CAREER'S THAT LAST THROUGH HARD TIMES

There's nothing quite like having a good, secure, job when times are tough all around. MT is like that. There are no rainy days!


We, at Phoenix, are approached daily by folks who are worried about their futures.

Well, with a thorough grounding in MT, your worries are over.

In fact, health and healthcare are basic necessities the world over, so there's never any shortage of jobs to be had if you know MT.



A good grounding such as we provide, with some cooperation from you, will allow you to effortlessly get through your interview for an MT job in any good company.


For those who need hands-on production experience to get their first Home-Based MT job, Phoenix provides production training and referrals.

The skill that you need is not difficult to attain in our customized 20 week (part time) training schedule.

Phoenix gives you 150 hours of theory training and an EQUAL amount of time hands-on at an individual workstation. We teach, and you learn, at a comfortable pace.


In fact we even have a unique and custom designed training for people with certain handicaps. MT can be done effectively with just one functional hand.


MT can be learned by the sight impaired or even by totally blind persons... like the girl on the left.

All the special software needed for blind training is available at Phoenix as is the skill to train...

MT can be done anywhere, even while surfing if you're so inclined.

Medical Transcription is challenging and if you really get into it MT is a fascinating field with lots of space to grow.

The rewards are good pay, excellent job satisfaction, and very good job security - even in hard times.

Home Based? The Truth

Wanna ba a home-based transcriptionist? It's easy, or so they say! We do see a lot of ads these days touting some 3 month training scheme or the other and promising quick training e.g. to turn housewives into HB transriptionists.

The truth is that it is rarely that simple. Home based (HB) jobs are available in plenty for the right candidates, but to convince any decent company that you deserve that job means that first of all you should be better trained than your run-of-the-mill fresher. Now that's because the HB candidate has to be able to work alone. The big advantage of working on a production floor is that one has colleagues to lean on. Working at home however, you are strictly on your own. Whatever be the doubt, you will have to sort it out on your lonesome ownsome - whether it's a question of formatting, or busting a blank, or a tricky accent, or equipment trouble... your training should have grounded you well enough that you are able to finish the job comfortably.

Not that it is impossible to properly train folks for home based careers, but it is not by any means the same as going through a 'standard course' in MT. We have found that to train good HB MTs, special care and attention have to be given to inculcating independence. It is very important to initially correctly judge whether a particular individual is capable of making it on their own and if they are not, then they should be counseled that doing HB MT may not be their cup of tea. Another secret of our success with HB training here at Phoenix is that we do not leave our trainees to fend for themselves once the training period is over. Our support and mentorship (and on-line IM presence) is available for as long as it may really be needed.

Any effective MT training will require that the sessions in lab should be at least 3 hours long (preferably longer). Here itself one finds that many so-called MT training companies are doing what is effectively a scam job by telling people that they can get by with just an hour or two of training three or four times a week. Then comes the issue of total hands-on training time. My estimate is that for any MT at least 150 hours of hands-on work with actual dictation files during the training period is the absolute minimum. At Phoenix, for those who wish to be HB, we insist on at least 170 hours of actual transcription time!

Then comes the vexing question of experience. Most 'mainline' MT companies will not give HB jobs to freshers. There are a few companies that may accept as little as 6 months experience but your performance on the entrance exam will have had to have been exceptional to get this sort of a concession.

Phoenix counsels would-be HB trainees that they should count on doing at least six months to a year of production floor work before they can expect to get a good HB job. Of course there are many small companies that are not that picky but then working for these 'small locals' can be self-defeating as many bigger companies take this sort of 'experience' with a good pinch of salt.


