Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why should I be trained as a medical transcriptionist when my neighbor tells me that a speech-recognition computer will replace me by the time I'm done with school?

A. Though it's been touted as doom-bringer to the profession of medical transcription for more than 25 years, speech recognition won't replace MTs, ever. Very few dictators are willing to spend the extra time and care necessary for "front-end" speech recognition to work, which means they have to edit their own dictation, and their time is better spent seeing patients. Less than 50 percent of all dictation is eligible for front-end speech recognition due to the software's difficulty in recognizing the dictation. Speech recognition technology will, however, ultimately change the way MTs work. So-called "back-end" speech recognition is used increasingly more in hospitals and medical transcription services throughout the United States. This refers to running physician dictation through a speech recognition computer program or engine and then sending the voice file (or dictation) and rough-draft typed report electronically to a medical transcriptionist for review. Thus, MTs will become more like editors and proofreaders in the future.

Also, some pundits anticipate that medical transcriptionists will take on some medical coding and billing functions in the future. This is why Seminole State College's Medical Transcription and Medical Coding Programs share a core curriculum. Graduates of the MT Program have only to complete five more courses to obtain a Medical Coding Certificate.

Q. How do I get paid?

A. Most MTs get paid on a production basis of some sort. This could be a base salary plus a production bonus for each line transcribed, or it could be straight production. This is common in transcription services and hospitals. With experience and production bonuses, MTs in Central Florida (Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties) make an average of between $14 and $33 per hour (that's about $30,000 to $70,000). For MTs working in their first year in the profession, local starting salaries range from $10 to $14 per hour. Production is usually based on a formula that counts transcribed lines, characters or words.

Q. Can I work from home?

A. A better question is, "Can I not work from home." Most MTs do, in fact, work from home.

Q. So that means that I can just take care of my kids, do the laundry, visit with the neighbors and make dinner while I make $50,000 a year, right?

A. Definitely not! In addition to a rigorous medical and grammatical core curriculum and ear training, medical transcription requires intense concentration and commitment. Having the option to work from home is a nice perk, but it is to your professional and monetary advantage to treat any home-based business as a profession, with set hours and a disciplined work schedule with a minimum of interruptions.

Q. But I get to work when I want, as much as I want, right?

A. You will have some flexibility in choosing your hours of work, but you'll have many deadlines to meet. Clients have strict turnaround rules that require that you commit to finishing your work in a timely manner. However, most experienced medical transcriptionists are offered more work than they can possibly do.

Q. What's the big deal about all this schoolwork? Don't you just type exactly what the doctors say? I can type and I've been to the doctor a lot in my life, so I can just go get a job right now, can't I?

A. No, if it were that easy the salaries would be a LOT lower. Experienced MTs are experts in medical terminology, English grammar, keyboard shortcuts and medical practices, as evidenced by the fact that physician speakers at our professional association meetings are told to prepare for an audience that is on the level of a first-year medical student. We are required to edit doctors' dictation for grammatical sense, clarity and inconsistencies. For example, if a doctor dictated that a man had a positive hCG value, the MT would be expected to catch an inconsistency, indicating that the man could be pregnant, and evaluate the possibility that the elevated hCG could be due to legitimate medical reasons. If it wasn't, the MT would report the inconsistency to his or her employer's risk management department. Medical transcriptionists are physicians' and healthcare organizations' first line of defense in minimizing legal risk and are key in getting rapid and complete reimbursement from insurance companies. This makes their skills invaluable.

Q. I see celebrities on TV all the time advertising courses in medical transcription from correspondence schools. Why is Seminole State better?

A. Though several excellent commercial correspondence schools exist, none of them advertise on television. Those TV courses are not respected in the profession, and their graduates often find that they pay excessive amounts of tuition for an education that does not qualify them for employment as an MT. The education you will get from Seminole State is known throughout the country as one of the best.

Seminole State strictly follows the stringent recommendations for medical transcription curricula set forth by the American Association for Medical Transcription. In addition, at Seminole State your coursework leads to a college-credit certificate, which includes courses that can transfer to most public and private colleges and universities. Try that with a correspondence school; most don't transfer anywhere. Also, compare the costs. For Florida residents, even our college-credit courses will cost less than correspondence school tuition. Many correspondence schools cost a minimum of $5,000, often payable in one lump sum; however, Seminole State's 40-College-Credit Program costs Florida residents about $73 per credit hour, for a total of less than $3,000 for the entire program (This excludes lab fees, books and supplies.).

Q. Are students committed to a lock-step, inflexible class schedule or can they take classes for a while, stop for a term or two or even a year, and then pick back up again?

A. Technically, yes; students can take some time to finish the program. Most part-time students find that it takes them two to two-and-a-half years to finish everything. An extended (two to three semester) absence from coursework is not prohibited by the program, but it's not the best way to get the most out of your medical transcription training time. This is because it is difficult to retain the technical coursework knowledge from one year to the next; however, such absences can be unavoidable in certain circumstances. For example, Intermediate Medical Transcription is only offered fall semester, and Advanced Medical Transcription is only offered spring semester. If students completed Intermediate in fall but choose to take spring semester off, they would have to wait another year to take Advanced Medical Transcription.

If you have additional questions concerning the Medical Transcription Program, please contact the Healthcare Career Programs Office at 407.404.6004 or healthprograms@seminolestate.edu.

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