Medical Transcription--Career Opportunities

As a medical transcriptionist you possess skills that will open career opportunities in hospitals, ambulatory care, and physician practices, and transcription services. Opportunities abound for a "self starting" individual who is interested in the medical field, has word processing skills, and who takes great pride in efficiency and accuracy.

Job openings for persons seeking work as medical transcriptionists are expected to increase rapidly with the growth in the need for health care and the industries that provide it. Growing numbers of medical transcriptionists will be needed to edit documents from speech recognition systems, enter data into the electronic heath record and identify discrepancies in medical reports.

Median hourly wages in the industries employing the largest numbers of medical transcriptionists were as follows:
    Medical and diagnostic laboratories $17.26
    General medical and surgical hospitals 15.88
    Outpatient care centers 15.46
    Offices of physicians 15.02
    Business support services 14.52

Compensation arrangements for medical transcriptionists vary. Some are paid on the basis of the number of hours they work or the number of lines they transcribe. Others receive a base pay per hour with incentives for extra production. Employees of transcription services and independent contractors almost always receive production-based pay.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition, Medical Transcriptionists, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm. (Visited January 5, 2011).

For additional information, visit the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) at www.ahdionline.org.