Medical Transcription: Career Step

Women For Hire and Career Step's BIG TEN Contest

To celebrate Women For Hire's 10th Anniversary in 2009, we've partnered with Career Step, a leading provider of medical transcription training, to award 10 qualified candidates with a full scholarship to Career Step's medical transcription training program.

Career Step's TOP TEN have been selected! Congratulations to Deborah Baker-Anastos, Joanne Byron, Eileen Hierholz, Corrie Looney, Roxanne Nelson, Mary Jane Nuwer, Phyllis Perkins, Mindy Ralston, Robin Rogers, and Constance Stumm!

Career Step is the nation's leading provider of online medical transcription and medical coding training as well as leading edge technology solutions throughout the healthcare industry. With a proven and proprietary online education platform, Career Step is poised to duplicate its success in allied healthcare markets worldwide.

Women For Hire has a partnership with Career Step. Career Step is approved by the Approval Committee for Certificate Programs (ACCP), a joint committee established by AHDI and AHIMA for certifying and approving their medical transcription education programs, as they've set a standard of excellence in medical transcription education. http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/mtapproved.cfm

Medical Transcription: Is Career Step Right For You?

Teresa Springer’s bills were mounting. She had to find work.

But with five children—three of her own and two foster kids ranging in age from 6 months to 16—and a husband who is often called away by the Air National Guard, she needed a job that would allow her to make money—from her Ohio home.

With a little research, Teresa discovered the growing online field of medical transcription, which many people do in their living rooms, bedrooms and basements. That led her to Career Step, a 17-year-old company which trains medical transcribers and coders through its online program.

Teresa logged into Career Step on Sept. 10, 2007. She graduated just five months later—far more quickly that most students—but she was familiar with medical jargon and “ I read and absorb information quickly.”

She estimates that she now makes between $24 and $32 an hour transcribing or editing, and averages about five hours a day. “Most of the time you are getting paid so many cents per line, so you control how much you make.”

Money was a huge motivator—“when you’ve got a bill that is 30 to 60-days late and you have all these kids you want to take care of.”

What It’s All About

Transcription is a key step in the behind-the-scenes world of modern medicine. It begins when a physician dictates details about why a patient has come in for an exam.

“Whether patients have a cold or they get an arm amputated, all that is recorded by the doctor,” says Cameron Loflin, VP of business services at Career Step.

A transcriptionist takes a physician’s notes and enters them into a patient's permanent medical record. A coder pulls specific codes, which are used for insurance and billing.

This is a growing field, with plenty of job opportunities and an overall bright career future -- thanks to an increasing population that is living longer, and with physicians prescribing more medications, operations and procedures than ever before.

Transcriptionists are also in demand because the average age in the industry is high: 55. “A lot of retiring will be going on over the next three to five years,” Cameron says.

At one time, medical transcription had a reputation as a somewhat closed field—entry level employees need not apply. But that has changed in the internet age—as more and more people work from home over the Web.

“One of the things that Career Step has proven is you can take a program, get the training you need and move right into the industry,” Cameron says.

In 1999, Career Step began offering its curriculum entirely online. Upwards of 14,000 people are learning coding and transcription at Career Step at any given moment.

Is This Right For You?

Obviously, when it comes to medical transcription, the faster and more accurately you type, the better.

“If you’re coming in with 10 or 15- words per minute, you’re really going to struggle,” Cameron says. “We can help with your typing speed, but 35-40 words per minute is the minimum. The faster you type—above that—is only going to enhance your opportunity.”

Right behind typing speed and accuracy: fluency in English and a solid grasp of grammar and style. Career Step teaches those subjects, but more as a refreshers.

Beyond that, the biggest key is self-discipline and the ability to create a home-work environment—taking into consideration other responsibilities—and distractions—such as children, spouses, pets and housework (not necessarily in that order).

“You have to create the right work environment,” says Cameron. “If this is something that you can't do, you might want to think twice.”

Many older people get into transcription after they retire because the pay is good, they can do it from home, and they can build on their skills from their former career.

Transcriptionists decide how much they want to make because they are paid on their productivity; they can choose to work part-time or fulltime. It’s also a portable field appealing to military spouses like Teresa or people who often relocate.

Although some transcriptionists and coders works in offices, most do it online—meaning they can move without changing employers. All they need are the skills, a computer with an internet connection and a setting that works best for them.

