As it's such a glorious Monday and we've not had rain for a couple of days in Cape Town it reminds me why I love living here. So I thought I'd take some time and tell you a little about a Medical Transcriptionist (which is kind of what I am).

An MT as defined by the AHDI is "Medical transcriptionists (MTs) are specialists in medical language and healthcare documentation. They interpret and transcribe dictation by physicians and other healthcare professionals regarding patient assessment, workup, therapeutic procedures, clinical course, diagnosis, prognosis, etc., editing dictated material for grammar and clarity as necessary and appropriate."

Basically they are responsible for transferring the doctor's written or dictated notes into a correctly typed and accurate account of the doctor/patient encounter. The accuracy part is highly important as errors in the record can and have lead to incorrect surgery being performed.

That said, the work is very interesting and constantly challenging as there are new things to learn every day. Just went you think you are getting a handle on it someone comes along and changes the boundaries. It's the joy of working in a constantly changing and developing scientific world. The day I am bored typing medial work is the day that I know I need to seriously change profession.

If you want to find out more about medical transcription then go to
www.ahdionline.org This is the home of The Association of Healhcare Documentation Integrity which used to be called the American Association of Medical Transcriptionists. While it is an American site and mainly geared towards the American, it is a good place to get an overview of what is needed to be a Medical Transcriptionist.

The Medical Transcriptionist along with most other VA type work can now quite comfortably be achieved at home thereby reducing the costs of having to have space for office staff to type the work. The advent of digital voice recorders has improved this immensely as the turn around time between the work being sent to be typed and the time that it gets returned has diminished greatly.

Alternatively if you want to ask me any questions please feel free to do so.

What is it about some people. They moan because they have no work in one breath and then in the next breath they moan because they have too much.

This happened to me this week at work. One of my colleagues was complaining when she'd been called on not  getting her work in on time, because she didn't realize she had to apparently. And then in the next breath she was moaning because she wasn't making enough money. This is someone who's apparently been in the business a while and when she was working at her last company was a Team Leader. So you'd think she'd understand the cause and effect relationship that goes between meeting deadlines and work flow, but obviously not.

Then there's the one who was sick for a couple of days, didn't bother to tell anyone or ask anyone to let us know! At least she had the decency to apologize when she made contact.

Nothing to majorily serious you may be saying missing a deadline by a day and being off sick for two days and not letting anyone now. Well maybe in normal circumstances this would be the case, but these two were working on separate files for the same client and therefore all their work was late back. No the impression you're trying to project as a professional company.

All it really takes it to remember some manners and a little common sense and courtesy. Losing your voice doesn't stop you from writting a message, or an SMS in today's ultra-connected world. And while we fully understand emergencies happen, a little smattering of common sense in the business world goes a long way.

Well this is my first time at blogging so here goes lets just jump in the deep end.

It always amazes me as an IC/VA specializing in medical transcription how I can go from days or weeks of being snowed under to having next to nothing for a week. We're on Thursday now and I've hardly spent any time at my computer this week working. But the weekend is a coming so I know that's certainly about to change. It seems to occur to everyone that Thursday/Friday are good days to dictate their work so that the poor soul who does their typing can manage to have it back on a Monday morning for them, and heaven help you if you don't.

Who ever said that working from home would give you more free time to spend with the children, well they certainly lied. My two wonderful daughters go to creche Monday to Friday till 3:00, but Saturday and Sunday when they're at home seems to be when I get the most amount of work, which means working in the evenings and often late in the evenings too!

That said, I wouldn't change my work for anything in the world. I so enjoy the freedom of being at home, not having to dress in corparate wear and I certainly don't miss the office politics. The big pluses are that I can be around for my daughter's when they need me, if they're sick or anything else. I get to attend doctor's visits, special days in their lives, and don't have someone telling me that I can't have the time off.

Well that's that for now.