You're
sitting in front of a computer with your headphones on and your right
foot on a pedal. You're listening to a doctor's medical report (patient's
assessment, diagnosis, therapeutic procedures, etc.) recorded through
a high-tech recorder and converted into an audio file in your computer.
You encode the report making sure that you get every medical word loud
and clear including the medications, with correct spelling and grammar. Medical
transcription is no easy job as training and experience are required.
You are paid well, too, as much as that of a nurse. Each year, approximately
230,000 medical transcriptionists get hired but their availability is
dropping by ten percent yearly. The U.S. Department of Labor has projected
the demand for MTs to reach $20 billion worldwide.
Outsourcing transcription work proves to be more cost effective for most
U.S. hospitals than utilizing in-house secretarial staff to transcribe
dictations of physicians. Letting medical secretaries do the transcribing
usually causes delays as they have a variety of tasks to do like answering
phone calls and being a receptionist at the same time.