Make Money Online Through Medical Transcription

Make Money Online Through Medical Transcription

These days, the interest in online medical transcription jobs show an upward pattern or trend.

An expanding number of individuals become a medical transcriptionist to make some quick and easy money on the web.

Medical transcription also allows the individual to procure a living from the comfort of their own homes.

Professionals tired of working in a cubicle quit the corporate world to start working from home.

Additionally, it helps a stay at home mom in taking care of their kids while also taking care of the bills.

This is possible because the job offers high flexibility when it comes to schedules.

Most medical transcriptionists work as much or as little as they want and still make a decent income.

There’s also no age limit in this career.

Medical transcription is definitely one of the high-paying jobs that allow an individual to work at home with enough flexibility to accomplish their goals.

Aside from that, you can also specialize in a particular kind of transcription in light of your interests (we’ll go on this later).

What’s more, you can start this career in less than a year!

Way back when I’m still working as a nurse, a friend of mine became a certified medical transcriptionist.

She underwent 6 months of intensive study while having no medical background at all.

So if you are good at meeting deadlines, with good active listening skills, then this may be the best home-based job for you.

You’ll have an edge if you can type fast with high accuracy.

But before hurrying to take a medical transcription job from home, please read this article first as I want to share some thoughts regarding this career.

It is important to familiarize yourself with a few points of view, facts, and different patterns or trends.

Understanding these will enable you to pick the most suitable online medical transcription job for you.

WHAT IS MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION?

It involves manual processing of voice reports dictated by physicians and other medical professionals.

It is done by listening to audio files, then, transcribing them into written documents or text format.

Once the dictation has been transcribed into a text format, it becomes a part of the patient’s official medical record.

As a matter of fact, medical transcriptions are nothing new.

Surely, they existed since about a century ago.

At an earlier time, medical experts would give verbal instructions to their staff.

Usually including secretaries, nurses, nursing aides, paramedics, and others.

Then, the staff would write down important notes.

Medical transcription involves writing down observations by the doctor, guidelines or instructions.

It also includes a rundown of drugs and other relevant information.

This includes the gathering of significant data from these records and converting them into a solitary and discernable report.

Today, numerous specialists and healthcare facilities utilize the speech-to-text software.

This software transforms recorded transcriptions into content.

However, the software is not that great as I tried it first-hand.

The potential for errors is very likely and considering that the information being transcribed relates to a person’s health.

There’s not much room for mistake here especially when it comes to medications and treatments.

That is why there are also medical transcriptionists, called medical transcription editors, or dictation editors.

They are the ones who adjust and alter composed reports created by speech recognition software.

That is also the reason medical transcriptionists are expected to both transcribe dictation and edit speech-to-text files.

The Difference Between Medical Transcriptionist And Medical Transcription Editor

A medical transcriptionist listens to recorded dictations from doctors and types what is being said.

The reports you write out, in the long run, turn into a piece of a patient’s medical record.

While a medical transcription editor review and correct data or reports that were created by a speech recognition software.

Having the capacity to both transcribe dictation and edit software-generated content is vital to prevailing as a medical transcriptionist.

History Of Online Medical Transcription

As reliance upon the healthcare services increased throughout the decades, keeping hundreds and thousands of medical records turned into a nightmare for hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Thus, the use of the computer and particularly the internet solved this issue.

The cumbersome medical information can now be stored in a computer, disc, flash drives or external hard drives.

The cloud feature and other digital formats can also be used for worldwide access.

To make the medical files digital, hospitals and health centers progressively rely on freelancers like virtual assistants and online medical transcriptionist.

This prompted the introduction of another industry that today utilizes an estimate of two million individuals around the world.

Importance Of Medical Transcriptions

Medical transcription is essential for hospitals, healthcare facilities, clinics, laboratories, health insurance firms, Emergency Medical Services, and lawyers.

And they have expanded their reliance on medical transcription due to various reasons.

Medical transcription is vital to the processing of insurance claims, upgrading of service levels and in the filing of lawsuits due to malpractice.

Quick Facts

Here are some facts according to the United States Department of Labor “Bureau of Labor Statistics”:

The annual wage for a medical transcriptionist in the U.S. was 35,250 USD in May 2017.

This is approximately 1.7 M PHP here in the Philippines.

At this time, freelancers or medical transcriptionist on Upwork has an hourly rate starting from 5 USD up to 27 USD.

This highly depends on the skills and experience.

(You can read my post about making money online on Upwork)

Current Situation

There are various factors why medical transcription was outsourced.

One factor is the labor and management costs.

Maintaining an in-house medical transcription or an adequate office and hiring a full-time medical transcriptionist can be arduous and budget consuming.

In terms of budget, minimum wage requirements are definitely lower when outsourced to other countries.

Another factor is the accessibility of information.

Outsourced online medical transcription allows data to be stored and accessed online anywhere in the world.

Aside from that, health providers can partner with medical transcription providers that employ skilled and virtually trained professionals.

