Professional Transcription and Your Business

Professional Transcription and Your Business

 by: Kate Smalley

Got stacks of audio tapes that need to be converted to a more user-friendly format? Professional transcription services may be the answer.

Professional transcriptionists can take standard or micro cassette tapes and produce a typed version of the text in a format that's clear, consistent and correct. They can create transcripts of taped meetings, training sessions, seminars and conventions, as well as dictated letters, reports and manuscripts. Once the information is transcribed, you can easily email, fax or post it to a Website.

Accuracy Is Essential

Transcribing actually covers a variety of services. It can include whatever editing is necessary to make a report or letter 'flow'. It can also include the tweaking sentence syntax, adjusting paragraphs, removing redundancies, and repairing general grammatical errors.

For some professions, a high degree of accuracy in transcripts is crucial. For example, medical transcriptionists must carefully listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other healthcare professionals and accurately transcribe them into reports, correspondence and other administrative materials that eventually become part of patients' permanent files. Their ability to understand and correctly transcribe patient assessments and treatments reduces the chance of patients receiving ineffective or even harmful treatments and ultimately ensures high quality patient care.

Accuracy in transcripts is equally as important in other fields. In legal matters, it's essential because all testimony must be rendered exactly as it's spoken. Likewise, police detectives require precise transcripts of statements by suspects and witnesses. In the corporate arena, letters, meetings and training sessions must be properly transcribed for the sake of effective education and communication.

Requirements For A Good Transcriptionist

Whether you need medical, legal or general transcribing for your business, accurate transcribing requires a unique set of skills. But if your staff lacks the expertise or time to transcribe materials in house, an outside company can easily fill the void.

Working with an outside vendor offers a variety of cost-saving benefits, including:

• No cost of special equipment.

• No hourly employee downtime. You pay only for production.

• No Social Security, payroll or unemployment taxes.

• No medical insurance benefits, paid vacations and sick leave

But before you run out and hire the first transcription company available, make sure it has the skills to meet your needs. The outsourcer you choose should be:

• Well-versed in the English language

• Knowledgeable of the rules of grammar

• Familiar with your industry

• Easily accessible for questions

  For more information about professional transcription services, contact Kate Smalley, Connecticut Secretary, at 203-641-3739 or mailto:kms@connecticutsecretary.com

  Connecticut SecretaryFreelance Secretarial and Transcription Services
  http://www.connecticutsecretary.com
  203.641.3739 mailto:kms@connecticutsecretary.com

Finding an EMR System that can Handle Medical Transcription SOAP Notes

Searching for the Right EMR Solution

The electronic medical record, or EMR, is a standard electronic database solution used by medical practices and medical service providers. The EMR solution technology effectively manages medical histories, records, and notes; however, all EMR solutions are not created equal. Before adopting an EMR solution, medical practices and medical service providers must search for the EMR solution that meets their specific needs. Two important needs common to most medical practices and medical service providers include medical transcription and SOAP note management.

Sifting through EMR Software

The best way to find what youre looking for is to begin with the end in mind, as Steven R. Covey says. Companies may have a small staff, or they may still be using a transcription machine. A practice may need more security, more automation, and better control of SOAP notes or other medical transcription information. In order to find what you need, you need to list them out. The list may look similar to this:

Medical Transcription and SOAP Note Management
Document Scanning Attachments
Customized Data Fields
Medicare or Medicaid Billing Software
Procedure Code (HCFA 1500 forms, CPT code books, ICD.9 codes)
Medical Billing Software
Medical Billing Specialist Support
Diagnosis Code Directory

Finding the right EMR Online

Search engines are one of the most popular tools for finding the software you need, but finding the right EMR online presents its own challenges. For example, typing EMR system into any of the big three search engines will yield results similar to the following, which I looked up the day I posted this article: Google 566,000; Yahoo 547,000; MSN 242,835. This means that hundreds of thousands of indexed pages claim to have what you are looking for. So how do you sift through them all? Sometimes searches have to be narrowed by using the listed items above as a part of the search. Since medical practices and medical service providers need to control SOAP notes and medical transcription, use these terms to begin to narrow down the search.

EMR Benefits

An earlier article on EMR benefits lists characteristics of an EMR system that a medical practice or a medical service provider might enjoy with an EMR. In the Information Age of business, speed and efficiency are paramount to success. And when it comes to medical services, success is not only measured by a fiscal year but by a satisfied customer. An EMR system can make an office run smoothly, so that the customer always comes first.
Joe Miller is an online advertiser, specializing in medical software. More information on EMR and Medical Transcription, visit AdvanceMD.com.
 

