This blog is part of a series on transcription. If you haven’t read the other blogs in this series, make sure to check out the summary page for a listing of all transcription blogs.
Now that we’ve finished discussing how you’re going to survive working as an MT with children, we’ve got just one more important topic to cover: Life from the point of view of a person who is currently working as a transcriptionist. I interviewed the schools (which that is a very important part of becoming an MT, of course) but even more important than that, is deciding whether you actually want to become one or not. And how can you decide that if you haven’t heard from someone who is actually making their living as an MT?
So I decided to interview a currently employed medical transcriptionist, and let them in their own words tell you, the reader, what it’s really like to be an MT. Then I realized that if I interviewed an MT, I had to interview a QA.
I haven’t really talked about QA before on here, so here’s quick rundown of what a QA does and why: A QA is a person who does the quality assurance for a transcription company. The main job of QA is to read all the reports a brand-new MT straight out of school does, and listen to the dictation as they read those reports, to make sure that everything was transcribed correctly. The normal protocol for QA is that after a couple of days, the newbie will be taken off 100% QA and moved down to 80% QA (where only 80% of the reports turned in are listened to in full) and then to 50% and on down until the work is only spot-checked as company policy calls for (some companies have written rules on how often an MTs work is spot checked, to make sure that the MT is producing quality work.)
Of course, all of this structure varies greatly from one company to another, but for the most part, companies will do something along these lines. Along with working with brand-new MTs, QA will receive reports from the experienced MTs who can’t understand a word so they flag the area under question and send it on to the QA. The QA will listen to the dictation themselves, and see if they can understand the word. All QA personnel have worked as MTs themselves for a while, and so they have the training and background to understand things that the average working MT won’t. One of biggest problems that QA deal with in reports is when the medications are flagged. QA has access to a patient’s chart where an MT usually does not, and so if there is a question on how much the dosage is, or if the drug name is correct, etc, the report will be sent to QA, where they can find that info on the charts.
All QAs are former MTs but the work being done is quite different, and so I decided both deserved their own time in the spotlight.
So without further ado, let me first introduce you to Sheila, a gal who has been working as an MT for about two years. We’ll start off with a question and answer session. For privacy reasons, I will not name the company Sheila works for, the wage she gets paid, or her last name. I don’t want to cause her any problems, considering she was so kind to agree to do this, so please respect those limits. If you have any other questions you want to ask Sheila though, please do so–she’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have! Leave the comments below or send me an e-mail at Hava L {at} Families dot com, and we’ll get back with you quickly!