Graduation at last!

cathe4me2

Cathlete
Hi Everybody,
Just wanted to let you all know, after 2 years of training, I finally graduated from medical transcription school. I am now a medical language specialist, which is the new term for medical transcriptionist.
This, I believe, has been the hardest thing I have ever done! There is a lot to be said for younger brain cells and memory. LOL

My neighbor has been helping me keep on track with my workouts by coming over after the schoolbus leaves in the mornings. Too much sitting can widen the hips, so I am doing plenty of intense workouts.

Looking forward to a small vacation and Cathe's new series coming this winter.
 
Welcome to the profession. I've been in it about 18 years. I didn't now they had changed our title to medical language specialist... I think I like that.:)
 
Hi Jane,
Wow! I will have to get with you and talk shop. ;-) AAMT decided the name change was in order due to the voice recognition technology coming on the scene. MT's will be needed more than ever but will have more of a role in correcting grammar, as opposed to simply transcribing verbatum what is dictated and flagging errors. Voice recognition has its limitations.

The worst problem I had in the entire course was commas! I still do not have them perfected. The second worst problem was ESL dictators and deciding when to keep the flavor of their speech and when to edit them. And of course, there are those who talk 90 mph making a whole paragraph into 3 words, and this was the procedure part of the report.
I am glad to hear that dictators are starting to be fined from some MT companies for consistently being rude on these patient's reports. When it hits their wallet, suddenly they become a little more concerned about the patient's medical record and the person trying to understand what he/she is saying.

Jane,this is cool to meet someone who does Cathe workouts and is also an MT or medical word specialist. :)
 
Wanda,
Congrats on graduating! What do you study at medical transcription school? Is there an actual classroom you attend or is it a self study program? Now that you've graduated where will you be working? I'm not real clear on exactly what it is a medical transcriptionist does but I'm interested. Two years is a significant amount of time to work toward a goal so I'm sure you must be very happy to have completed it!! Congratulations once again.
 
Hi Elaine,
I just went through a very comprehensive course of mutiple medical specialties(cardiology, radiology, orthopedics, GI, GU, Oncology, Pathology, etc,),studying medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, laboratory medicine, and human diseases. I had training in foreign dictation, with 900 hours of physician dictatation in 11 specialities, plus grammar, formatting, proofreading, editing, and computer technology.
A transcriptionist (word specialist) will take dictation and transcribe it to be part of the patient's medical record. Most often, if a transcriptionist works for a company, he/she will sign in with their password and dictation will be downloaded via dictation software. At present, I have been using wav files. It is amazing how you can get these voice files over the internet! The transcriptionist will listen to the dictation through a headset and will type it in a word document (for example) and send it back via email to the transcription company.
It works the same way if the transcriptionist is an independent worker only he/she may get the files directly from the hospital or clinic.
The transcriptionist is trained in how to keep the patient's files confidential. The patient's medical record is an important medicolegal document, confidentiality is a must.

Just out of school, I still have tons of things to learn, but an MT has to know operative procedures, the anatomy, medicine and the dosages, and of course grammar, in order to flag the medical report in case of discrepency; the right leg mentioned when it was the left leg operated on, or the wrong body part mentioned, the wrong drug/dosage.

The school I atttended was online, and I am trained to work from home. My school is #1 (Rah Rah Rah LOL)to be signed up with AAMT as the industry is trying to get some standardization on training MTs.

Sorry this is so long. I am working on resumes and all this is fresh on the brain. :p :)
 
congrats you earned it :7 :7 :7 :7
When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be
disappointed to discover they are not it -- Bernard Bailey
 
Very interesting, Wanda. I sort of knew about medical transcriptionists but not really if you know what I mean! It sounds like it's sort of knowing what doctors know without having to look at the gross stuff!
 
Wanda... I'm so glad you are excited about your new career. After 18 years, sometimes it takes a little more for me to drum up the excitement;) You are right on the money when describing what we do though. I work for a medical center, though I do work from home, and I work in all specialties, we have quite a few specialties represented in our hospital. I get bored very easily and thankfully the team leader who works on site knows that and mixes it up for me during the day. Even if I am on operative reports for the day, she gives them to me across all specialties.

Thanks for posting and letting us know how excited you are about medical transcription. I really love what I do or I wouldn't have done it for the last 18 years but, as you indicated in your post, there are those docs that make our lives a living you know what sometimes. I have learned how all of our foreign doctors pronounciate their terminology so am not having problems with that the moment but there are always those who, as you said, dictate a two-page report in one breath!!

Good luck!!! Nice to *meet* you.:)
 

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top