Although a lot of people think medical transcription is more or less a typing job, there are other requirements to qualify as a medical transcriptionist. A medical transcription course is necessary in order to accurately transcribe a doctor's dictation. This will be your biggest expense, but well worth it for a work at home career.

Not all medical transcription is done at home. Some is done at the clinic, hospital, or office of health care providers. The job itself consists of transcribing dictations from doctors and other health care providers and creating medical reports which you return to the doctors and health care providers and they will then be placed in the patient's chart.

There are a lot of forms and documents that a medical transcriptionist needs to be proficient in producing which can include office visits, discharge summaries from hospitals, referral letters, H & P reports and many more.

In order to accurately transcribe these reports some training and education is required. One of the most important of which is training in medical terminology. This is like a whole different language using a lot of Greek and Latin terms, but after awhile you become so familiar with it that you are automatically able to transcribe it accurately.

You need to take a medical transcription course that will teach you all the different aspects of the medical field. Clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities will require you to be proficient and accurate when transcribing their medical reports in the correct format.

There are many types of transcriptions that you need to learn in addition to the medical terminology. You also need to be well trained in producing reports in diagnostic procedures, anatomy, physiology, treatment assessments, etc. Some specialties also include gynecology, physical therapy, pediatrics, diseases, GI and GU, etc.

As a medical transcriptionist you also need to be proficient in accurately transcribing dictations made by physicians for whom English is the second language. This can be frustrating and takes a lot of experience to master in the beginning. But as you become more familiar with medical terms and abbreviations, this will start coming easier. Doctors will sometimes dictate while eating or driving in the car and this can present a challenge, but as a trained professional you will be able to transcribe them accurately.

With the expansion of the internet more people are able to work from their homes via internet connections. Medical transcription is one of the businesses that will allow you to easily work from home. Using a WAV pedal, C-phone, etc., you can download your dictation, transcribe it, and then import it back to the health care provider and never have to leave your home. Some doctors still like to dictate using cassettes and microcassettes, so in that case you would have to live close enough to pick up the tapes and deliver the transcription physically.

So, if you have good typing and grammar skills, this may be a career you would be interested in. You can work full time or part time. The amount of money you will make will depend on the amount of transcription you can do. This way you can set your own limits as to how much you work and how much money you want to make.