Medical transcription jobs are on the rise and will continue to be for the next decade, largely due to the aging baby-boomer population and the special medical treatment and care they will require.   Couple that with the fact that the average age of medical transcriptionists is now 55, one can see that a shortage of medical transcriptionists will soon become a critical issue.

But wait: It is no secret that a lot of medical transcription work is being outsourced, sent overseas to India and the Phillipines. The per line cost is cheaper, and many companies are willing to sacrifice quality for the bottom line. Surely that will save us from the MT shortage. It may indeed. However, what it will not save us from is the inexcusable compromise and swapping of quality for quantity in the medical field. It is dismaying to those of us who have remained dedicated, committed, and proud to do our very best as medical transcriptionists to see such a decline in quality. 

It is not that medical transcriptionists in India or the Phillipines do not care about quality. I firmly believe they do care.   One of the main problems is the English language itself. There are so many colloquial and slang expressions that even a person whose primary language is English is hard pressed to know them all. When you throw medical terminology on top of that with a doctor who is talking sloppy and as fast as he can, is it any wonder then that the result is poor quality medical reports?

Here is an example: I remember dictating a medical record review in which I was reviewing billing information. Several dollar amounts were even amounts; i.e. $175.00, $20.00, $55.00. Consequently, I dictated the amounts: "One hundred seventy-five dollars even, twenty dollars even, and fifty-five dollars even." When I received the dictation back from India, it read: " $175 even, $20 even, and $55 even."  I had to go in and edit many entries. I had taken for granted that what I had dictated would be understood, but it definitely got lost in the cultural translation.  

So what am I saying about medical transcription jobs? I am saying it is best to keep the work in our home country. We who work here know company names, the lingo, the jargon, the slang, and colorful nuances that other individuals from other countries cannot begin to fathom.  The most precious thing we can do for patients is to provide them with the best medical care and that is based on an accurate, quality medical report, is it not??

Doctors are notorious for sloppy, incomplete, and inaccurate dictation. They could clean it up if they were so motivated, but they leave that to the MTs. We are the gatekeepers who ensure quality medical reports are produced, and if medical transcription jobs keep going abroad, quality patient care may literally and figuratively be lost in translation.