And then there's the question of your set-up at home. The expense of starting and maintaining your own home office is by no means small. You should have a good and reliable computer. Then a solid UPS and with power back-up for at least 4 hours. Primarily you need to install a good broadband connection (that's at least 512 kbps bandwidth) and if possible back that up with a decent dialup or another cable at around 256 kbps. The OS, software, firewall, and other necessities will be as specified by your company. Remember that now that you are on your own, you absolutely must have at least two good antivirus scanners and a couple more that pick up specifically on spyware, adware, trojans, and worms. Being online these days can be dangerous... Finally there's that little matter of HIPAA compliance. Any decent MT company will require you to sign confidentiality agreements - and you had better stick to them. If you haven't been trained in these niceties, as well as having been given a solid grounding in how to effectively utilize your SEs, then you are not going to get very far in your HB career!

Basic MT Exercises - PHARMA (I)

One of the toughest things to learn in MT is the drugs. When the doc gets to the MEDICATIONS: heading, and then zips through this at maximum speed, a lot of MTs and even some editors, feel a thrill of fear. My guess is that the meds section of a dictation probably causes more blanks and heartaches than any other. A simple solution is to lay a strong foundation during the training period. At Phoenix we like to start with a simple net exercise. Here's a list of the current top 100 prescription meds:

Now get the students cracking to google these one at a time noting the use of the med, it's typical prescription info, and if possible figure out how it sounds. If necessary let them ask for help from someone with experience.

Doing a few from our list each day will soon plant the basic ideas about meds in the students' minds and help them to get used to searching out med info on the net. At the same time it's very important to coordinate this exercise with the sorts of files that are being worked on at that time...

MT JOBS AND PLACEMENT AFTER TRAINING

Outside our new training center recently set up at Gandhipudur we mounted a spanking new board announcing our advent. The response was gratifying and also quite surprising.

A very large number of the walk-ins were job hunting. They had completed some sort of training in MT and were now desperately searching for the promised jobs. A lesser number had some work experience but were unhappy with either their current pay or working conditions and wanted very badly to switch.

Our own placement wing has always been very active and it is no exaggeration to say that our Phoenix trainees have never long been without jobs. The fact is that the job market for MTs is actually excellent, and hence our surprise. But the surprise turned to dismay as we found that on testing, most of those who have supposedly completed training in MT (from various other places) and a majority of those who claimed some work experience were actually quite incompetent as transcriptionists both in theory and in practice!

The job market really is very good for those who can demonstrate their competence. When we refer our trainees to standard companies for placement and they do well in the screening tests that each company utilizes, getting a job and at a decent starting pay is always the next step.

Of course, it is our job at Phoenix to know who is hiring and what their requirements are and we can then send the right people there for selection. I do think that it is incumbent upon any decent training center to:
1. Provide a solid foundation in both theory and practical work that will enable a candidate to pass a good screening test setup.
2. To give the trainees and potential trainees an honest picture of what skills they need to develop and their actual prospects for getting a job.
3. To prepare the trainees not just to pass but to be able to do enough in the way of productivity to earn themselves an initial livable wage while also satisfying the hiring company that they have indeed selected a productive employee.

At Phoenix, our tailorable and mentor based training philosophy means that not all candidates will get exactly the same training. Some folks whose comprehension skills require more work to really develop competence should be provided with that extra time and effort. Others will find the language of medicine more difficult to cope with while others will struggle with their mastery of basic computer skills. All these individualities do need to be individually adjusted for. The result, at Phoenix, is that our trainees do well and land good jobs.

For those who have had some external training and who for some reason or the other are subsequently jobless, we do offer a comprehensive screening (it is NOT free) that can take two days and after analysis of the results we counsel. Very often these folks are found to have rather glaring lacunae (big gaps) in their theoretical or practical bases. Without undergoing a remedial program, such folks will never get themselves competent enough to land good jobs in standard companies.

Those who do wish to apply for jobs through our placement service may do so if they are first willing to be thoroughly evaluated at our own facility (at their own cost). If we find you to be competent, we will send you to a job interview with a company that is seeking your sort of skill set. Do feel free to send in your CV (resume/bio) as a Word attachment by email and marking the subject line "Placement - "your name" to phoenixbpo@yahoo.co.uk. Remember, a decent and specific covering letter always makes a good impression...

