|
Medical Transcription Career Tips Continued (From page 1)—
Sometimes that can be hard to do with distractions in the background. This is why it is very important to have a place to do your work that is separate from everyone else. It can be a spare room, den, or a home office area. If you do have a room that is just for your work then you also could be eligible for certain tax deductions at the end of the year. Of course you would need to talk to your accountant or tax person about what is eligible and what is not.
Try to have a set schedule to do your work. Some MTs will transcribe their reports at night when everyone is resting; while others will work while their kids are in school. Just make sure that whatever schedule you choose that you let your friends and family know that you are unavailable during this time frame. We see more situations when people work from home that family and friends think that they can call and chat, or ask for a favor during this time. They do not realize that working at home is just like having a real job. Be firm! Set your answering machine or voicemail to screen your calls, and only stop working to return a call if it is important. Treat your job at home as if you were working at a doctor’s office. You could not stop working to go run to the store for your husband or chat for an hour with your best friend if you were working at the doctor’s location.
The same thing should apply when you are looking for your first job. Treat it as if you were already working and devote that time to promote your medical transcription services. Ok, so you got your first job and you are wondering if there are certain things that you should do…. One of the very first things you need to do is make sure your computer is HIPAA Complaint. This means that all of your files should be password protected so that no one except for you can access them! Your computer should also be password protected. You can create a username on your computer that only you can access and only use this computer for work. This is another thing that you may be able to take off your taxes if you use it just for work. When you send files back and forth to the doctor make sure that they are encrypted. If you do not know how to encrypt an email it is easy to find out. Just go into Google and type “How to encrypt an email?” and you will get many results that will tell you how to do it. Now days there is a video tutorial for almost anything on You Tube, you might be able to find a “FREE” video tutorial showing you how to do this.
The next thing you will want to do is organize your office area. Make sure that it is neat and that you can get to things easily. One of the things you should always have at your fingertips is the AHDI Book of Style and your Prescription Drug Reference. You will also want to have a medical dictionary within reach as well. These are things you will use often. If you have subscribed to the KB Benchmark through AHDI that offers the Medical Dictionary and AHDI Book of Style online then make sure you create a shortcut on your desktop for easy access to that website.
These things are very important because you want to flag reports as “Little” as possible. Nothing is worse than to have a medical report from a Medical Transcriptionist that is full of flags. If you do not know what a “flag” is, it is where you will note the report for something that you do not understand. This can be done is several ways. The AHDI Book of Style will tell you how to flag a medical report. Some of the medical transcription services will have you log in and do your work and then log out when it is done, others will have you log in and download your work then once it is complete you will upload it. If your doctor or medical transcription service has you download and upload the work via FTP there is a great program out there called WS_FTP Professional that does not cost very much. This program will allow you to encrypt the files when transferring them. Of course make sure that your doctor or medical transcription service is okay with you using this program before doing so.
Learn your doctors! If you work for the same doctor you will want to learn their voice, accent, and yes even how to pick the words through their mumbles. You can do this by listening to the dictations several times. If there was a term or word that you did not understand, make a note of it. Once you find out what they were saying and have both a mental and written note you will eventually just automatically know the next time you hear it.
Practice does make perfect! We cannot stress this enough. Just because you finished your medical transcription course and even if you are now working as a Medical Transcriptionist, you still need to practice. Keep up with any new medical terminology, new prescription drugs and any new style and format changes. Doctors love MTs that take their job serious. Those that continue to learn more and try to improve their career skills will go much further in their Medical Transcription Career. This is true with any career, just like Nurses have to continue to learn new medical information all of the time.
Just remember that if you get stuck or discouraged that there is help out there. There is a full network of Medical Transcriptionist that are more than willing to lend a helping hand. Search Facebook for Medical Transcription. You can search Google for Medical Transcription Forums / Message Boards. Get to know other MTs. This will not only help you with your career, it can also help bring new job opportunities your way.
Last and most important, consider joining AHDI. They will keep you informed of any new medical transcription updates and you can also get nice discounts on new books that come out that you may need. They offer many tools that you can use to increase your medical transcription credentials. Such as, CMT (Certified Medical Transcriptionist) practice and review CDs, RMT (Registered Medical Transcriptionist) information and much more. Taking your career to the next level is so important. There are MTs that just take the course and then do not try to increase their credentials. However, many of those that are not willing to learn new things will not be able to take their career further.
If you have not already taken a medical transcription course this gives you a little idea about the career, however you will want to research the career and different medical transcription schools. For those of you that have taken a course and are either looking for a job or are now working; we hope that this information was useful to you. Enjoy your career in medical transcription and remember to take some time out for yourself!
|
