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Medical Transcription Overview
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And The Beat
Goes On Depending on your work load at this time, you can continue marketing your services BUT NOW YOU ARE ABLE TO STATE HONESTLY THAT YOU ARE "EXPERIENCED". If financially possible, try to stay with only one or two clients for at least three months until you have eased into this demanding job and it has become somewhat routine. Add only one new client at a time, always taking the same care with their work as you did with your first account. Each new specialty is difficult to begin with as you will always have that learning curve of research to deal with -- but you can do it. Above all, do not become complacent with regard to the quality of your work, and do not take on more work than you can do while maintaining that quality. Your speed will increase over time, but be easy on yourself the first year. While you have just one or two clients, you may have time to start building your library of macros. As you do the same task two or three times while typing, consider speeding up each process by creating a macro for that task. If you send referral letters to local physicians for a client, create macros for each physician so you only have to type their name and address once. Devise macros to place these doctors' names/addresses in the inside address of the letter, on the continuation pages, for "cc:" notations at the end of letters and on envelopes. This alone will save you many, many hours throughout the year. Start building your dictionary of abbreviations to work within your word expansion utility. The more you enter, the quicker your output will be (and the more money you will make). Don't forget to run your macros from your word expander. As you add clients to your business, you will find yourself performing a constant juggling act between client demands, the needs of managing your business and personal and family needs. For many of us, it has been relatively easy to expand our business -- but very difficult to maintain the level of service that expansion requires. If you are one of the lucky MT's whose business and abilities grow quickly, don't work yourself into a corner where all you do with your life is work. Remember the reasons that brought you into medical transcription in the first place (job stress in another field, more time with your kids, the peace of working at home, etc.) and keep those motivations in the forefront of your mind. This takes the same discipline that you needed while training and establishing your business - but it's far more important to your life. If you feel that you are limiting your life by the demands of your business, you can always cut back by dropping a client or cutting back on the amount of overflow work you do. As an IC (independent contractor), vacations are practically unknown unless you subcontract work out, establish a reciprocal arrangement with another MT to cover each other's clients for absences, or ask your clients to find a temporary (you hope) substitute. In three years, I've only been able to take long weekends off, and I don't have much hope for more than that. It's one thing to whine and wheedle days off when you are an employee -- but when you are in business for yourself, you are expected to fulfill the clients' needs above all. Of course, most will be understanding and try to accommodate you, but NOT at the expense of their own operation. If you decide to subcontract work out, hire employees or work as a subcontractor yourself, BE SURE you understand the payroll laws of your state and the IRS regarding this issue. There are very specific rules with very severe tax implications governing "employee versus contractor" status. These are popular subjects on the Internet and message boards, and you would be smart to check other transcriptionists' experience, knowledge and opinions. These issues are definite factors in the ongoing maintenance of your business -- and the maintenance of your sanity. I hope this information will be helpful to you in considering medical transcription as a new or transitional career; it can be a very rewarding and challenging field if you are suited to it and committed to it. I invite you to join the community of medical transcriptionists who participate in AOL's various message boards and on the Internet web sites. (If you are very brave, there is also an Internet newsgroup (sci.med.transcription) where the atmosphere is less gentle and the waters get a little bloody in the heat of frequent battles.) Perhaps when you have a little MT experience under your belt, you will help the newbies who follow uncertainly in your footsteps.
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