Medical Transcriptionists: Career Information

Job Description of Medical Transcriptionists: Medical transcriptionists translate dictated recordings from doctors and other medical professionals into written reports, correspondence and other documents. Some medical transcriptionists who work in doctors' offices also have additional clerical duties.

Employment Facts for Medical Transcriptionists: Medical transcriptionists held about 105,000 jobs in 2004.

Educational Requirements for Medical Transcriptionists: Though medical transcriptionists aren't required to have post-secondary training in medical transcription, many employers prefer to hire those who do. Community colleges, distance learning programs and vocational schools offer this training, in the form of an associate's degree or a one-year certificate program. Coursework includes anatomy, medical terminology, legal issues relating to health care documentation, and English grammar and punctuation. Students often receive on-the-job training as well.

Other Requirements for Medical Transcriptionists: Those who earn passing scores on exams given by the American Association for Medical Transcription are awarded the designation, Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT). This certification isn't required but it is preferred by employers.

Medical transcriptionists should have the following skills:

• good English grammar and punctuation skills;
• proficiency with personal computers and word processing software;
• normal hearing acuity; and
• good listening skills

Advancement for Medical Transcriptionists: Medical transcriptionists who have experience can advance to supervisory positions, home-based work, editing, consulting, or teaching. Those with additional education and training may become medical records and health information technicians, medical coders, or medical records and health information administrators.

Job Outlook for Medical Transcriptionists: Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2014.^*

Earnings of Medical Transcriptionists:

Median Hourly Earnings in the Industries Employing the Largest Numbers of Medical Transcriptionists(U.S., 2004^*)

• General medical and surgical hospitals: $$13.83
• Offices of physicians: $13.40
• Business support services: $13.40

Use the Salary Wizard at Salary.com to find out how much medical transcriptionists currently earn in your city.

A Day in a Medical Transcriptionist's Life: On a typical day a Medical Transcriptionist will:

• receive dictation from physicians or other health care professionals, increasingly over the Internet;
• listen to recordings on a headset;
• key text into a personal computer or word processor;
• produce discharge summaries, history and physical examination reports, operative reports, consultation reports, autopsy reports, diagnostic imaging studies, progress notes, and referral letters.;
• edit materials for grammar and clarity, if necessary;
• look for inconsistencies and errors in reports and check with the physician or healthcare professional in order to correct them;
• sometimes use voice recognition software which translates dictation into written text and creates reports which they must then edit for mistakes in translation and grammar; and
• return transcribed documents to the physicians or other healthcare professionals who dictated them for review and signature, or correction.

*This is the most recent year for which this information is available.

Information courtesy of Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006-07 Edition, Medical Transcriptionist, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm (visited February 21, 2007).