How to Improve Your Work at Home as a Medical Transcriptionist

Improving your work as a medical transcriptionist generally involves two factors: Improving your speed and improving your accuracy. You can improve both by using macros to insert commonly used phrases into your transcriptions. And you can improve your accuracy by religiously using traditional reference tools to make sure your spellings are spot-on. Finally, you will need to recognize that there are no mechanical fixes for recognizing and correctly rendering some of the idiosyncracies of the English language, such as the difference between to, too and two, and the difference between its and it's. For these, a copy of Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" can be your quickest guide -- your mission is to recognize when you need to use it. Beyond that, several tips can help you streamline the efficiency of your electronic communications, and get the best medical information available in the most timely manner -- all of which will contribute to your accuracy, efficiency and profitability.

Instructions

1. The speed at which you type is not as important as how accurate you are and what aids you can use when transcribing. If you are not using macros or any of the quick-correct options in your word processing program, learn how to set them and use them as much as possible.

   Macro the difficult words such as hysterosalpingoophorectomy, as well as the most common introduction to sentences in a new patient document such as "I had the pleasure of seeing" and/or "I will keep you informed of her progress." Make your macro or quick correct using the beginning letter of the short phrase. For example, for the first macro just mentioned, make your five-letter macro using the letters I h t p o s.

2. You will also save time and prevent spelling errors in patient names by using the macro function to macro the patient's last name at the beginning of the letter or report. This is especially helpful and time saving if a patient's last name is a bit unusual like Abdelnour or Fonetenot.

3. Do not rely on your spell check application to differentiate and correct similar sounding words with different meanings such as to, too and two; affect or effect; week or weak; quiet or quite; ensure or insure. Make your own cheat sheet to keep by your side if you have trouble remembering exactly how these words are used in context.

4. Keep an insurance coding book handy. An outdated one will do just fine since you will be using it not for the insurance codes, but for the disease, syndrome, test names, operative and radiological procedure names. These are invaluable books and a used one will be very inexpensive. You may also be able to get one free from your own family doctor's office by asking their insurance filing person to give you the outdated one, rather than tossing it.

5. When submitting your invoice for your independent contractor services,do not charge by the line, but by the page. Unless you have a reliable application to count lines for you, it makes more sense to quote a price per page that takes into account the average number of lines per page and per half page into account. And make sure to keep both electronic and hard copies of your invoices throughout the year.

6. Save money on your Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) each year by asking one of the employees at your family physician's office if they will give you their last year's book instead of throwing it away. They are usually more than willing to give it to you free.

7. Set up a free email account through Google or Yahoo to send questions you may have about a patient report, rather than bothering the front office staff or being put "on hold" when you phone into a busy physician's office.

8. Learn to set up and use your particular computer's facsimile application. Or buy a facsimile machine to send reports that are time sensitive. For example, you will be much more valuable to a physician's office when they need a STAT letter or operative report transcribed and sent by facsimile to a referring doctor, medical records or surgery suite while a patient is being prepped for a surgical procedure.

9. When you are ready to deliver your transcribed reports, learn to create a zip file to attach to an email and send them over the internet. If you need to physically deliver hard copies of the reports, save time and money by arranging to deliver them no more than three times a week.

10. If you are able to use the Internet while transcribing, take advantage of the Google search engines to find the correct spelling of new drug names, tests and procedures. Finally, there are many publications for medical transcriptionists, the most popular being "The AAMT Book of Style." However, most information you will ever need is already available to you for free on the Internet. Take advantage of that, and save your hard earned money for more fun or needful things!