How You Can Get Started in Medical Transcription

I am a medical transcriptionist.

More specifically, I work for a company who has contracted with the State of Oklahoma to do mental and physical exams for Social Security Disability.

Here is the process as a whole:

• Social Security makes the appointments.
• The doctor(s) see the patients and dictate(s) the reports.
• I, or one of the other three transcriptionists, type the dictation.
• The doctor signs the report.
• The report is sent to Social Security Disablity as part of the patient's file.

I have been doing this for eight years.

Quite often, on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or another bulletin board system, someone asks me, "How can I get started doing medical transcription?"

In all honesty, I'm not the person to ask. I got started doing this as a fluke. Here's how it happened:

• I had been laid off.
• My mother was starting this company.
• She gave me a tape to listen to and said, "Here. See if you can do this."
• I did it.

I understand this is not the usual procedure for getting started doing medical transcription. I didn't go into it completely blind, though.

• In college, I had majored in counseling and learned a lot of the pscyhological terminology there.
• I found a good medical dictionary -- online and off -- that helped me with medical terminology.
• I befriended some doctors and was given old copies of the monthly supplement to the Physician's Desk Reference for medication spellings.
• One psychiatrist gave me a (probably out-dated) CD that had a lot of medications on it as well.

None of this is "regulation" for getting started in this kind of a career.

Many colleges and vocational-technical schools have certification programs for medical transcription. Those are honestly probably the best ways for you to get started doing medical transcription. There are a few things I can suggest, though:

• Beef up on your typing speed. If you are a slow typist, you won't last.
• Invest in a good office chair. Your back will thank you.
• Either buy an ergonomic keyboard or Smart Gloves (available at any drug store) to help ward off carpal tunnel syndrome.
• Learn excercises to do to help ward off carpal tunnel syndrome.
• Don't work from home. It can take over your life if you do.

Other than that, there is really only last thing I can say.

Good luck.