MT Mentors are Essential for Effective Training!

"Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well." Aristotle

"So, who's your mentor?" There is a question that needs to be asked every time we notice a fresher MT excelling on the production floor.

Many have undergone some sort or the other of MT training only to find themselves unable to get into a proper job. Jobs in the ask-me-no-questions types of operations typically do not pay on time and whole units tend to suddenly fold up and disappear leaving their employees with debts in hand and wondering why they ever thought of doing MT in the first place.

On the other hand, the established companies can expect to pick up people who have a couple of years of experience behind them (the survivors) and these comps will have little patience with beginners. You are expected to quickly get used to the formatting and client specs, and get on with regularly turning out high quality work. In other words one should already be a "PROFESSIONAL".

A good MT training program should coach you to at least a 95% accuracy level. Many companies, on the other hand, expect starters to be able to deliver 98.5% and better. Once you have completed your theory and are fluent in processing skills, it is the accuracy that has to be worked on, and here you will find it that much easier to progress if under the tutelage of a good mentor.

There is therefore a gap between what a 'fresher' can hope to accomplish and what the hiring firms require. Bridging this all-important gap is largely the job of the mentor. Almost regardless of the length of training, turning trainees into professionals takes more than just X hours of LOM, Y hours of English, and Z hours of hands-on lab time. Formulaic systems will work only for self-starters and each student is an individual, thus an essential part of mentoring is to get to know the individual, and to tailor the training process to maximum effect. It is very important in this process to get each of the trainees to be in constant touch with their mentor.

For example, at Phoenix, we assign homework files and we expect our students to be on-line with us on IM while they work. It is the nature of the job anyway for trainers to be online with their own production work, so having trainees come through with a few Qs now and then is not any great sacrfice. In fact, it is this highly personalised training that has helped so many of our students comfortably and quickly become thorough professionals. One of the very first things that I do when starting a class is to share email and IM IDs with the batch and encourage them to do the same. I insist that I should have one ID for each student (specifically created if necessary) and then I always check to see that I am 'getting through' with that.

Mentoring can not happen effectively when batches are large. At Phoenix we stop at a maximum size of 10, and no instructor is allowed to handle more than two batches at a time - this is about what's manageable if we are serious about really mentoring and not just doing some form of training just to get by.

But mentoring is more than just the occasional on-line help. Mentoring requires a lot of involvement. The most fundamental determination for the mentor to make is whether the individual is going to succeed and what this individual needs to do to actually succeed. Yes-anyone can become an MT, but only those who have the dedication and drive will actually make it.

Mentoring also means helping the students to learn to help themselves. Relationships between batchmates are a great boon. We have found that forming strong bonds of friendship between batchmates leads to greater and faster success in the workplace. These networks, once formed, can help for a whole lifetime!

If you have never had a mentor in MT then we would encourage you to find one. You will be amazed to find the difference that it makes especially for freshers. For those who are more experienced, why not share your experience with any who want to learn? Mentoring can be demanding but ultimately is very fulfilling to do. So many of my old students are still in touch even though their need for mentoring no longer exists. Give it a try!

Apart from Phoenix, there are other websites and online communities that you can join where the all important 'instant help' of mentors can be accessed. Write in to us for more details...

LEARNING MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION

So, what is medical transcription all about?

Well, there's a huge demand for doctors' dictations (audio files) to be turned into text, in a standardized format, and that is what doing medical transcription is all about.

Doctors, patients and insurance companies all need to have reliable transcripts of the diagnosis and treatment that has been done for the patient. Doctors do not have the time to sit and type out reports (that was the old way of maintaining patient records) and so this service is provided by companies who specialize in doing the job.

Accuracy is expected to be 100% but in practice anything over 99% is considered to be good. Because patients' lives depend on the accuracy of the reports and because speed is also of the essence, good medical transcriptionists are much in demand.

