Get a Job, Work at Home

It May Not Be "Easy Money," But There Are Ways to Make a Living by Working From Home

Medical Transcriptionist - this work is focused on translating a doctor's report to an electronic record of a person's medical history, diagnosis and treatment. As the health care industry moves toward electronic health records as the standard - allowing easier storage and accessibility of an individual's history by physicians anywhere — there is an increased demand for medical transcriptionists.

There are about 100,000 registered MTs in the United States now - the majority of them work from home. Technology is paving the way for more people to pursue this line of work from anywhere in the country. I talked to a dozen companies that hire home-based agents, and they're all eager for new hires — both part-time and full-time employees as well as independent contractors. Some of the biggest employers in this field are Focus Infomatics, MedQuist and Spheris.

Training: In addition to needing high-speed Internet access and a PC, training is required, which can take up to a year — either through online distance learning or at just about any community college in the country. The cost ranges from about $1,000 to $3,500. Keep in mind that learning medical terminology is like learning a foreign language. It takes diligence and motivation. Accuracy and speed are essential, which means the people best suited for this job are well-coordinated and disciplined and have an exceptional ear. Before selecting a school, ask about its job placement record and research the employers they claim to work with.

Money: Medical transcriptionists are paid by the line, so it's a field where productivity drives compensation. Expect to earn between $30,000 and $40,000 annually once you're well-trained.

Medical Coding - Coders translate the verbal names for diseases, ailments and treatments into numerical codes. Changing government regulations and the growth of managed care have increased the amount of paperwork involved in filing insurance claims, all of which are based on these codes. No codes, no payment!

Training: You still have to know general medical terminology and pharmacology to do medical coding, but codebooks and software support your efforts. Again, you can learn this online or at a community college or technical school. A top school can assist with job placement upon completion of coursework. Expect to work in an office for a period of time before being able to work from home full-time.

Coders can earn an average of $30,000 to $35,000 annually.

The American Association for Medical Transcription and the American Health Information Management Association can be good sources of information to assist your efforts in identifying schools and employers for becoming either a transcriptionist or coder.

Source: http://mtindia.info/news/latest/get-a-job-work-at-home.html

AAMT and Prometric announce the launch of the ‘Registered Medical Transcriptionist’ Credential

New International Credential to enhance training & career prospects for young Indian medical transcriptionists

American Association for Medical Transcription, in association with Prometric, announced the Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT) credentialing exam – a newly developed global ‘level-1’ credential in the arena of Medical Transcription. This program is aimed at helping the existing talent pool to scale up and meet the global standards and quality benchmarks. The two organizations also announced a special ‘India price’ for AAMT’s existing Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) exam.

Medical Transcription is a booming industry with exponential growth prospects and opportunities for committed players. While globally the industry potential is around USD 30-33 billion, in India it is around USD 300 million. Currently, there are around 18,000 medical practitioners in the country and this is expected to almost double within the next 2-3 years.

Previously, the lack of globally recognized programs in this domain hampered the evolution of proper talent and career prospects in the industry. With the introduction of RMT, a level 1 exam, on top of the existing CMT exam offered by AAMT, both of which are globally accepted credentials, it will now encourage students as well as existing MT professionals to acquire knowledge and brace up their skills in the field. This will not only help them to perform better while on job, but will also open a whole new world of opportunities and offer long-term career prospects for them.

Source:http://www.mtindia.info/

Poor Medical Dictation Can Put Patients' Lives In Danger

Doctors are putting their patients in danger with medical dictation so bad that professionals can't even understand them, according to a Problem Solvers investigation.

Medical transcriptionists said they have been dealing with sloppy physician records for years. A transcriptionist transcribes the doctor's diagnosis and treatment for the patient's medical record. Holfeld reported that sometimes, transcribing becomes an impossible task. "We should be held accountable for quality, but it's difficult to be held accountable for quality when the challenges on the dictation are pretty overwhelming," medical transcriptionist Brenda Hurley said.

Hurley is a former president of the Florida Association of Medical Transcriptionists. She and her colleagues are joining a national campaign to expose the potential side effects of bad dictations. "If it takes multiple levels of quality assurance review, it's going to take longer to get back to the patient's chart," Hurley said. Joyce Peck was just days away from kidney surgery when she met with us two weeks ago. She caught a mistake before her surgery. "Potentially they could have taken out the wrong kidney and then I would have been left with no kidneys," Peck said. "I caught it," Peck said.

"One place it's left kidney and the next place it's right kidney," Peck said. The diagnosis of a renal malignancy -- cancer -- was caught in a radiologist's apparent flubbed dictation. "Whew," Holfeld said. "What did you think at that point?" "I didn't know what to think -- who was right?" Peck said. In fact, MRI scan confirmed it was the right kidney and not the left. Peck is recovering from kidney surgery. She shared her story as a personal public warning.

Source: http://www.mtindia.info/

Medical Transcription as per U.S. Department of Labor

Medical Transcriptionists

Significant Points

• Job opportunities will be good.
• Employers prefer medical transcriptionists who have completed a postsecondary training program at a vocational school or community college.
• Many medical transcriptionists telecommute from home-based offices as employees or subcontractors for hospitals and transcription services or as self-employed, independent contractors.
• About 4 out of 10 worked in hospitals and another 3 out of 10 worked in offices of physicians.