Start a Medical Transcription At Home Career

As a medical transcriptionist, I do get asked several times a month, how I got started in this business. So many people nowadays want to work from home, especially mothers with young children. Thats the primary reason I started my home business ten years ago, so I could be there for my daughter. I didnt want someone else taking care of her after school instead of me.

Its really not hard to start a medical transcription business. The start-up costs are low compared to many other home-based businesses.

You need a form of education, via home study courses or by attending your local community college. You do NOT need a degree in medical transcription to start a business either. In a short amount of time, usually nine months or less, you can be working from the comfort of your own home, just like me.

You will need some equipment, such as a computer, a printer, a transcriber, and some reference books. All of which can be purchased second hand if need be. The latest and greatest equipment is not necessary to get started.

Now, there are some special skills you will need, outside of the education, which include:

* Excellent grammar skills

* Good Listening Skills,

* Basic computer skills with a word processing program

* Research Skills

* Ability to type your speed will increase with experience

* Must be detail oriented

* Ability to work on your own

* Ability to maintain work deadlines and be a self-motivator

You will also need some computer programs such as a medical spellchecker and a word expander utility to cut down on the amount of actual typing you do. Some programs, such as Microsoft Word include this type of utility. It is the best invention by far, in my opinion.

Basic bookkeeping is necessary, but not difficult. A good bookkeeper is great to have when it comes to taxes and advising you about saving money with tax deductions for your business.

Medical transcription is usually paid by the amount of work transcribed. Therefore, it is quite normal to charge your clients by the line. If you charge 13 cents per line and type 200 lines per hour, (this is a very comfortable speed to type) your hourly rate would end up being about
$26.00.

Being self-employed does have some pitfalls. One must consider, as with any home based business, that once you become self-employed you are responsible for securing your own health insurance, and putting away money for retirement.

However, there are many positive things about being self-employed, as Im sure you can imagine. For me, what I love the most, is the flexibility I have with my time. If I want to work late in the day I can, and if I want to work early in the morning, thats up to me. Running a home-based medical transcription business is a lot of fun.

Medical transcription is not for everyone, and it is important before venturing in to any business that you weigh up the pros and cons of it all and do what is best for your situation.
Michele Miller is a home-based business owner and author of an Ebook about starting a medical transcription business. http://www.medical-transcription-at-home.com

Technologically Boosting the Medical Transcription Company

Medical Transcription Company

Virtually every medical service provider dictates http://www.advancedmd.com/features/soap-notes.asp SOAP notes into recorders for transcription and sends them off to a medical transcription company to transcribe and return a refined copy of necessary medical information.

In fact, without the medical transcription company the medical service provider would be too overburdened with transcription to pay the attention it needs to its clients. However, the medical transcription company has had to undergo technological changes in order to keep up with demand and with competition. Fast-paced medical service requires fast-paced medical transcription. So, which medical transcription company will survive? The answer is the one that takes advantage of time-saving technology.

Medical Transcription

This answer is not at all uncommon now-a-days, but it is especially challenging in the field of medical transcription. http://www.advancedmd.com/features/medical-transcription.asp Medical transcription is just as it sounds: transcribing on paper the notes that were audio recorded. It doesnt seem at first that much more technology is needed than a word processor and a cassette tape player.

The crux of the matter is controlling quantity. Effective records of SOAP notes, especially in the quantities supplied by medical offices, require the technological ability to not only record medical transcription but also to track it and store it.

Medical Transcription Job

The http://www.advancedmd.com/features/medical-transcription-job.asp medical transcription job would be daunting at best without the help of technology. Let me review a general version of a medical transcription job check list:

1. Receive tapes from medical service provider.
2. Transcribe 1st draft of SOAP notes.
3. Save transcription.
4. Continue process with entire batch.
5. Review medical transcription for errors.
6. Make changes on 1st draft of medical transcriptions.
7. Send medical transcriptions back to medical service provider.
8. Bill medical service provider.

This process most often overlaps itself due to the management of multiple batches from multiple service providers. Organizational skill is high up on the requirements list for a medical transcription specialist.

Medical Transcription Program

Due to the massive amounts of medical transcription jobs and batches continually being sent back and forth between medical service providers and the medical transcription company, the market has awakened to meet medical transcription needs. Looking for a http://www.advancedmd.com/features/medical-transcription-program.asp medical transcription program is so easy, its hard. Just type medical transcription program into Google, Yahoo, or MSN and witness first hand the millions of indexed pages you might have to sift through.

