The school you select will ultimately depend on what style of learning benefits you the most. All schools should cover a basic curriculum in order to prepare students for employment.

Prerequisites

Some transcription schools have a screening test. If they don’t, you should review your skills yourself to see if you meet the basic prerequisite requirements for a successful career as a medical transcriptionist.

• English comprehension, spelling, and usage competency (spoken and written) equivalent to that of a high school graduate.
• Minimum keyboarding speed of 60 words per minute.
• Intermediate word processing skills, including ability to create, save, format, and copy and paste documents.
• Intermediate computer skills including ability to troubleshoot basic computer problems, install software, manage files, send and receive emails with attachments, and utilize the Internet for research purposes.
• Normal hearing acuity.

A note about hearing acuity: If you have a hearing disability, however slight, you will experience difficulty in this career and it is not recommended for you. It is absolutely essential in medical transcription that you be able to hear and understand the spoken word as it is recorded on electronic media, sometimes not under the best of conditions and/or by the best of dictators.

You will be required to not only know medical terminology, physiology and anatomy, you will need to be able to understand physicians who may speak accented English (English as a second language, or ESL); voices covering a wide range of types, volumes and ranges; recordings on substandard equipment; and recordings that include background noise.

Instructor Qualifications

Request a curriculum vitae of the course content developer as well as the instructors. Course content developers should have a current and valid credential, either Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) or Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT).

The CMT credential is administered by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). The RHIT credential is administered by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). You should contact the appropriate organization to verify that the credential is valid and current.

Content developers and instructors should have a minimum of three years’ experience in acute care or multispecialty settings.

Textbooks and Teaching Material

Obtain a list of required textbooks and teaching material prior to signing up for a medical transcription course and evaluate whether they will adequate cover the course content and prepare you for the job skills required.

Dictation products should come from genuine dictation from a healthcare provider source, not professionally recorded readings and should be a minimum of 30 hours of dictation. A key should not be provided to the student; practical experience should be graded by an instructor, with feedback provided to the student for corrections.

Course Content

According to AHDI curriculum guidelines, course content should include the following:

• English language, including grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure and medical style.
• Medical knowledge, including core aspects of medicine, medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, clinical medicine, laboratory tests, pharmacology, surgery, imaging techniques, and pathology.
• Technology, including computer skills and transcription equipment proficiency, internet navigation and search, file transfer, word processing, as well as security and confidentiality issues.
• Medical-legal aspects of the healthcare record, including format, content, purpose, and legal aspects; general knowledge of standards and regulations for healthcare documents, including HIPAA and risk management.
• Medical transcription practice, emphasizing direct practice using genuine dictation. Practice dictation should include beginning, intermediate and advanced levels.

In order to discourage individuals who may wish to obtain textbooks and other materials to teach themselves medical transcription, TranscriptionSchools.com will not provide a detailed list of textbooks and teaching material. If you have questions, please submit them by using the Contact form and they will be answered in the FAQ.

The school you select will ultimately depend on what style of learning benefits you the most. All schools should cover a basic curriculum in order to prepare students for employment.

Job Placement

A school that has an ongoing relationship with employers in the medical transcription industry is essential. Some transcription schools have agreements with various employers to offer graduates a position, others have actual placement services. This is an important aspect of successfully entering a career as a medical transcriptionist. Finding your first job and getting at least 1 year (preferably 2) of experience is one of the most difficult aspects of entering into this career.

Advertising Claims

Certification or Credentialing: Some advertisers refer to certification, certification courses and certificate of completion. These should not be confused with the Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) credential. This credential is only offered through AHDI and is currently the only recognized credential for medical transcriptionists. The CMT exam requires that the applicant have 2 years of acute care experience prior to sitting for the exam. Obtaining a certificate on graduation from a medical transcription school or education program does not authorize you to present yourself as a certified medical transcriptionist or CMT. New graduates are eligible to sit for the Registered Medical Transcriptionist exam offered through AHDI, however.

Also, we have found at least one company offering to certify transcriptionists. This is not a recognized credential and paying to obtain this certification would be a waste of your money.

