What are the qualities of a good medical transcriptionist?

When making the decision to outsource medical transcription needs, obviously recruitment and training requirements (with regard to medical transcriptionists) are also being outsourced to the medical transcription company

The quality of the transcripts depends entirely on the quality of transcriptionists. And this will be determined by the selection process and the training provided by the Medical Transcription Company that the healthcare facility chooses.  

What are the qualities that a good medical transcriptionist should have?

• Ability to multitask: Transcription is a skill that requires that a person be able to listen and type at the same time. They also have to be able to use the start/pause/stop function of the audio device. Being able to multitask is an important skill for a medical transcriptionist.

• Comfortable with the Internet: Audio files of the healthcare professional’s encounter with the patient are uploaded into server, these need to be downloaded by the medical transcriptionist and then the finished records need to uploaded to be transmitted to the healthcare facilities. The medical transcriptionist needs to search for difficult terms, words etc in the Internet.  All these activities entail that the medical transcriptionist should be Internet savvy.

• Research abilities: A medical transcriptionist needs to be adept at research whether it is on the Internet or in research books. This is important to ensure that gaps in the report are minimized.

• Speedy typing skills: Not only does a medical transcriptionist have to be accurate, he also has to have the ability to type reasonably fast to ensure that turnaround time guaranteed is met with.

• Good computer skills: Nowadays all medical transcription reports are created on the computer. Different formats are required to be used and headers & footers are required to be added for certain type of reports. Good computer skills are essential for a medical transcriptionist.

• Knowledge of medical terminology: Medical terminology is complex and not generally known to the layman. A good grasp of medical terminology is one of the main qualifications for a medical transcriptionist.

• Above average knowledge of English Grammar, punctuation and usage:  A medical transcriptionist needs to have good language skills along with all the other skills to be able to produce quality transcripts. Wrong usage of words, punctuation errors or any other grammatical errors could totally change the meaning of the report.

• Ability to concentrate filtering outside disturbances etc.:  A medical transcriptionist needs to be able to concentrate on the audio recording and filter out any extra noises in the tape, as well as external noises, in order to be able to produce accurate documents.

• Commitment to confidentiality:  A medical transcriptionist needs to understand that the work entrusted to him needs to be kept confidential as it pertains to private and important data. A serious commitment to maintaining confidentiality is an essential quality for a medical transcriptionist.

• Disciplined: It takes discipline and commitment on the part of the medical transcriptionist to produce accurate records in a timely manner, while maintaining confidentiality.

• An eye for details: To capture all the information and to make sure that it is done accurately, a medical transcriptionist needs to have an eye for details.

• Perfectionist attitude: An attitude of following through on all the difficult words/ terms and making sure that the accuracy of the finished transcript is as close to 100% requires that a medical transcriptionist needs to have a perfectionist attitude.

• Working well under constraints: A medical transcriptionist has to understand the importance of producing quality transcripts in a timely manner while tuning out external disturbances. An ability to work well under constraints is an important quality for a medical transcriptionist.

• Having a sense of Responsibility, Work Ethics, Integrity and Professional Attitude. 

TransDyne believes in recruiting people with the right attitude towards perfection, commitment, and attention to detail, responsibility, commitment to confidentiality etc and developing their inherent aptitude to produce medical transcriptionists of immaculate quality who can provide accurate and timely transcription.

TransDyne believes in developing their aptitude even further by training them in one or two areas of medicine making them domain experts. This helps serve clients even better.

For more details about how to use TransDyne’s superior outsourced medical transcription service, click here.