Again, I can only speak from my own experience and my own opinions. So, without further ado, and because I have a morning date with the leftover Dr. Runon-SubjectJumper, here is the promised post. I am prepared though! Rob made extra strong coffee!
Oh....and it is still freakin rainin!!! can you believe that????? UUGH...
Okay, on to the post.
I do not believe that Medical Transcription will ever die as a profession. Will Straight transcription die, maybe. More and more doctors are going to voice recognition software. That is just a fact of life, and it is unavoidable. This is a fact of today's technological advances! Think about it, compared to just 5 years ago how far has technology advanced?
Do you still have a landline phone? Some don't. Why? Because of how advanced cell phones are getting. People say, "oh, we don't need that old thing anymore!" BUT...Landlines are STILL needed. Cell phone signals fail, believe me, I know this! Two years ago we had an ice storm that knocked out our power and Cell towers and everything for a week. We had neighbors asking to use our landline! It was still needed. Voice Recognition, like cell signals, fail. They make mistakes!
Sometimes they are really funny mistakes that make no sense whatsoever. Other times, they are serious mistakes such as the wrong medication or a lethal dose which could kill someone. These doctors yawn, sneeze, eat, mumble, burp, cough, etc. while dictating. The voice recognition sometimes picks this up and translates wrong.
Who is going to fix this? That is right! The medical transcriptionist! Why? The doctors are so busy with their jobs and trying to find time for their family (and maybe a bit of golf ;) ) that they just do not have the time to go over their dictated reports and fix the errors that VR makes. That is where we will come in.
Will the whole system go to Electronic Medical Records (EMR)? Maybe...but every single day I have one of my doctor say something such as "Medical History: Found on EMR but with these changes...." This tells me that some of the clinics I work for are already using EMRs....but it takes a transcriptionist to add to that EMR and it takes a Medical Transcription Editor (MTE) to edit what VR translates wrong!
Will our jobs ever fully die? No, I do not believe so. I do believe that some day we may be the lonely landline phones only doing part of our jobs and not fully typing the files, but we will still be needed. I guess it is like the doctors out there who are having to put down their scalpels and supervise the robot doing the surgery because the robot does it safer. The world moves on and technology advances at lightening speed. In the end though, human thoughts, eyes, and feelings are still needed!
Now, go give your landline phone a hug....it misses you!
Oh, and it just totally started SNOWING....I am giddy! I love SNOW!!!!!
Okay...off to work now with a snow-induced smile on my face!!!!
This is an awesome post! Great job! I will be one of your blogger followers. I hope many more come. I believe you are right about MTs not going anywhere. After actually working with VR reports, I see that electronics are definitely not ready or close to being ready to take over. Like you said, doctors are sloppy with their reports and don't have the time to go over them. That is why we are hear. Anyways, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you Katie!! :) I hope to keep this blog going for a long time! It really is a lot more fun that I imagined! :D I am glad you are enjoying it so far!
ReplyDeleteI just read this morning a Department of Labor statement regarding Medical Transcription. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm I posted this in Keep On Keepin On this morning. It goes right along with your statement of MT and MTE still being needed.
ReplyDeleteBTW I still use my landline on a daily basis!
Thanks for that site Renae! I will check that out later tonight! We still use our landline too, mostly the younger kids but it does get used!
ReplyDeleteI know you like working from home (and I do too!) but I have often wondered if working in a hospital/clinic would pay more. I had an offer a few months ago but the location was almost 2 hours away.
ReplyDeleteSharon,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this post!! Being a current MT student with CareerStep, the topic of transcription dying out has been weighing heavily on me. It's also kept me procrastinating!!! Anyways, Great post, Great Blog...I will definitely be following!! :)
My favorite line from this post "go give your landline phone a hug....it misses you!"
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this. My dad asked me about this the other day. I said pretty much the same thing, but now I'm armed with even more information for when someone asks about this.