Work-at-home opportunity: While medical transcription is a legitimate work-at-home opportunity, the desire to work at home is not the only qualification required. You should consider schools that emphasize excellence and learning, rather than focusing on the work-at-home aspects.

What do I need to know to be a general transcriptionist?

As with all transcription careers, general transcription requires excellent English skills – grammar, punctuation and spelling – as well as proficient use of the computer and word processing programs. For contractors outsourcing this work, general transcription is frequently paid on a piecework basis; therefore, typing skills are essential.

Technical ability is also important. Most jobs are transferred electronically, over the internet. A general transcriptionist must have a simple method for sending and receiving files. If you are working as an independent contractor offering services, it will be necessary to know what methods are available for file transfers over the internet. You must be able to communicate effectively with clients how to utilize the file transfer system.

How much can I make?

There are many factors involved in what a general transcriptionist can make, including audio quality, what type of recording it is, how many people will be speaking (such as focus groups), client requirements and the ability to obtain work at a fairly steady rate.

There are general transcription outsource companies that may contract with independent transcriptionists or may hire them at telecommuting employees. This work is almost always piecework, as well.

If the project is priced right and typing speed is excellent, you can earn up to $30 per hour when you work. However, you should not expect to have a steady volume of work and can expect to earn approximately $25,000 to $30,000 per year if you are fast and can obtain a sufficient volume of work.

General transcription requires flexibility and excellent basic skills but there are no formal education or training programs available for becoming a general transcriptionist.

What is legal transcription?

The legal system in the U.S. creates a tremendous amount of documentation. Everything that takes place requires hard-copy documentation. Attorneys generate numerous, sometimes lengthy, documents and correspondence. Formal and informal hearings and meetings may be recorded, as well as interviews. Police reports and interviews may also be recorded for documentation. Court proceedings and depositions are typically recorded by a court reporter; court reporting is not the same as legal transcription.

Transcription is required to create a hard copy. A legal secretary may perform many of these duties, but many offices prefer to have the secretary do scheduling, court filings, assist with preparation for trial, etc. The legal transcriptionist typically only transcribes.

What do I need to know to become a legal transcriptionist?

Like medical transcription, legal transcription is very specialized. The terminology and formatting are very specific to the legal system. You also need to have excellent English grammar and spelling skills. Computer proficiency is becoming a requirement in almost any job in today’s market, and legal transcription is no exception. Legal transcriptionists must be familiar with word processing software, as well as digital audio file formats and how to play them using a footpedal control on the computer. For offices still using analog dictation, use of a transcriber with footpedal is required.

Even when you are paid hourly, production is essential, so keyboarding is important. Most legal secretary and transcription jobs require a typing speed of at least 80 wpm. If you aren’t a fast and proficient typist, you will not make as much money if you are being paid by the piece. If you work in an office and you are paid hourly, you will be expected to produce a sufficient volume of work to meet document deadlines. Fast and accurate typing will be essential.

A good legal transcriptionist needs to:

• Listen to a phrase or meaningful word group, key those words, and listen again before completing the first group of words
• Understand legal terminology and use it correctly
• Analyze what is being dictated and listen to the dictator’s tone of voice as a guide to aid in correct punctuation
• Produce transcribed copy that is set up attractively and is free of spelling, punctuation, grammar, or typographical errors
• Transcribe legal reports at a minimum rate of 45 correct lines in 30 minutes
• Review documents for weak areas and make improvements by studying rules and examples
• Proofread transcripts with 100% accuracy.
• Use information found in the appendix, roots, prefix, and suffix sections of legal reference texts and materials
• Identify, define, and produce a variety of transcribed legal records and reports

How much can I make?

If you work as an employee in an office, you can expect to make between $15 and $25 per hour, depending on where you work.

If you work as an outsourced contractor, you would typically charge by the piece. This can be by the line, the page, the recorded minutes or any other means of measuring production that is agreed upon between the parties. You may also choose to charge by the hour. If you work directly for your clients, this is something you will negotiate. If you work for an outsourced transcription service, you would most likely be paid by the piece. How much you earn would depend on how much you produce.

