What is medical transcription?
Every time a doctor examines or consults with a patient, whether in a hospital, an office, a nursing home, or for a diagnostic procedure, a record must be kept of that visit. The medical record details things such as the date of the patients visit, the patient’s condition, the patient’s statements, the physician’s physical findings, and the plan of treatment the doctor recommends. Years ago, doctors would hand write all this information in the patient’s medical chart. Now, with modern technology, doctors simply dictate their findings into a tape recorder or digital recorder and employ medical transcriptionists to transcribe these findings. The result saves valuable time for the physician, allowing him to see even more patients. Doctors aren’t the only ones who dictate reports — nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other medical professionals dictate reports for their physicians. Because of this, even a small practice can generat
Medical transcription, in a nutshell, is the process of typing and editing reports for doctors or hospitals. When a doctor, nurse practitioner, or other medical professional sees a patient, they make a recording of the entire visit. This recording is made via a phone line, digital voice recorder, or cassette tape. These recordings are then delivered to the transcriptionist via audio file or MP3, CD, or cassette tape. The recording the doctor makes is called a dictation. WHAT IS A MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONIST? A medical transcriptionist is an employee of a doctor, hospital, clinic, or transcription service provider/business who actually sits at the computer, listens to the doctors’ dictations, and types the reports in a word processing program. Some transcriptionists work on the internet or on a transcribing machine from their home and others work at a hospital, doctor’s office, or clinic.
A medical transcriptionist has a very important role in the medical practice. As an MT, you take a doctors audio dictation (usually on tape) and transcribe it into a professional medical record. These records include patient history, physical reports, office notes, operative reports, discharge summaries, evaluations and pathology reports. While this sounds fairly simple, you are required to learn a great deal of material before being able to work as an MT. More information can be found at Medical-Transcription-Courses.com.
