Medical transcription work from home

[chocolateorangeyum]

I am unhappy in my current job and I am thinking about doing some medical transcription work from home as I have very good knowledge of medical terminology. I have some experience of being a medical secretary and I can work in any speciality. Does anyone have experience of doing this, what is the pay like and if there are any agencies that are better than others? I don't have any typing qualifications (although my typing isn't too bad) and I'm not sure if it would be worth doing some.

Any advice about experiences of this would be appreciated!

[susannehicks]

It?s great that you have prior clinical experience as that would help in no small measure in securing medical transcription jobs. However, you can also consider taking some courses to refresh your skills and learn new ones. Know that medical transcription industry has undergone a lot of changes and you may want to learn about the latest technologies being used for this work. In case what I said makes sense, you can start by exploring Career Step medical transcription school. It?s one of the biggest names among medical transcription schools!

[Eglantine175]

Why pay out for a course when you can teach yourself? Yes it helps if you have a medical background - especially if you've worked in a GP surgery and have an all-round grasp of medical terminology - but I have done medical transcription without any prior knowledge of medical terminology. If you already have transcription skills or audio typing skills, it?s well worth having a go at medical transcription.

Firstly, not all medical transcription requires this. Some of it is more general and whilst there may be some medical terminology used, if the speaker is clear it is easy to look up the terminology. If you are not sure you can always ask your customer to clarify.

A good way of entering this market though is to pick a specialist field - most medical professionals work within specific specialities or fields - and familiarise yourself with the lingo. Do some practice with medical files in that particular field. You will find lots of samples on the internet if you look hard enough.

As a first stop, try Spoken Words, where you can download medical report and disucssions in audio format to practice transcribing, and work with a medical terminology dictionary. You will be surprised how quickly you become familiar with most of the terms used within that medical field.

As someone who has run my own transcription company for quite a few years, I'm a firm believer that where there is a will, there is a way. Although most of my work is general transcription - and fascinating work it is, too - nevertheless I have done both medical and also legal work, including both recording and transcribing medical meetings and court hearings. In the case of medical work, simply be honest with your potential customer and ask them what level or amount of medical terminology is used before you take on the work.

I have a regular customer who is a researcher in the field of Physiotherapy and I've become very familiar with the terminology used in that particular field.

What I would say is, don't take this kind of work if the medical professional whose work you are transcribing is a poor speaker! It's not something you would want to take risks with getting wrong.

But don't let people scare you either. It's not rocket science.
Best of luck :)

[Eglantine175]

More specific to you chocolateorangeyum, if you have medical terminology it's a head start but can you touch type? If not, you will struggle to make a decent income. There are free typing tutors on the internet if that is the case. If you're typing is pretty fast though then it's well worth having a go.

I don't know about any agencies but you can look for your own customers. Put an email together and send out offering your services to local medical practitioners - offer yourself as cover during holidays/sickness periods as a start-off. Also there are medical professionals in the universities you can email, researchers and lecturers for example. And remember if you do a good job, they will always come back to you and they will recommend you to colleagues.

[Ponsum]

Hi, I am also interested in transcription work, especially in the medical field. I have found a couple of agencies, but also will take Eglantine's advice about sending out a personal email to medical centres etc. However, how much do you charge? The agencies are asking me to quote a fee and I have no idea at the moment. Can anyone here help me with that? Thanks