Nature of the Work

Medical transcriptionists listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other health care professionals and transcribe them into medical reports, correspondence, and other administrative material. They generally listen to recordings on a headset, using a foot pedal to pause the recording when necessary, and key the text into a personal computer or word processor, editing as necessary for grammar and clarity. The documents they produce include discharge summaries, history and physical examination reports, operative reports, consultation reports, autopsy reports, diagnostic imaging studies, progress notes, and referral letters. Medical transcriptionists return transcribed documents to the physicians or other health care professionals who dictated them for review and signature, or correction. These documents eventually become part of patients’ permanent files.
Check
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm for more details

True Doctor Stories

A man comes into the ER and yells, "My wife's going to have her baby
in the cab!" I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, lifted the
lady's dress, and
began to take off her underwear. Suddenly, I noticed that there
were several cabs, and I was in the wrong one.

Dr. Mark MacDonald, San Antonio, TX
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
At the beginning of my shift, I placed a stethoscope on an elderly
and slightly deaf female patient's anterior chest wall. "Big
breaths," I instructed.
"Yes, they used to be,"remorsefully replied the patient.

Dr. Richard Byrnes, Seattle, WA
* * * * * * * * * * * *
One day, I had to be the bearer of bad news when I told a wife that
her husband had died of a massive myocardial infarct. Not more than
five minutes later, I heard her reporting to the rest of the family
that he had died of a "massive internal fart."

Dr. Susan Steinberg, Manitoba, Canada
* * * * * * * * * * *
I was performing a complete physical, including the visual acuity
test. I placed the patient twenty feet from the chart and
began, "Cover your right eye with your hand." He read the 20/20 line
perfectly. "Now your left." Again, a flawless read. "Now both," I
requested. There was silence. He couldn't even read the large E
on the top line. I turned and discovered that he had done exactly
what I had asked; he was standing there with both his eyes covered.
I was laughing too hard to finish the exam.

Dr. Matthew Theodropolous, Worcester, MA
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
During a patient's two week follow-up appointment with his
cardiologist, he informed me, his doctor, that he was having trouble
with one of his medications. "Which one?" I asked. "The patch. The
nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours, and now, I'm
running out of places to put it!" I had him quickly undress and
discovered what I hoped I wouldn't see. Yes, the man had over fifty
patches on his body! Now the instructions include removal of the old
patch before applying a new one.

Dr. Rebecca St. Clair, Norfolk, VA
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
While acquainting myself with a new elderly patient, I asked, "How
long have you been bedridden?" After a look of complete confusion
she answered...
"Why, not for about twenty years -- when my husband was alive."

Dr. Steven Swanson, Corvallis, OR
* * * * * * * * * * *
I was caring for a woman from Kentucky and asked, "So, how's your
breakfast this morning?" "It's very good, except for the Kentucky
Jelly. I can't seem to get used to the taste," the patient replied.
I, then, asked to see the jelly, and the woman produced a foil packet
labeled "KY Jelly."

Dr. Leonard Kransdorf, Detroit, MI
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
And Finally . . . . .

A new, young MD doing his residency in OB was quite embarrassed
performing female pelvic exams. To cover his embarrassment, he had
unconsciously formed a habit of whistling softly. The middle-aged
lady upon whom he was performing this exam suddenly burst out
laughing and further embarrassed him. He looked up from his work
and sheepishly said, "I'm sorry. Was I tickling you?" She
replied, "No doctor, but the song you were whistling was, 'I wish I
was an Oscar Meyer Wiener'."

Life is Great!

Source:

The month was right!

Written documentation on a patient's chart in with PID, "Patient had her sister
move into her ovaries in December."

It was supposed to read that patient had a cyst removed from her ovaries in
December.

Source: MedicalTranscription-Humor-Zone

Medical TermsAccording to Blondes

*Apologies go out to anyone who really is a blonde*

Artery The study of paintings.
Bacteria Back door to the cafeteria.
Barium What doctors do when treatment fails.
Bowel A letter like "A", "E", "I", ETC.
Caesarean section District in Rome
Cat Scan searching for kitty
Cauterize Made eye contact with her
Colic Sheep dog
Coma Punctuation mark
Congenital Friendly
D & C Where Washington is
Dilate To live a long time
Enema No a friend
Fester Quicker
Hang nail Coat hook
Impotent Distinguished
Labor pain Getting hurt at work
Morbid Higher offer
Nitrate Cheaper than the day rate
Node Was aware of
Out-patient Person painted
Post-op Letter carrier
Recovery room Place to re-upholster
Rectum Dang near killed him
Rheumatic Amorous
Secretion Hiding something
Tablet Small table
Terminal Getting sick at the airport
Tibia A country in north africa
Tumor More than one
Urine Opposite of "you're out"
Varicose Nearby
Vein Conceited

By: Mary Usner posted on Yahoo Groups [MedicalTranscription-Humor-Zone]