In your search for a versatile medical transcription program suitable to medical service providers needs, there are a few things to keep in mind. A medical transcription program has the ability to work in house, without IT infrastructure overhead.

There are additional medical transcription program specs to keep an eye out for. For example, a medical transcription program which combines the secure storage of medical databases and medical transcription provides the security and accessibility a medical service provider needs.

The right medical transcription program also provides organization for tracking the editorial stages of the SOAP notes and securing them, as well as sending them back to the right medical service provider.

The medical service provider runs a race of efficiency and professionalism in order to stay in business. The right medical transcription program provides a technological boost to propel medical service providers ahead of the rest of the pack.
Joe Miller is an author of informational articles and online advertisements on business, technology, and health. Information on Medical Transcription Company is available at AdvancedMD.com.
 

Why Hire A Professional Transcriptionist To Convert Your Dictation Or Audios To Typed Text?

 

In a discussion forum for non-fiction writers (where I had posted my introduction of myself and my professional transcription business), another member replied and mentioned that for simple dictation, she uses a voice recognition software program.

In a discussion forum for non-fiction writers (where I had posted my introduction of myself and my professional transcription business), another member replied and mentioned that for simple dictation, she uses a voice recognition software program.

When what she had said really sank in, I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach!

Then my reaction was huge dismay and questioning, "Why should I even stay in business?" This came JUST after spending almost two months getting clear on why my transcription business feels exciting to me and realizing that I want to assist and support creative, positive, motivated people to succeed in ways they have not been able to before, working on interesting projects!

I imagined emptying my transcription business website of all information -- just leaving a notice (as a public service) pointing out to the people who THINK they need me to transcribe their audios that they should go and buy that software instead!

Yikes! Drastic thoughts!

But seriously, then I started thinking some more...

I mean, it's a legitimate question! Why SHOULD someone hire me if they can buy software for dictation?

In what situations would dictation software be inferior than having a live, intelligent human being (who is passionate about helping her clients succeed) listening and transcribing their audio material instead?

Knowing such software exists, ANYONE might appropriately ask that question!

Since I've never worked with this kind of software, I realize I may not understand it perfectly, so I decided to ask some questions...

With audio recordings of interviews, groups, or live teleclasses, seminars, and so forth, how does the software distinguish between multiple speakers? How does it know to punctuate and break the text into paragraphs appropriately?

When people just speak naturally, their speech is filled with tons of 'ahs' and 'ummms' and 'you know's' and so forth. Does the software know to filter those out when appropriate? People also string multiple sentences together with 'and' forever! Does the software know when to break the sentences apart?

How about when the quality of the audio recording is not top-notch, such as when there is background noise or people speaking on top of each other... how does it handle that?

Even when there is only a single speaker, if they do not dictate punctuation, paragraphs, etc., does the software intuit that correctly?

If the software does not handle these issues well, how much work is involved in cleaning up the text?

Also, in my relationships with the clients I've worked with, there is the unquantifiable element of me being an objective outsider who can catch errors or discrepancies in the CONTENT. And I often even come up with valuable ideas to help them improve their material!

There is a creative, collaborative give and take between my clients and me that often seems to be of benefit to us BOTH beyond the action of me just transcribing their audio recordings.

So, I concluded, there IS still a need for my services by many people! Not all, but Im sure enough to keep me busy. I actually do enjoy this kind of work under the right circumstances and with the types of clients I intend to connect with!

So in the end, I thanked that discussion forum member for her post and the internal thinking process it sent me through, because it helped me face a fear and come out stronger on the other side!

And then, as a welcome validation of everything I had deduced on my own, quickly after I had submitted my reply to her, she was kind enough to reply with a more detailed explanation of how the voice recognition software works and its definite limitations -- everything I had suspected, and even more!

I truly have a valuable, worthwhile service to offer my clients. Im very proud of my skills, my dedication, and my opportunity to make a contribution to the entire world by assisting my clients to develop their own gifts in ways they might never on their own IF it was up to themselves alone to type out their wisdom and creativity!

 Laurie Kristensen operates a successful audio transcription and typing business, visit http://www.LKTranscription.com (subscribe to Your Partner in Success Newsletter and receive THREE valuable free gifts) -- also be sure to browse through Lauries Success Resources at http://www.LKSuccess.com You may publish this article in its entirety, with the byline, URLs, and copyright included.