Global trends

Right now, Philippines and India are the world pioneers in online medical transcription, with several organizations specializing in the field.

They are offering their service to their clients in the US and Europe.

The Philippines and India are especially known for the superior quality of English online medical transcriptions.

Aside from that, other countries are also offering medical transcription specializing in other languages such as Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.

This is the reason why countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, China, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have demonstrated a remarkable increase in providing online medical transcription services.

While Belarus and Ukraine take the lead in providing online medical transcription in Russian and dialects.

With that being said, anyone from anywhere in the world can definitely get an online medical transcription job from home.

Skills

According to United States Department of Labor “Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical transcriptionists typically need postsecondary education.

The prospective medical transcriptionists must also have an understanding of medical terminology.

Basic anatomy and physiology, grammar, and word-processing software are also essential.

Aside from that, it is important to be fluent in English with the capacity to comprehend different English accents.

The individual must also have a good knowledge of utilizing the computer.

This means the use of internet and common computer software with an astounding typing speed and accuracy.

Additionally, it is essential to have active listening skills and a great attention to details.

Is Special Training Needed?

Depending on the company that employs the medical transcriptionist, there is mostly no permit or license required.

However, familiarity with the medical industry is a plus.

In addition to that, medical transcription organizations favor hiring experts who are certified.

There are various private institutions offering medical transcription certification.

Just make sure to be ready because studying it is no walk in the park.

Equipment Needed

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

• A good laptop or computer

• Headset with microphone

• Printer

• DVD writer

• Flash drives and memory sticks

• Fax machine (optional)

• Foot pedal (optional)

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

For the most part, companies, hospital or health providers will provide a software that you can use for online medical transcription.

However, if you are a freelancer that works from home, you can download free medical transcription software online including dictation software.

Types Of Online Medical Transcription

Comprehensively, online medicinal interpretations can be separated into four fundamental classifications:

• General medical transcription

• Emergency Medical Services (EMS) or Emergency Room (ER) translation

• Medico-legal transcription

• Forensic medical transcription

ONLINE MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION (GENERAL)

General online medical transcription job expects the individual to listen to voice recordings from doctors and other healthcare workers, and then, convert them to text format.

The raw file will be provided by the health provider or employer and you will be given a deadline to submit the written format.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES (EMS) / EMERGENCY ROOM (ER) TRANSCRIPTION

Emergency Medical Services and Emergency Room proceedings also require online medical transcription and this task is usually outsourced by EMS providers.

EMS providers are organizations that provide ambulances, including air ambulances.

They require medical translation as a major aspect of quality assurance and to provide medical information to hospitals and health facilities.

As an EMS/ER medical transcriptionist, you will be given raw data.

Which consists of call recordings made to the EMS, discussions and conversations between the ambulance driver/pilot and paramedics, conversations of paramedics with the patient’s relatives, individuals or witnesses near the patient at the time of the casualty or emergency, directions and instructions made by paramedics during treatment and the state or condition of the patient, until the time the ambulance reaches a hospital/emergency room.

MEDICO-LEGAL TRANSCRIPTION

Currently, medico-legal translations are required by hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers.

Some EMS/ER services and lawyers may require the same mainly because of several reasons:

• To find out if a doctor or a health institution is responsible for malpractice or neglect.

• As a major aspect of medical examination in cases of rape and pedophilia.

• To assist in cases like child abuse, illegal abortion, and assault leading to wounds inflicted on the individual.

• For finding mental or psychiatric conditions of individuals/patients involved in crimes and in divorce cases.

FORENSIC MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION

It involves transcribing observations and conversations between law enforcers who responded to a crime scene like rape,

murder, and other incidents that have medical proceedings.

Additionally, the transcriptionist will listen to testimonies from victims.

It includes recordings from physicians taking care of the victim during the crime and pathologist conducting an autopsy.

FINDING ONLINE MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION JOBS

The most straightforward approach to land an online medical transcription job is to create a profile or post your resume on a reputable website.

Aside from the top freelancer websites like Upwork and Fiverr, you can also try these 2 of the best websites I’ve seen:

1. GMR Transcription

GMR Transcription has general translation positions.

They ask the transcriptionist to accept at least 4 hours worth of audio every month.

For more information, you can visit their “FAQ for Applicants” page.

2. Ubiqus

Ubiqus offers transcription, translation, interpretation, audience response systems and meeting support.

They also offer medical transcription services for audio and video files.

Conclusion

It’s obvious that you can make money online doing medical transcription jobs.

The flexibility, compensation, and convenience it offers can be a great start to aspiring freelancers or people looking for work-at-home opportunities.

While it’s ideal to have a medical background for this career, it’s really not a requirement as training will be provided by most employers.

If you are serious about learning how to become a medical transcriptionist, you can try to read the book Medical transcription for dummies.

Everything on that book was well explained, even people with zero background about the medical industry will easily understand.

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