Legal transcription is in demand and there are legitimate work-at-home opportunities. If you have or are able to acquire the requisite skills, this may be a good career to pursue.

Searching for information about medical transcription can be confusing. It is true that medical transcription is an excellent at-home (telecommuting) job. However, it is not something to be undertaken without a realistic view of the requirements and schooling. Many web sites promote medical transcription as a career because they are selling a product. TranscriptionSchools.com offers realistic information from experts with extensive experience in the industry.

What is medical transcription?

Medical transcription is the process of listening to what a healthcare provider dictates in a recorder and typing it into a text editor or word processing application, such as Word. The completed transcript is then included in the medical record for a patient. Healthcare providers reference medical records to obtain medical and social history, medication list, allergies, drug reactions, laboratory data, treatment plans and other information necessary to provide continuity of care.

What do I need to know to become a medical transcriptionist?

A good command of the English language is essential, as well as excellent spelling skills.

Competent computer skills are also necessary. Almost all transcription is now done on computers, using the internet to transfer dictation and completed reports.

Excellent typing (keyboarding) skills are also required. Transcription is almost always paid on a production basis. In other words, you get paid for what you type, either by the word, line or character or some variation. (Please visit VerifiableBilling for an explanation of the various methods used). Fast, accurate typists will make more per hour. If you are not currently keyboarding accurately at a rate of 60 wpm (words per minute) or more, consider brushing up on your keyboarding skills.

How much will I be paid?

How much you will be paid depends on what company you go to work for. Typically, transcriptionists are paid on a production basis with production measured as 65 characters (line). Pay rates range from 6 cpl (cents per line) to 14 cpl. The lower range is what is paid when you work as an employee for an outsource transcription service; the higher end is when you are working as an outsource contractor yourself, directly with the clinic or hospital.

How much can I make?

That depends on many things:

• The difficulty of the dictation
• The speaking style and diction of the dictator
• Your typing speed
• How often you have to look up words and phrases in reference sources

There are many things that impact on productivity and therefore on pay. However, the average pay for a full-time medical transcriptionist is approximately $27,000 a year.

Most important, you will need a good education! TranscriptionSchools.com is the place to start if you”re looking for information on becoming a medical transcriptionist. We provide information on what to look for in a transcription school and what you should expect from a career in medical transcription. Our network of medical transcription web sites has been developed to assist in entry into medical transcription, maintaining a career in medical transcription, finding appropriate references and connecting with the online community as a whole.

We will be featuring various schools and programs and allowing them to provide in-depth information.

Why are you here?

Typically, people seeking transcription careers are women looking for work they can do at home. Many are new mothers looking for income that will allow them to contribute to the family finances while giving them flexibility to care for the needs of their family. Others are middle-age women looking for a second career that utilizes skills they already have. Because many transcription jobs are performed in a home office environment, there is a high degree of interest in it.

Medical transcription: This is probably the #1 career interest people have when they are seeking transcription jobs. Although it is not an easy career path, it can be rewarding. Industry salary surveys report that on average, medical transcriptionists make $27,000 a year; however, the salary survey doesn’t take into account the work situation: part time, full time, overtime, independent contractor, or employee. In any medical transcription discussion forum, you will find an ongoing discussion about wages, with some transcriptionists reporting income in the $50,000/year range, $19/hour range, down to $15,000/year and $10/hour. If this is a career you wish to pursue, selecting the right school will be extremely important in terms of being able to get a job after you’ve completed the program, and your earning ability.

Legal transcription: There are many attorneys who practice in office suites that don”t provide secretarial or transcription support. In larger practices, there may be overflow that is sent out to a transcriptionist or transcription service. Legal transcription jobs can be found either in the office, but there are also many opportunities to work at home as an outsourced transcriptionist or service. Legal documents and language are very specialized; like medical transcription, getting the right education is key to obtaining future work.

General transcription: General transcription is less specialized than legal or medical. Typically, a good foundation in basic skills is sufficient.