First of all, what is medical transcription?
Medical transcription is the typing of medical notes, which are dictated by a physician,
nurse, or other health care worker to keep as reference and permanent record of a
patient's care. Each time you visit the doctor he/she looks in your chart and refers to the
notes typed by the medical transcriptionist.
It is vital for them to know your prior and present history, what medicines you are taking,
what previous surgeries you have had etc. This is for your own safety and wellbeing.
Another reason the doctors need a medical transcriptionist is so they can be reimbursed
for their services by your insurance company. They need to provide information about
your visit and a diagnosis code to be reimbursed financially.
A medical transcriptionist types up the medical notes provided by the physician, which
he/she usually records onto a hand held voice recorder; a little machine that holds a
micro cassette. The transcriptionist puts this tape into a "transcriber", which is a
glorified tape player, but it has headphones and a foot pedal.
These medical reports are typed up in a program such as Microsoft Word, and then
printed out and delivered back to the doctor's office, or sent digitally via the Internet.