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

Need advice: considering the profession - TampaMom

Posted: Jan 28, 2010

Hello, I sure would appreciate your guidance! I am trying to change careers and am in the process of deciding what to go to school for. I thought MT would be a great idea and suited my lifestyle, but a lot of what I read here tells me the profession is shrinking, and newbies out of school struggle to find work. (I am in FL, with huge medical demands, btw.)

What I had planned, was to complete my course (local community college online) and find entry level work, if possible. After a bit of experience under my belt, I thought I could go independant and try to sell my service to local offices. I have medical sales experience, and I am a pretty good salesperson, so I thought I'd be able to pull that off and try to build my own little client base.

Am I crazy? Do people do this kind of track successfully? Should I try? For those of us trying to reinvent ourselves, there is NO room for error. To invest in training program at my age with a mortgage and kids, etc., I have to hit this right the first time. Thanks so much for your thoughts and feedback.

considering MT - Tara

[ In Reply To ..]
To be completely honest, I think the best people to poll would be the doctors' offices you think you could solicit because they are going to know best what their plans are in the next year or two. I can tell you right now with voice recognition and electronic medical records being implemented, many MT's have already lost their jobs and some are back in school to find different professions. I have been doing this for quite a while and absolutely love this profession, but I already lost two jobs due to EMR and VR and I'm not sure how long this profession will stay intact. Some doctors prefer dictating and may always do so, but only they would know what their plans are. We as MT's, even those of us who have good jobs at the moment, have no idea what is in store for us in the future and we are just keeping our fingers crossed that it lasts for as long as we can make it last, but I would honestly have to say that this profession is way too shaky right now and we can't give you an honest opinion because we don't know how long work will be out there. It will take you a year probably to get through school and a lot can happen in a year. You could go through all that work only to find that when the year is over, there are no jobs left. If you really want to pursue it though, I'd set up some "interviews" with doctors to get their opinions before spending the money and time on school.

omg, med sales experience - I would definitely go

[ In Reply To ..]
back to that or do something else in the medical industry. There is no money in the MT field any more. It's just a matter of time before more companies cave to the offshoring that the big MTSOs are already doing. If you want to go back to school, I would suggest nursing, sonography or dental hygiene. I'm been in it 12 years and still have a hard time wrapping my head around the direction the industry has taken. I would never ever ever recommend this field to anyone again. Please do not waste your time and money on MT school. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's the truth. I don't want you to find out the hard way.

I am pondering how to answer - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Should I say "no" and be rude
or
should I say "yes" and be misleading you?

I'm also in FL - oldie MT

[ In Reply To ..]

Have over 30 years in this business, still working (for a large MTSO), but have to agree that the industry and pay have deteriorated overall, for many reasons. Managed care/HMOs started the downhill slide about 20 years ago with medical facilities looking to find cheaper methods of getting the work done, so offshoring began and has grown steadily.

Agree there are many medical facilities in FL, but also personally know several FL facilities are using MTSOs that offshore to India/Philippines, so no work for the US MT there. Every single one of my own doctors use EMR and have no use for an MT, believe me, I have tried. It's hard enough for experienced MTs to get work, but from reading this board, starting out as a newbie has a great amount of competition to face from experienced MTs looking for work and all of the graduates.

I'm not saying don't get into the business, I would just keep researching before spending any money and only you can decide if you are willing to take the chance. No matter what the line rate, it still takes time to build up your production when you have to spend time researching medical terms; being in medical sales will probably not make much difference in how you well you can do. So much depends on individual abilities, going to school doesn't guarantee anyone will be good at it. Good luck to you.

Thank you guys! - TampaMom

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you all for responding so quickly. This is exactly the kind of stuff I needed to hear.

I'll do some more checking around with the local doctors as suggested.

Good luck to you all, too!

If you're really serious about it...sm - mt20+yrs

[ In Reply To ..]
I would pursue it on the side and definitely do not give up your day job until you know you can make enough with it.

There's money to be made but you have to be flexible and willing to work long hours. I have coworkers that complain daily about not having enough work yet at the same time they're only willing to work in the very early morning hours even though the majority of the dictations come much later in the day.

You also need to research the job ads if you haven't already. The majority do not want any new grads only because turnaround times are getting shorter and they need MTs that can crank out these reports fast and working from home means there really isn't anyone to help you train.

Good luck to you.

To Tampa Mom - MiamiGuy

[ In Reply To ..]
Hiya! Trust me, you do NOT want to get into this field now. If you only want a hobby or pocket change, it might work, but people are not able to support themselves with this in this day and age. When my own family asks me if they should study MT, I say: RUN!!!

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