All Things Transcription

There are many MTs (Medical Transcriptionists) on the job hunt right now. Besides having a good resume and cover letter there is another subject that strikes fear in the heart of newbie transcriptionists everywhere; the dreaded employment test! If you have started applying for jobs, you know that many companies require you to take both an objective and transcription test as part of the hiring process. I thought I would gather up some tips from some forum friends and make up a list of the ones I thought were most helpful.

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We all know how much time is spent in researching in this profession. We must have excellent research skills to succeed and meet the monetary goals we set for ourselves. The internet has made this part of the job much easier. However, there are still many written reference works available the can be indispensable to medical transcriptionists.

The first and best of these in my opinion is The AAMT Book of Style for Medical Transcription. This book may be purchased from the AHDI website. It is available in both hard copy and electronic form. I prefer the hard copy simply because I love books that I can hold in my hand and I do not entirely trust technology.

It is also absolutely necessary to possess a good medical dictionary. Both Stedman’s and Dorland’s fit the bill nicely. These are available in both hard copy and electronic versions as well. I have a hard copy of Dorland’s and an electronic version of Stedman’s. (Again, I am just not willing to put all my eggs in the basket of technology.)

I also have a Saunders Pharmaceutical Word Book, Springhouse Nurse’s Drug Guide, Annotated Medical Surgical Word Book from Career Step, a PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference), and dozens of specialty references. These vary between hard copy and electronic. I highly recommend the Stedman’s specialty references. I believe you will find that most MTs will agree with me that the Stedman’s specialty references as being extremely necessary for specific accounts.

As far as the internet goes, obviously Google is your friend. Google comes with a caveat though. Never depend completely on what you may find there. The source that comes up with that elusive term you have been searching for may not be completely trustworthy, so always go at least one step further and check with one more source to make sure that it really is related to the condition or specialty you are researching. Many an embarrassing error has been committed by a transcriptionist in a hurry that took an untrustworthy site’s word for something.

Here are some sites I hope you will find helpful. They are not just recommended by me but by many working medical transcriptionists; just in case you don’t trust me completely either.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/
https://www.caremark.com/wps/portal/HEALTH_RESOURCES?topic=drugcenter
http://www.drugdigest.org/wps/portal/ddigest
http://www.surgeryencyclopedia.com/index.html
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/index2.htm
http://www.labtestsonline.org/
http://www.onelook.com/
http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/hp.asp (These folks have been known to commit some capitalization errors, but they are great for dosage information)
http://www.stubum.com/LabReferenceSheets.htm
http://www.smartcode.com/downloads/quick-look-drug-reference.html
http://www.scribera.net/html/research.html
http://www.thegreatdictator.com/ (This is a brand new site to me but it comes highly recommended)
http://www.ucomparehealthcare.com/drs/ (Find physicians by state)

There are thousands of useful sites available to you. Just take the time to check out their reputations before you depend on their information while you are working.

Take the time to organize your bookmarks so you can easily locate the sites you want. If you organize them in a logical fashion you can use the “open all tags” feature in Firefox or click the blue arrow in IE and there are the ones you want right at your fingertips. Neat little time saving tip, that.

I hope you find this information helpful and happy researching! Thanks to all the folks that recommended all these great sites to me over time.

I would like to say a few words about text expanders. There are many text expanders available and you will find that all of them have transcriptionists who love them or hate them. You will also find that many MTSOs require the use of certain expanders. I have also heard of just a few companies that do not allow the use of expanders at all. (A very few, and this is based on pretty old information so I doubt there are many of these dinosaurs left).

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Alzheimer's disease affects approximately 5 million people in the United States and it is believed that by the year 2050 if a cure has not been found there will be approximately 16 million affected, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The sheer numbers alone should frighten you.

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Ok, the title is very sarcastic. I just couldn’t resist. I am actually appalled and amazed that one of our local community colleges is actually giving people the impression that this will help them get a job. This is the “certificate” program that they offer for medical transcription. You have got to be kidding me! No really. It has to be a joke. I paid what I considered to be a reasonable price to do this, when all this time I could have saved myself hundreds of dollars for a “certificate.” I want my money back!

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