There are currently an abundance of medical transcription jobs and related opportunities available in North America. Physicians, medical practices, hospitals, and clinics rely on medical transcriptionists to clearly, concisely, and accurately transcribe the details of patient visits from a digital recording to a professional detailed report. Although there are thousands of individuals employed as transcriptionists, there are, just like any other profession, a very small percentage who have achieved excellence in the field.
What exactly is excellence as it pertains to medical transcription jobs? First of all, excellence is defined as “A talent, quality, or skill which is extraordinarily good, and far surpasses the norm or standard set by others performing a similar task or activity”. In terms of medical transcription, excellence quite simply means delivering perfect or near perfect work on a consistent basis, on time, every time.
Transcribed medical reports are most often sent to referring doctors, patients, other medical facilities, insurance providers, and as a result a trail of reports containing errors can lead to major implications. Legal issues, improper diagnosis, and embarrassment. Although it is the physician’s responsibility to ensure that any report initiated by his or her office is correct, they often do not have time to scrutinize every last detail and place a lot of trust in those performing the medical transcription jobs. Inconsistencies reflect badly upon the doctor and in turn the medical transcriptionist.
Case in point! My father who recently turned 90 is currently under care of a General Practitioner who referred him to a Geriatrician for the purposes of assessment after a series of ECT treatments. During the assessment, the doctor asked many questions and made a lot of notes which were later voice recorded and sent to a medical transcriptionist for report preparation.
A few weeks later, I received a copy of the report and noticed that a copy went to the Family Doctor, a Geriatric Psychiatrist, a Clinical Psychologist, and to the medical records department of the hospital. Recognizing that the report had three major errors, one being that he had suffered memory loss for 15 years, where in fact it was only 2 months, I contacted the doctor. He was irate and indicated that it was time to get rid of these people who are filling the medical transcription jobs.
The point here is that incompetent and shoddy work, done by the medical transcriptionist, created a whole lot of unnecessary work for the doctor and his staff. Had it gone unnoticed, this report would have become part of my father’s permanent records for many years to come. If you have a desire to excel and prosper in medical transcription jobs, strive for excellence. Focus on accuracy, attention to detail, and creating a report once.