Types of Medical Transcriptionist Jobs in India and Scope

Well, there is no doubt that the medical transcription industry is no longer popular as in the 1990s. In 1990s, there was a great wave of outsourcing medical transcription and other works in our country. At present, the wave has dwindled but even today, there are a good number of medical transcriptionist jobs in our country. In fact, medical transcriptionist jobs have become one of the most popular work-from-home jobs for women in India.

What is medical transcription?

Medical transcription is the method by which the voice recorded texts by doctors or medical professionals are written down in word doc to keep in records. This job of converting the audio into a written text is done by a medical transcriptionist. Usually, the audio tapes are the recordings of the doctors dictating about their patients’ medical record, disease, diagnosis, treatment and medicines given.  Medical transcriptionist has to listen to this audio tape, formats it and types it for maintaining the medical record of the patients. While listening to the tape, a foot-pedal can be used to slower down, pause, rewind or speed up the dictation to type the notes correctly.

Eligibility criteria and skills

To do well in medical transcriptionist jobs, candidates besides having the professional qualification should also have the following skills:

• Excellent written skills in English
• Good typing speed
• Good computer skills
• Knowledge of medical terminology
• Knowledge of healthcare specialties and legal medical practices

Medical transcription jobs are purely computer jobs and so the candidates should have good computer skills, along with good typing speed. Payments are made on a production basis which can be either by counting the number of lines, words or records typed.

Need for training in medical transcriptionist jobs

Candidates should preferably be a diploma or certificate holder in medical transcription for a prospective career. Though, the job can be taken up without any formal training, yet, the certified transcriptionists have better scope and get paid more. There are nowadays a lot of housewives/moms working as medical transcriptionists from home successfully. Such jobs should not be confused with data entry jobs. Hence, an intensive professional training is very essential to gain transcription skills so as to do well in medical transcriptionist jobs.

There are vocational schools offering training programs in medical transcription. Some employers, too, offer online/offline training classes before the candidates start working. The training course includes teaching the types and formats of medical records, healthcare documentation, different medical terminologies, and finally how to type and edit. Candidates who undergo training and certified from the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) after qualifying different levels of transcription exams definitely have great chances of growth in medical transcription jobs.

Types of Medical Transcriptionist Jobs

Medical Report Dictation: This is the most common and popular medical transcription job. Here, the doctor after examining the patient, dictates his observation in detail, which is then typed down to maintain a medical report of the patient.

Other medical transcriptionist jobs include the transcription of the following:

• Medical Conference and Symposium Transcription
• Training and Educational Videos
• Chart notes
• Medical referral letters
• Medical reports
• Surgery procedure
• Operation reports
• Discharge summaries
• Patient’s health history etc.

Where are medical transcriptionist jobs available?

Medical transcriptionist jobs are available in different healthcare facilities. Medical transcribers can work with doctors/medical professionals in medical clinics, hospitals and private practices to transcribe or type the doctor’s audio recordings of different patients. These are also popular work from home jobs for many where the candidates work with multiple healthcare facilities or doctors independently. There are many transcribing agencies which hire medical transcriptions to do jobs that are not only from India but also from outside.