Curriculum developer, Deborah Burns, has been a medical transcriptionist for over 30 years, and operates an active, nationwide medical transcription service with a large team of experienced MTs. She is also a national speaker, teacher, and consultant.
PROPOSED MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION TRAINING PROGRAM
There is a huge demand for good medical transcriptionists. Medical Transcriptionists can work from home or on-site within a medical facility. MTs earn an excellent income and can work for anyone from anywhere through electronic files.
There are many training programs that do not include the vital components that are necessary for their graduates to obtain work. All job openings for medical transcription, whether through a service, medical facility or independent small business, require hands-on experience.
Your students must have internship and mentorship to become successful. Internship should be with a nationally-recognized medical transcription service. Your students also must receive training through constantly-updated, cutting-edge dictation from specialties such as rheumatology, radiology and surgery, dictation from foreign docs with accents. These are only a few of the important components.
Our program, “Medical Transcription A to Z”, is the only cost-effective, in-depth program that provides all of the essential ingredients to become a medical transcriptionist. It is a solid program and has been training MTs for decades. It has become the most successful program available anywhere.
Why? Because we are a nationwide medical transcription service and we have hundreds of clients for whom we provide MT work. We know exactly what it takes to become successful and our students are the proof. We have trained over 3200 MTs in the past 30 years, many of whom now own large, successful services. We have superb references. Best of all, we hire many graduates and they now work for us from home, all across the U.S.
You can offer our program as an independent, stand-alone product and place an ad in your catalog; we can provide you with some great text that will attract potential students. The student can then order it through you and we’ll ship it to them. We will provide to the student all of the services that are included with “Medical Transcription A to Z.” This process requires very little involvement from you. We handle all of the details.
Here are some of the colleges that offer Medical Transcription A to Z:
Colorado Free University
Denver, CO
Contact: Laura Hydeman
Phone: (303) 785-2321
www.freeu.com
MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION A TO Z
What does it include?
The student will receive two large notebooks, one USB stick, and a final testing direct download.
The first notebook includes 500 sheets of worksheets that cover beginning medical terminology, advanced terminology, anatomy/physiology, pharmaceuticals/medications.
The second notebook comprises formats and information for transcription.
The third part, or USB stick, includes dictation by clients, covering 13 major specialties (most of them 120 minutes each). The USB stick provides the necessary internship for students and entails a huge amount of transcription practice using actual dictation by our physicians.
The program is open entry/open exit. Students may begin at any time. There is no time limit for completion, although the average seems to be that by spending about twenty hours a week with a typing speed of 60 wpm, it can be completed in as little as six months. Of course, that depends upon the individual.
In addition to the program, the student is responsible to obtain reference materials, as well as transcription software and a foot pedal for the dictation portion of the program.
We will provide on-going support to the student, not only while going through the program, but once the program is completed. We answer questions and assist with business-operation information via phone and e-mail.
When the student receives the program, there will be instructions included to call our office for a “walk through”. We will then provide information on the following steps to completion.
When the student completes all of the transcription from the program, it should be sent by mail to me (at their cost). I will review it and ensure that it is completed well. There are prompts and detailed information provided within the program to help them with ensuring quality work and I am also available while they are completing it. The first set of dictation is simple, but each specialty increases in complexity. We realize that a student may make a few errors, but if there are a significant amount, I then have a gentle chat with the student and ask them to review the transcription (that I return to them at my cost). They are given one more opportunity to complete the transcription.
Once all of the initial dictation from the course is transcribed well, a final set of test dictation is sent digitally, which concludes the transcription process. This is sent to the student to complete using the same steps listed above.
At this point, the final step is an oral spelling test over the phone that includes basic common terms from each major medical specialty. These will be terms that they will know well, if they have completed the entire course. The test is not difficult, and most people pass easily. However, if not, a student is welcome to retest twice. The test includes 33 terms, two to three from each major specialty. A student can miss three and still pass.
Once the transcription is completed well and the oral testing passed, Deborah Burns will provide them with an actual letter of recommendation verifying that they have completed work for our doctors and clients. As you may have discovered, it is vitally necessary that anyone applying for a job or starting their own business must have hands-on work experience prior to being permitted to work as an MT. It is a tough catch-22 and our letter states that they have work experience with our transcription service, Deborah’s Touch.
Deborah will also provide a “mini seminar” to the student, which a simple version of the three-hour class that she may teach through your community education program. This helps the student with pertinent details on starting their own business and obtaining their own clients or working for a medical transcription service by distance electronically.
We also recommend that your facility supply the student with a certificate of some sort at this point. A training certificate is not necessary to be successful, but it is often a source of personal pride and accomplishment for the student.
We provide on-going mentorship to each student, not only during the program, but also following. This is often the difference between success and failure for a home-based MT. Many MTs work without supervision or input and a friendly voice by phone or e-mail support can provide immeasurable assistance.
COST
The procedure is that you obtain payment from the student, and then call, e-mail or fax our office. We will ship the program directly to the student the next working day. It takes approximately seven working days to reach the student.
We will then invoice you (the invoice will reference the student’s name). We appreciate payment within three weeks.
Refunds are only provided within three working days after the student receives the program. Although most people are honorable, we have discovered that occasionally it is purchased with the intention to copy it and return it. It is therefore advisable to ensure that this policy is presented upon the purchase/payment form that the student signs through your facility.
The standard cost of our A to Z program is currently $2,845. We can supply you with packets and advertising literature for potential student follow-up.
We would make our program available to you at a reduced cost, so that there would not be any competition or misunderstandings or students trying to order directly through us and bypassing your system. We can discuss details, but it would most likely be around $1,600 (plus $40 shipping) as your cost and you could then offer it to your potential students as $1,900 (plus shipping) in your catalog.