A medical transcriptionist listens to video recording or recorded dictation of a doctor or healthcare worker. He/She then interprets and transcribes the dictation into exam notes, patient history, discharge summary, operative reports, and other sources. Your job lets you review and edit drafts just to make sure the transcription is complete, correct, and consistent in style. You will need to translate medical jargon and abbreviation into appropriate words, identify inconsistent errors in a report, and make amendments.
Apart from transcribing video dictation, you are also expected to follow up on the healthcare provider to ensure accurate reports, submit health records for approval by the physicians, follow patient confidentiality guidelines and legal documentation requirements. You are to perform quality improvement audits and impute medical reports into the electronic health record system. It is also possible for you as a medical transcriptionist to work in doctors' offices by answering phones and greeting patients.
As a medical transcriptionist, the ability to multitask is a must. You must also demonstrate devotion and passion for education, typing proficiency, excellent language control in grammar and styles, and attention to detail. The average salary of a medical transcriptionist annually is $57,786. Happily, a high school diploma or a GED in healthcare will get you the role.
Medical transcriptionists, sometimes referred to as healthcare documentation specialists, listen to voice recordings that physicians and other healthcare workers make and convert them into written reports. They also may review and edit medical documents created using speech recognition technology. Transcriptionists interpret medical terminology and abbreviations in preparing patients’ medical histories, discharge summaries, and other documents.
Medical transcriptionists typically need postsecondary education. Prospective medical transcriptionists must have an understanding of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, grammar, and word-processing software.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of legal secretary you might progress to a role such as office manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title practice manager.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a medical transcriptionist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general medical transcriptionist responsibilities:
There are several types of medical transcriptionist, including:
A Phlebotomist is a medical technician specializing in blood collection for donations or blood tests. Phlebotomists are responsible for analyzing blood to diagnose illnesses or nutritional deficiencies and determine the efficicacy of medication. They perform blood transfusions and manage blood donations, identifying the blood identity of donor and patient.
They label and document blood samples, keeping track of information; making sure the storage conditions are appropriate and meticulously maintaining the cleanliness of equipment.
Phlebotomists work as part of medical teams or healthcare science staff in hospitals or laboratories and interact with nervous patients regularly, so being caring and kind and putting people at ease with your calm demeanor will be a big part of your job if you decide to take this path.
The primary duty of a transcriptionist is to listen to voice tape and translate this information into written documents. As a transcriptionist, you must comprehend customers' descriptions and record any formatting before finishing the transcription. You must also finish transcriptions in a well-timed or prompt way and examine outlines for any formatting, spelling, or grammar mistakes. More so, you must strictly obey every classified guideline and respect private information as well as be present for court prosecutions or arranged meetings. Additionally, you have to interact with clients or managers when challenges arise and tender finished outlines to clients. You have to also make corrections to any mistakes according to their response or consistent typing training.
To become a transcriptionist, you need a high school diploma or an associate degree in necessary courses. You must also be efficient in using computer software like MS office. Furthermore, you must exhibit excellent reading, time management, and listening skills. Also, you must always pay attention to details and be able to concentrate for extended periods. You will earn an average of $28,930 per annum or $13.91 hourly on the job.
A Medical Scribe acts as support for the doctor, a kind of a personal assistant, filling out paperwork, taking notes during patient interviews, monitoring some test results, and generally getting the non-clinical tasks and paperwork out of the way of the physician they work with. The role of such a Scribe is important because it allows the doctor to focus on treating and working with patients.
An ideal candidate for this position should have prior experience and knowledge of medical paperwork and a passion for medicine. A Scribe need not have any sort of college degree or be attending a university of any sorts to begin their career, but many employers prefer hiring people who do so.
A Scribe generally works twice a week, alongside their doctor, who works either eight, ten or 12-hour shifts.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active medical transcriptionist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where medical transcriptionists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.4% of medical transcriptionists listed transcription on their resume, but soft skills such as computer skills and listening skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Medical Transcriptionist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Medical Transcriptionist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a medical transcriptionist. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, California, Hawaii, and New York. Medical transcriptionists make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $50,523. Whereas in California and Hawaii, they would average $50,406 and $46,220, respectively. While medical transcriptionists would only make an average of $45,636 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Kansas
$43,226
Avg. Salary
2. Illinois
$44,677
Avg. Salary
3. West Virginia
$41,889
Avg. Salary
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ medical transcriptionists and discovered their number of medical transcriptionist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that MedQuist Holdings was the best, especially with an average salary of $40,431. MTBC follows up with an average salary of $37,894, and then comes Nuance Communications with an average of $42,006. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a medical transcriptionist. The employers include The Toledo Clinic, Evermed Exams, and Medvoice Inc.
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Command Health | $46,512 | $22.36 | 35 |
2 | Medical Record Associates | $43,891 | $21.10 | 58 |
3 | Nuance Communications | $42,006 | $20.20 | 125 |
4 | iMedX | $40,631 | $19.53 | 84 |
5 | MedQuist Holdings | $40,431 | $19.44 | 689 |
6 | Acusis | $40,286 | $19.37 | 47 |
7 | Webmedx | $40,244 | $19.35 | 61 |
8 | Modal | $40,238 | $19.35 | 58 |
9 | Keystrokes Transcription Service | $40,236 | $19.34 | 71 |
10 | SoftScript | $40,215 | $19.33 | 119 |
It takes 7 years of professional experience to become a medical transcriptionist. That is the time it takes to learn specific medical transcriptionist skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education.