the jobs.

 

[Ethnmad]

Quote:
Medical transcription is you transcribe doctors dictations check out this resources, I hope it will help, have a great day


Transcription Work

Transcription Jobs

Legal Transcription Jobs

General Transcripiton Jobs

Medical Transcription Jobs

Transcription School

Transcription resume

 

[Elite Silkies]

I graduated from MT school in 1996 and have never worked as a MT. I live in a very small town, and should have considered that before I chose my field. I was unwilling to re-locate my son to a school in the larger cities.

I had to type 120 wpm before I could graduate. I now type about 80. I graduated with a 3.94 GPA and still couldn't get a job in my town. Of course, our Dr.s already had their MT's that they have had for years. I never found a Company that would let me work from home. They all required 2-5 years experience.

So, I am currently putting in my application for Nursing.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

edited because most of my information is out-of-date.

 

[justuschickens59]

I've been an MT for over 5 years now and have always worked from home via internet. The market is flooded with MTs right now. Since Spheris announced bankruptcy, their MTs have been deserting like rats from a sinking ship. I work for a small MTSO and she told me that where she used to get 10 applications a month, she is now getting 50+ per week, and the majority of those are Spheris MTs.

School is key for a person who wants to graduate and actually become employed. I have heard good and bad about Career Step, but mostly negative. I have heard that their graduates are having a hard time these days getting employment because they just really do not teach you what you need to know. Also, several companies that used to partner with them (Spheris, Focus) no longer have those programs in place. I have checked out their website and they promise the world. They also give extremely over-inflated figures of income on their page. I would be very, very wary of this. I would only consider M-TEC or Andrews.

The MT profession is on a fast downhill slide. Off-shoring the work to India, Philippines, etc. is becoming a real problem. For those companies that do NOT off-shore their work (usually the smaller companies), they are having a hard time competing with the prices that companies who do off-shore. Hospitals do not want to pay 25 cents for a page typed by a US MT, when they can get it for 10 cents typed by an Indian MT, even though the accuracy of such document is questionable. This results in the smaller MTSO's reducing their page rate, which results in the MT taking a pay cut. Add Voice Recognition to the mix, and the pay is even lower.

In my 5+ years as an MT, I have never received a pay increase for cost of living. Pay raises are not the norm in this biz. There is only ONE reason that I like doing what I do, and that is being able to stay home and work. There are a gazillion reasons that I hate what I do; low pay, no pay increases, a lot of work that you don't get paid for. I worked for one of the National companies when I first started and it took about an hour every day to go through all the e-mails (you aren't paid for that). If there are system issues and you are unable to work, you are rarely paid for that either.

It's a tough business and it is getting tougher every day. MT is about one of the only professions where the pay rate has not increased, but decreased. Where a few years back, 10 cents per line was the going rate, it is now around 6 cents per line for straight transcription. For Voice Recognition, the normal is about 4 cents per line.

Bottom line, I personally would not recommend anybody get into this field. I'm close to retirement age, so I'm just hanging in there and hoping I can retire before MT goes completely off-shore, or before MTs start actually typing for free.