Niece used to do it, but with new technology(and new federal mandates put in place by our current Admin), not looking like a lasting career. Going away rapidly.

Wish I could provide details, but I can't. What I can say is that I have a cousin and a good friend who have both been doing medical transcription from home for many years (15+). So it must have been good for them...

Gal that used to work for me went to school for it. Got a really good job at the hospital. Lasted about 8 months and she was replaced by dictation software. Still paying off her student loan.

A career that is quickly on its way to becoming obsolete, replaced by computers including speech recognition software and other technology solutions.

Research this very carefully. There are a lot of scammers out there offering courses and promising jobs.

I would double check in to everything before I committed to paying for any courses.

I am sure there are work-at-home jobs - but it is also one of those areas that prey upon people to swindle them out of money.

Check into a community college, or somewhere very reputable.

I heard somewhere that there is now direct input from the doctor to computer (probably what Monica was talking about). I know my own doctor types everything into a laptop during my visits. He mentioned once that his partners in the practice take forever to do this because they never learned to type in high school.

Yes, Kaiser doctors in our area enter everything into a computer during the exam and the patient gets an abbreviated printout of the notes.

With the advent of electronic medical records and voice recognition technology, this is a dying field. I'd look for something else.

I agree that this has nearly become an obsolete career. My niece took a very expensive college degree in medical transcription in California and was never able to get a job as a medical transcriptionist - even though her GPA was very high.

Look for another field.

I spent many years as a medical transcriptionist, most of them very good but some pretty bad. It depends on whom you worked for - I worked for a transcriptionist service which tried every which was not good and for at a hospital which was much better, with benefits, etc. I'd call around and ask medical records directors what's happening with transcription in their facilities. I suspect as stated above that speech recognition software is taking over - although I can remember some docs that it would never have worked for - I don't know what they do about those.

Jasdip, scroll down to the search box and type in "medical transcription," without the quotes.

This was a discussion here recently, and will reinforce the above replies.

Good luck, but you may want to look for something where you already have at least some experience or knowledge.

You seem to enjoy cooking. School cafeteria comes to mind. I did that when my children were in school. You won't get rich, but summers and holidays off are a perk.

Sue

I had a temp job once in a psychriatrist's office and when I wasn't busy, I'd transcribe from a poor quality machine. The things one can learn from a psychriatrist, though :-)

I had a problem with some of the medical terms and meds prescribed.

Have you thought about court reporting and taking depositions for the court? I don't know if that's going the way of computers too, but back in the old days the pay was really good.

I also looked into it a couple of months ago and found there was very little demand for it. I would also rethink a career prospect.

I agree with the others. I'd try something else. Maybe medical coding for billing and such?

Friend just this past year lost such a job. She had been working for our local area hospital transcribing surgical notes. She has not been able to find anything similar in months. I think it was right after Christmas that she lost the job. She had been doing this job for so long she had at one time worked with a dictophone machine!

Thanks guys for all of your suggestions. I'm not surprised by your comments, I just wanted some verification before pursuing something like this. (The course IS offered by a local credible college, not a fly-by-nite thing at all).

Cookie8, you're in Ontario I believe so thanks for your input as well.

Looks as though you have gotten some good advice so far but thought I would add my 2 cents. I am currently employed as a Medical Transcriptionist and thankful I only have about a year to go before I can retire. I have been a transcriptionist for approximately 33 years and have seen the profession slowly disintegrate. Our hospital started out with 10 full time employees, now we are 3 FT with 2 PT. Last week, we didn't have enough work for everyone so us 3 FT employees took a day off so the 2 part time could get their hours in (we get PTO, they don't). Our hospital installed the voice recognition system about 2 to 3 years ago and it has been downhill for us since then. As people quit, they were not replaced. There are a few doctors that will refuse to use the system and a few that the system can not pick up well enough to transcribe but that's not enough to keep everyone busy. We are now known as editors since we basically listen and follow along with the report, correct errors, etc, and not transcriptionist since we don't transcribe very much now. There are coder jobs that can be done at home as we have coders doing this and so far their positions are safe, I think we have about 10 of those still. This would be a safer position if you think this is something you would like. Hope I have helped in your decision.

Lizzann

IMHO anything medical could no longer be done from home because of HIPPA.

Linda, we use a VPN, HIPPA has been around for years, just getting stricter now.

After my Mom died my sister wanted to pay for me to go to school to take these courses. I thought it was too expensive and not many jobs out there. Many of my friends who work in Doctor's offices and who used to transcribe say their Doctors now use their computers. Mostly the transcribing jobs are in the hospitals and they are few and far between.

Someone on here mentioned billing, That would be a good course to take to find work in a Doctor's office. Good luck.

Anne

I'd pass on it. I work at a large hospital and all the docs have to type their own notes into the computer. Some of them use voice recognition software and using a headset can talk and their notes are input automatically.