What a Medical Transcriptionist does

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.