Medical transcriptionists transcribe medical reports, correspondence, and other healthcare documents from physician dictated recordings. Medical reports become part of a patient's permanent medical file, so transcriptionists must edit reports for clarity and consistency to ensure they are recording accurate information. Medical transcriptionist jobs are as varied as the healthcare field itself. Transcriptionists work in a variety of settings such as large healthcare facilities, medical libraries, government facilities, private physicians' offices, and even from home for national or local transcription companies.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical transcriptionist jobs are projected to grow 14 percent from 2006 to 2016, which is faster than average compared to all occupations. In 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were approximately 98,000 medical transcriptionist jobs. Transcriptionists employed by hospitals accounted for 41 percent of the jobs, while another 29 percent worked in physicians' offices.
Hospitals and other acute care facilities, such as emergency clinics, employ a large number of medical transcriptionists. These types of facilities see a large number of patients in a short amount of time, and their conditions are often serious. Short turnaround times are vital in an acute care setting, so the more transcriptionists there are available, the quicker the work gets done.
Private physicians and specialists are often too busy with patient care to maintain their own medical records. They employ transcriptionists to create reports from their dictated material. They may house in-office transcriptionists or hire them to work from home and deliver the reports physically or via the Internet.
Nursing homes, mental health facilities, and other long-term care facilities require detailed patient records as well. Other medical transcriptionist jobs are found in government facilities. Forensics units and medical examiner offices require autopsy reports and forensic evidence documents to be prepared by a skilled transcriptionist.
The growth of the Internet has made it possible for national and local transcription companies to create thousands of medical transcriptionist jobs. Most transcription companies allow their employees or independent contractors to work from home and submit files via e-mail or a company Intranet system. Many doctors and healthcare facilities hire transcription companies to do the hiring and maintaining of employees and contractors for them. The physicians and facilities pay the transcription companies who, in turn, pay the transcriptionists.
Many medical transcriptionists move on to editing or quality control jobs. Some doctors and healthcare facilities use speech recognition technology that creates a typewritten document as material is dictated. Speech recognition programs cannot catch many spelling and grammatical errors, so these reports must be reviewed and edited by a trained medical transcriptionist before they can become part of a patient's permanent health record. More experienced transcriptionists may take on a quality control role where they review and edit a basic transcriptionist's work as necessary before submitting the document as a final product.
