You won’t be looking into becoming a medical transcriptionist for very long before you start to hear about medical transcriptionist certification. Some people get frightened away from achieving a great at-home career when they first hear of this because they are unclear on a few basic things about certification. Let me break this down for you:
First, the most important thing you should know is that it is not necessary to have medical transcriptionist certification in order to work at home as an MT. In fact, the majority of doctors still do not even know that certification exists for the medical transcriptionist! While there are some MTs who have certification, the majority to do not (estimates say that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 MTs in the United States and at the time of this writing there are only about 3,000 certified medical transcriptionists). That percentage may change in the future as technological advances cause more MTs to transition to being MT editors, with an increased skill level needed to edit advanced healthcare documentation.
Second, you are probably wondering exactly what is a Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT). It is a voluntary certification offered by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). (Formerly called the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) and many people still use this name, though technically it is incorrect).
AHDI’s purpose for encouraging all medical transcriptionists to hold credentials is to encourage high professional and ethical standards in the medical transcription industry. They thought that if there were certification it would be a sign both to the public and to doctors that the transcriptionists who obtained it had worked and studied hard, really had a firm grasp of what transcribing reports is all about, and had a few years of experience to prove it!
If you decide to become a Certified Medical Transcriptionist you will need to take a test given by AHDI. While it is not required, AHDI does strongly recommend that you have two years of acute care transcription experience before you take the CMT certification test. They recommend this because they want to ensure that you are truly ready to take and pass the exam the first time you take it. Those two years of experience need to include multiple dictators who speak English as a second language, many different types of reports including surgery, and some specialty clinic work as well. If you have all that under your belt you will have a much higher chance of passing the test the first time.
While it’s not a requirement that you become certified, some MTs find it results in greater financial reward, while others see no change at all in their financial picture. Some employers will grant pay increases to those MTs who have the CMT certification while others will not. It would be worth your while to read through the material on AHDI’s web site to decide if this is right for you to pursue in the future when you have the recommended experience. They suggest two years of acute care (or equivalent) experience before you are allowed to take the CMT test, so you don’t need to worry about this too much right now if you are just starting out in this career. You just need to know it’s available and it’s something to consider in the future if it interests you.
It’s not difficult to obtain medical transcriptionist certification, but it does require experience and serious study time so that you are ready. In the meantime, though, not having certification will make no difference to your ability to embark on this new career path.
Author: Susan B. Eliot
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty tariff
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