A Look At The Training

Career Step’s online format teaches students all of the skills they need to work in the medical industry. Students interact on their computer—mirroring the online back-and-forth of actual transcription. They move through a curriculum at their own pace, continuing to the next step once they have mastered various skills.

Career Step’s COO Celeste Harjehausen learned medical transcription after the birth of her second son in order to be home with her small children.

She turned her home into a medical transcription service, ExecuMed, which grew to 120 transcriptionists and served doctors across the USA. She sold the company in 2000 and joined Career Step. She is active in the transcription industry, editing resource publications, speaking and writing articles.

Obviously, since they transcribe notes from physicians, medical terminology is a major part of the curriculum, she says.

Students learn how medical words are built, what they mean and how to verify if a word they found on the web is the right word. They learn anatomy through a variety of diagrams—such as a beating heart that appears on the screen.

“Underneath that diagram are questions asking, ‘What’s the purpose of this valve of the heart?’ Celeste says. “Another one might be ‘Label this diagram.’ They are seeing information, interacting with it, then submitting their exercises and questions and receiving immediate feedback. People say, 'I feel like the instructor is sitting there interacting with me.’”

Training Time And Cost

The average student finishes Career Step’s training program in 600 hours—which translates into exactly 13.8 months for a typical student. That includes full and part-timers, people who work and others who also attend college.

“We are most interested not in how long our students sit at their computer and work on the program, but that they understand and master the material as they move through the curriculum,” Celeste says. “Ultimately, at the end of the day if they have achieved our minimum guidelines, they are going to be able to get a job and work in the industry and be successful the moment that they walk out the door and into the final.”

Cost ranges from Career Step’s Platinum Program for $1,995, which includes a full range of personal placement services, or the Gold Program for $1,750, which offers all the placement information but a bit less of the personal service. The coding curriculum is $1,875.

Financial aid, payment programs and military discounts are all available. Students have access to the curriculum for 1 year. If their study takes longer for any reason, they can purchase extensions at a reduced price to continue their studies until they have mastered the material.

Hiring Record and Salaries

Out of 1500 graduates who responded to a 2008 Career Step employment survey in 2008, 85 percent said they had jobs, says Julie Weaver, a Career Step placement officer.

Most companies pay 6 to 8 cents per line on a 65-character line; some will include spaces, some won't. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pay ranges anywhere from $22,000 a year to $45,000—depending on an employee’s productivity. That means salaries generally range anywhere from $10 to $25 an hour.

“The learning curve is about three to six months, Julie says. “You could start out making maybe $3 an hour your first week—which is really frustrating after you've gone through all this extensive schooling and things like that. But you can make $45,000 a year. Realistically, it takes about 6 months before you start making $10 to $12 an hour.”

It’s not an easy job, but it’s rewarding, says Teresa, 36.

English is a second language for many of the doctors who reports she transcribes. “You’re already at a deficit because they don't speak English and then they talk so fast. And a lot of them, their sentence structure is the reverse of what English is—so you have to fight through understanding that.”

But Teresa has persevered and says she enjoys her newfound work.

“I get to be productive and add to the family income, which is important for me because I am actually helping to support the family,” she says. “It gives me something to do when my husband is on his deployment. And I get to be here for emergencies—run the kids to the doctor if they are sick. I get to take care of them.”

Will EMR (Electronic Medical Records) affect the need for Medical Transcriptionists?

EMR is all about the creation, use, and distribution of medical information. In the past, medical records (information) had limited use and distribution because paper records are, by nature, limited. Paper records have to be filed, stored, copied, mailed, faxed, printed, and only the person holding the paper record in their hand can make use of the information in the paper record. EMR allows faster, more accurate creation, use and distribution of medical information. With EMR, any doctor, nurse, healthcare professional, or patient with computer access can view and use the information in the medical record.

The role of the medical transcriptionist is to participate in the creation of medical information. EMR will not decrease the demand for medical information. In fact, EMR will increase the demand for medical information. Healthcare providers will look to the medical transcriptionist to transform (from audio or text/audio combination), format, and enter information into the patient's record - even though the record is now electronic instead of paper-based. The internet age has taught us that the more information we have, the more information we want!

The reality today is our healthcare system is already operating in a hybrid medical documentation system. Some facilities and providers are using typewriters and cassette tapes; others are fully EMR. A focused movement towards EMR throughout the healthcare industry will provide opportunities for medical transcriptionists to participate in new and exciting ways in the healthcare documentation process.