A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

field - hinda

Posted: Jun 23, 2014

i am considering a career as a medical transcriptionist and would like to contact someone in the fiield. Is this a good field. Are jobs available. What can I epect to earn?

About this field - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Unfortunately it is no longer a viable field. The cost of a good education would be much more than you would earn to make it worthwhile. Jobs are very scarce, especially for newbies. There are medical transcriptionists out there with 20 to 30+ years of experience looking for work, employers very rarely hire someone with little or no actual work experience when they can hire someone with 20 or more years in the field. Your earnings would be around minimum wage, so do not listen to the schools when they list higher earning potential, that information is old. Technology is fast replacing medical transcriptionists, and off shoring has taken most of what is left. Snow Bunny is correct, it may not be what you were hoping to hear, but it is true nonetheless.

We are not supposed to correct grammar/punctuation on this board, that said, it is a very large part of what we do in this job. It is always there with us, we find errors in advertisements, emails, signs, it is ingrained in us. I realize boards such as this, as well as emails are to be considered casual when it comes to sentence structure, punctuation, etcetera. What many fail to realize, especially on a board like this, is that there are potential employers out there reading these posts. No matter what media you are using, it is always a good idea to represent yourself with good basic skills, especially when it is such an important part of this business.

I would recommend you select a different career, something with a long-term future. I wish you the best of luck.

Career - Backwoods Typist

[ In Reply To ..]
Medical transcription was once a good field to get into and MTs were clamored over for their skills. Now, that is not true. This field is fast dying. You used to be able to make a good living in this field, now you are lucky to make minimum wage. The education you need to have would cost you more than you would earn...in other words, its not worth the investment. I have been doing this for 8 years now and I went to school for it, but now I am BACK in school learning another career in the IT business. I question the medical field anymore since it seems like the only people that win there are the doctors.

My advice to you is to consider another field. There is a lot to consider when choosing a career and I wish you a lot of luck, but save yourself the aggravation and disappointment. Good luck to you in your endeavors.

The most important thing to learn before you - become an MT is how to live on poverty wages.

[ In Reply To ..]
You will also want to concurrently learn a different skill, because MT will likely only exist another couple years, max. It's a dead-end, abusive, low-paying field that was in its glory in the 1980s, but that now I wouldn't recommend to even my worst enemy.

MT field - pookabina

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, I agree. The last 3 years or so have been a definite struggle for me, losing a good paying job to VR, then getting a job with another company only for much of its work going to VR or EMR. My pay is probably half of what it used to be and I am just totally wore out from the struggle. Still here, but not happy and trying to figure out what to do. And the treatment is just not good at all anymore, just the day to day treatment, pickiness of QA. You're just considered to be like a machine and they have no feelings for you.

field - typefast2

[ In Reply To ..]
Like the others, I am experienced transcriptionist, and I also say, "Don't do it." Technology has put me out of 3 separate transcription jobs, and Nuance just came in and took over a 4th, so I am leaving the transcription industry after 15 years. If you want to work in the medical field, there are so many other options available, and I would advise you to consider those.

Don't go into MT if you want a career. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
This is not a long-term career. I just lost my job without notice to EMR. I was out of work for 4 days wondering where the work went and then got an email that my account no longer needed MTs. The job hunt is difficult as the jobs available now all pay 1-2 cpl less than what I was making, which had already been a pay cut from a prior job. Our pay just keeps going down on the few jobs still available while the companies are demanding more such as stricter schedules, increased line requirements, etc. If you want a career, I would look elsewhere.

So did they lay you off - or were you IC?

[ In Reply To ..]
Sounds pretty bad to not even let you know and then send you an email 4 days later. I hope they at least had the decency (if you were an employee) to lay you off so you could claim UI.

No, was an IC. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I was an IC. Even so, they could have had the decency to give us notice. The account manager knew this was coming down the pipeline at least a month before, maybe sooner, and didn't bother to even give us a heads up. Even when the work dried up, for the first few days we were told the docs just went on vacation and it would pick back up soon. Have been told they have more accounts coming soon, but I have been hearing that since I started with them nearly 10 years ago. I can't afford to wait around hoping they pick up a new account that will support all the MTs that are now without a job.

field - Hinda

[ In Reply To ..]

Thank you all for being honest with me I deeply appreciate your advice and am taking it. I see that MT is not for me. I will , however work on my grammer and punctuation.

Good for you for heeding our warnings!! I had a - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
person who was constantly asking me about becoming an MT. I believe she purposely misunderstood when I told her I had made $30 the WEEK before. She said it was more than she made. I said if she had a job even just part time I doubted it. She continually chose to ignore my warnings so I just stopped chatting with her. If she wants to hang herself, it will not be with any help from me.

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