Medical Transcription- the Job of the Future
In the world of medical transcription, there is a lot of discussion around what the future holds. What seems to be a given for all of us is that technology will drastically change our world. As I reflect on this, it’s not really a new thing. Technology has always impacted the healthcare documentation industry.
For some of us, those changes came with the introduction of computers. Yes, I realize there are many of you who have never done medical transcription on a typewriter, with carbon paper, and different colors of “white out” or “liquid paper.” That was my start into our world. Imagine if you will a time when being able to say “I got 20 reports done today!” was a good thing. Those typewriters didn’t count characters and production-based pay was a foreign concept. At the same time, those who could actually do 40 reports a day were compensated exactly the same as the person who did 20.
I remember getting my first computer. I had my own business and the new machine came with two whole hours of training. Still, being self-employed at the time, I told the man “just set up my templates, show me which buttons to push, and let me get to work!” I had deadlines to meet and thought I would just take time down the road to figure out what the computer would do for me. I laugh at that now as I was so naive.
Computers changed our world, and there were times when we wondered if computers would replace the medical transcriptionist. Then came abbreviation expanders. Now we could get more done in the same amount of time, with less stress on our wrists because we actually typed fewer characters. Still, some resisted because if we got more done, did that mean we needed fewer people? Others embraced the technology and made it work for them.
Now we are at yet another crossroads in our industry. Speech recognition and the electronic health record are playing bigger roles all the time in the healthcare industry and we wonder how it will impact our world. What is certain is that it WILL change things for us. But really, is it any different than what we have done in the past? It’s another technology tool. It does raise lots of questions about how training can be done, what are we doing to prepare to future generation for the technological advances, and of course, how it will be compensated. So much room for discussion! And with that, will there be emerging roles in health care that MTs are qualified to hold? And if so, will MTs want to do that? So many questions!
So today let’s talk about what your vision for the future is. How do you see our world changing and what does it mean to our industry? I look forward to your comments!
For more information, check out Atlanta Medical Transcription or Los Angeles Medical Transcription.
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