A medical transcriptionist is a skilled typist who is also an excellent interpreter of what they read or hear. They must also be well-versed in medical jargon and terminology. Medical transcriptionists must also be able to edit, transform, or make logical what they hear without changing relevant details or medical information.
Medical transcriptionists work for a variety of employers, including doctors’ offices, insurance companies, individual doctors, and hospitals. Their main responsibility is to transcribe spoken material into clear, understandable text, usually for the purpose of charting patient information. Because not all doctors or medical workers create clear transcriptions, the medical transcriptionist must be able to interpret what he or she hears or reads. It’s not uncommon for medical workers to have conversations while trancribing, to give instructions to ignore parts of a transcription, or to leave out important details that will help complete a patient’s charting. When this happens, a medical transcriptionist may need to consult with doctors to figure out what they meant, but more often than not, they must figure out what medical workers meant with little or no contact with the person who dictated the original material.
The medical transcriptionist interprets a lot of the recordings that are on tape or on Dictaphone machines. This necessitates the medical transcriptionist’s knowledge of basic dictation and shorthand. The use of voice-operated software has become more popular in recent years, but this does not mean that medical transcriptionists are out of work. Instead, material dictated to a computer must be read, edited, interpreted, correctly punctuated, and rewritten so that it is understandable to anyone else. Because voice recognition software currently lacks the ability to correctly interpret information, it will transcribe everything that is said. When interpreting such programs, medical transcriptionists may save some typing time, but they must still find a way to clearly state the doctor’s intent while removing all irrelevant material.
The ability to decide what is relevant is crucial to being an effective medical transcriptionist. This means that terms must not only be recognizable, but also comprehendible. Without a basic understanding of medical terms, a transcriptionist may be unable to determine what is important. Many transcriptionist training courses focus on understanding medical terms and phrases, as well as learning common slang for these phrases, to help the transcriptionist do his or her job correctly and efficiently.