A job Profile of Medical Transcriptionist is very much like that of a Christian priest who listens to the woes of others; the former does this wearing a headphone and going through the doctor’s spoken words at the work station; while the latter does this seating in a confession room and listening attentively to the confession of a confessor. For an MT, the doctor confesses everything about the patient. But, unlike the priest, the MT preaches nothing, only maintaining clam and following the instructions of the doctor. There will be no exaggeration to state that at least two people know all about the patient, one is the doctor and the other is the MT. I have written enough about this field in my previous article "Know Medical Transcription."
Nowadays, the doctors are attached not only to the health problems and diseases of the patients; they are seriously scrutinizing every aspect of lives of the patients including socioeconomic, professional, and individual factors. They examine not only the body but the mind also; they try to know how much they can about the patient not only medically but psychologically also - what happened in the past; what has been happening in the patient’s life; and which critical situation he or she is facing at the present. Obviously, both the doctor and the MT are professional when working; but they have to plunge into the life of the patient. Many times, the doctors opt out of dictating; and instead, the nurses or assistants do the task of dictation. For the MT, listening to the dictation is a main job profile; he or she cannot opt out of it.
Many people cannot do medical transcription just because of bad listening. The MT must listen to the recorded voice with full correction, keeping pace with a style of the dictator in spite of poor audio, awful pronunciation, different tones of voice, etc. How good you are at the understanding of the Medical Terminology and command over the language, every other plus point becomes useless for medical transcription if you are unable to listen carefully. Listening skill plays a vital role which can be improved with a repeated listening or regular practice; therefore this should not be judged at the beginning.
The MT is supposed to correct the grammatical mistakes done by the dictator, improve the clipped sentences, and sometimes make a correction for wrong medical terms and medications mistaken by the doctor or dictator. The patient’s record must be error free at any cost; this is a major responsibility of the MT. Any error in the patient’s name, address, etc. suggests negative points for the MT. If you work under an Editor who edits your file before uploading to the client, you are free to put reasonable blanks or notes wherever you feel ambiguity or need for clarification. If you work independently or as a Direct MT, your file must be 98% to 99% correct. Moreover, you must necessitate a minimum required speed to complete the file. Remember, your evaluation as well as salary is determined by your accuracy and line count. Many people with good listening skill have to leave this field just because of poor line count and/or accuracy. Thus, three factors are equally very important for the MT - "Listening skill", "Accuracy", and "Line count."
Nowadays, the doctors are attached not only to the health problems and diseases of the patients; they are seriously scrutinizing every aspect of lives of the patients including socioeconomic, professional, and individual factors. They examine not only the body but the mind also; they try to know how much they can about the patient not only medically but psychologically also - what happened in the past; what has been happening in the patient’s life; and which critical situation he or she is facing at the present. Obviously, both the doctor and the MT are professional when working; but they have to plunge into the life of the patient. Many times, the doctors opt out of dictating; and instead, the nurses or assistants do the task of dictation. For the MT, listening to the dictation is a main job profile; he or she cannot opt out of it.
Many people cannot do medical transcription just because of bad listening. The MT must listen to the recorded voice with full correction, keeping pace with a style of the dictator in spite of poor audio, awful pronunciation, different tones of voice, etc. How good you are at the understanding of the Medical Terminology and command over the language, every other plus point becomes useless for medical transcription if you are unable to listen carefully. Listening skill plays a vital role which can be improved with a repeated listening or regular practice; therefore this should not be judged at the beginning.
The MT is supposed to correct the grammatical mistakes done by the dictator, improve the clipped sentences, and sometimes make a correction for wrong medical terms and medications mistaken by the doctor or dictator. The patient’s record must be error free at any cost; this is a major responsibility of the MT. Any error in the patient’s name, address, etc. suggests negative points for the MT. If you work under an Editor who edits your file before uploading to the client, you are free to put reasonable blanks or notes wherever you feel ambiguity or need for clarification. If you work independently or as a Direct MT, your file must be 98% to 99% correct. Moreover, you must necessitate a minimum required speed to complete the file. Remember, your evaluation as well as salary is determined by your accuracy and line count. Many people with good listening skill have to leave this field just because of poor line count and/or accuracy. Thus, three factors are equally very important for the MT - "Listening skill", "Accuracy", and "Line count."
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