I am working on a final project that’s due in 4 weeks and I’m just at a loss as to where to start. I cannot think of how math can be used in a medical transcription job. My professor told me there’s "lots of ways" but of course, won’t elaborate, lol. Any ideas?
Medical Transcription Training Resources
Information for Making Medical Transcription Your Career!
- Who am I?
Hi everyone and welcome to my site!
My name is Kate Delaney and I'm from Illinois. I created this site to share my story about how I made a mid-life career change that changed my life.
I went from being a high school graduate with a series of low paying jobs, and even some time on unemployment, to becoming a professional with a stable and well-paying career.
I found the training, financial aid, and even job placement help all online. Now, I don't have a job; I have a career! I'm a Medical Transcriptionist and I love it! Read my story.
Check out the company that made my dreams come true.
{ 3 comments }
Interesting question!
If you own your own medical transcription business, the other answers posted here are correct. You do need math to calculate the number of hours, lines, jobs – whatever method you use to bill the client. However, there are programs, like Abacus, that will do line counts for you.
I assume you need a thorough answer to get a good grade in your class, so here are a few other ways that math is used in medical transcription.
A lot of medical reports include the patient’s age. Whenever an age is dictated and I have access to the patient’s date of birth, I do a quick calculation in my head to double-check the age the physician dictated. For instance, if they say "This is a 51-year-old woman with diabetes" and the patient was born in December 1958 (this being August 2009), she hasn’t had a birthday yet this year, so she would actually be a 50-year-old woman. Quick on-the-fly math.
If the physician dictated that a patient’s tumor size was 1.6 cm two months ago and has shrunk 0.8 cm to a current size of 0.7 cm – well, math will tell you that that number should be a current size of 0.8 cm (1.6 minus 0.8). This would be something to "flag" (bring to the attention of the physician), since he may have meant it shrunk 0.9 cm or he may have mean a current size of 0.7 cm. Simple math to ensure accuracy.
If you work for an employer, you definitely need math to calculate what your paycheck will be. You can use various programs to keep track of your daily lines, but since only you know what you get paid, you use math to multiply your daily lines times your line rate (1200 lines times 9 cents a line equals 108 dollars). Or, if you get paid by the job, 120 jobs times $1.20 per job equals 144 dollars. Math equals money!
If you are doing a bone densitometry report (to measure bone density and the percent of age-matched value is below 100%, let’s say 93%, what is called the Z-score has to be below 1, or 0.95. If the age-matched value is 107%, the Z-score has to above 1, or 1.05. (Don’t take these values literally, they’re based on the patient’s age.) But it’s using math to make comparisons.
These are all I can think of off the top of my head but, hopefully, it’ll get you thinking about other ways also.
Good luck on your project!
Yes! Calculating the invoice — based on lines, characters, hours, etc. The website below has an excellent article on this.
Well if you work as an employee for a trustworthy company, which personal experience as well as doing research on them will tell you if they are, then more times than not the company’s billing department takes care of it. In this case any math you do is slim to none.
If you work as a contractor this would mean doing your own billing, your own bookkeeping and your own taxes; then yes business math is more than appropriate. If the latter is what you end up doing, and math gives you a rash, I would hire a bookkeeper/accountant. Someone who can help you keep your books straight so as not to disturb the tax Gods or upset your clients.
Quicken software is a good option too but maybe After you’ve used a bookkeeper to help get you going in the right direction (just till you get to where you feel comfortable doing it yourself).
Good Luck.