Business Overview:

If you’re looking for a career that will enable you work at home with great freedom and flexibility, medical transcription might the best career choice for you. A medical transcriptionist (MT) listens to medical reports that have been dictated by healthcare professionals and transcribes that information into a report format. Transcriptionist services are used in all branches of healthcare from pediatricians and dentists to chiropractors and counselors. Some doctors’ offices and hospitals now use voice recognition software. This means as a medical transcriptionist you will be editing a report that the software has already transcribed into a rough draft. Whether transcribing or editing, two things are certain: You can have great flexibility in working at home and you can control your income by how hard (and how smart) you are willing to work. If you want to be in a high-income bracket, you can start your own medical transcription business. You would have other MTs working for you, and you can expand this business idea as much as you like. Most doctor’s offices and hospitals now use digital dictation, which makes this the perfect online business idea; you never have to leave your home to do your job.

A Day in the Life of a Medical Transcriptionist:

A typical day as a medical transcriptionist would find you in your own home with no commute to get to work. You would retrieve the dictations over the Internet that were assigned to for that day. You then would transcribe or edit each report, carefully proofing each report before marking it as complete. If you run your own medical transcriptionist business, you would be overseeing the other MTs that work for you. This might involve answering their questions, listening to parts in the dictation where they are stumped by new vocabulary, and arranging their schedules. As a medical transcriptionist business owner you would also be responsible for bringing in new accounts and invoicing your existing clients.

The Good

• MTs are largely able to determine their level of freedom and income. They can choose to be employees if they want benefits or can be independent contractors and have their own accounts.
• Most medical transcriptionists now work at home over the Internet. There is no commuting, no professional wardrobe needed, no office politics.
• As a medical transcriptionist you have many career options available to you: Employee, statutory employee, and independent contractor.
• Medical transcription jobs offer an extremely flexible career that can change with you as your life does. You can move between part-time and full-time work and between needing benefits versus wanting higher take-home pay.

The Bad

• Medical transcription courses are often required before you can land your first job.
• The career of an MT requires sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time.

Resources

• Medical Transcriptionist Work
• Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity
• Advance for Health Informational Professionals
• Medical Transcription Industry Association

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