How To Choose The Right Medical Transcription Training Program
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So you've decided that maybe taking a medical transcription course is the right step at this time in your life, that a medical transcription career is the thing.
Now you need to actually decide which school would be the best to attend!
There are several factors, cost being one of them, but we are going to leave cost out of the picture for this article, except to note that you should believe that you are getting good value for your dollars. The information for this article is based on standards that the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (ADHI, formerly AAMT) uses in its recommendations:
- The program should be taught by qualified instructors who are credentialed experts in their respective fields.
- The program should employ certified medical transcriptionists to teach medical transcription practice courses.
The experienced pros will be able to give you all kinds of assistance and show you tips and tricks that someone who has merely studied cannot.
- The program should indicate the number of classroom hours students actually perform medical transcription.
- The program should indicate the number of minutes of actual physician dictation used for practice (The Model Curriculum recommends 30 dictated hours of actual physician dictation.)
It is all right to start out with dictation not done by physicians for getting a feel for it, but you MUST have actual physician-dictated material to work with, or you will be lost when you get in the real world!
- Will the school provide names and addresses of former students as references?
Contact them. Find out what they liked, and didn't like.
- Does the school have an advisory board? Does it include certified medical transcriptionists?
- The program should indicate length of externship or on-the-job experience available (The Model Curriculum recommends 10 dictated hours of authentic physician dictation, for a total of 40 dictated hours during the training program.)
- It should include relevant publications among its educational materials.
- The school should use the AAMT Book of Style for Medical Transcription, 2nd edition in its training curriculum.
- The program should be based on The Model Curriculum for Medical Transcription*, 3rd edition, published by AHDI, which recommends courses in the following:
- English grammar and punctuation
- medical language
- anatomy and physiology
- disease processes
- pharmacology and laboratory medicine
- transcription technology
- medical transcription practice
- healthcare records
- Privacy, ethics, and other medicolegal issues
- Lastly, the school should offer job placement assistance. This can be invaluable! What a relief to know that the school, with all its business contacts, is in your corner helping you find that all-important first job!
One school that complies with these high standards is Career Step. They have a solid reputation in the industry, and are well respected by employers. And they have several different education plans to choose from.
If you want to get the real story about what it’s really like to be a professional medical transcriptionist, then you should pick up a copy of Inside Medical Transcription by Pam Lyon. You can get your copy here.
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