It takes a solid amount of training in language comprehension, medical terminology and computer skill to make a good transcriptionist. It also takes a lively curiosity, a constant desire to improve in knowledge-skill-speed and the discipline to keep at the job till the allotted files are safely returned to the sender.

Typically, in India, a good MT can earn over 25,000/- in a month.

But, for many transcriptionists the desire to keep improving and to do more and more challenging work will lead to moving on to proofing, then editing, and finally to taking responsibility for quality assurance (QA) or even to managing a whole team for a client. If one keeps at it, a salary of 50,000+ is not unreasonable.

One of the most exciting aspects of learning to be an MT is that there are no prequalifications. Anyone who has the will to learn can become an MT.

We see so many young people who failed to graduate high school but go on to become excellent MTs. If you have dedicated yourself to succeeding and are willing to put in some rather long hours on properly laying your own foundation, you can become a good MT.

Most institutes will have a look at your language abilities when you first apply and then give you a suitable training schedule. For those whose language is poor we put them through a three to six month foundation course. This FC will teach you both the theory and the practical aspects of understanding language. As a bonus, your spoken English will also get highly polished!

After getting through the FC, or if you already have a decent command of English, you can jump in with the core training program that lasts for 3 to 4 months. Intensive coaching can be expected taking 6 hours a day at the training center and at least a couple of hours of homework on your own.

You come out with a good working knowledge of medical language, computer skills, comprehension of even the incomprehensible and the ability to reference your way to more and more knowledge. If you have been sincere, the training center will also probably see that you go straight into a good job at one of the many MT production houses in the area.

The best institutes have a high student to trainer ratio (better than 1:12), will give equal emphasis to theory and practicals, and will set your standards high.

Perfection is always the goal.

Don't be fooled by offers to turn you into an MT with 2 or 3 months of part-time effort. Believe me it can't be done, and you will just be wasting your money, and your precious time, on such programs.

After getting through a competent training program, you should be able to get through an entrance test at any good production house with the ability to confidently transcribe at least 250 lines at accuracies of 95% and above. So, don't sell yourself short and settle for less!

Knowing MT is something that gives you tremendous flexibility. You can do MT whenever you need to, for there is always a good demand for good MTs, so it can help to tide over a rough patch, or contribute the extra income that you need. Home based jobs are plentifully available for good MTs and editors. Full time students in colleges, housewives, and househusbands can earn more sitting at home and in between chores/homework than those who hold down full time jobs outside. At the same time MT can be a very fruitful and rewarding main career with good opportunities for growth and the potential for excellent income generation. You know, the greatest beauty for me is that the only qualification is your dedication, and everything else will fall into place.

WHAT IS MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION?

Are you as puzzled as this young fellow appears to be?

The truth about MT is really quite simple. Patients need to visit doctors and hospitals when they get sick. Doctors treat the patients and they keep careful records of the entire treatment process. These records form a permanent history of a patient's problems and how these problems have been handled. Without a clear medical history, subsequent diagnosis and treatment becomes compromised.

As a simple example, think of a patient who is allergic to a drug like penicillin. If this drug is ever administered, the patient could easily die. A clear medical record will state the patient's drug allergies so that such 'mistakes' becomes nearly impossible to commit.

It is the MT's job to see to it that the audio dictated by the doctor is accurately transcribed into clear text, and in a standard format, so that professionals will know exactly where to look to find the 'drug allergies', to continue with our example. During or after a treatment process is completed, the patient may also need to make a claim on medical insurance. Again the patient's records are of great importance to the correct handling of reimbursements to the hospital and patient. All of these records, and there are masses of them generated every single day, need to go from being an audio dictation to a permanent electronic 'soft' record. In turn, this record can be accessed online as needed by authorized personnel or by the patient.

So, the medical transcriptionist will be sent an audio file. One listens and accurately transcribes the dictation in a standard format. The record, now as text and in digital form, gets sent back to the hospital, doctor, or clinic from wherever it originated and will be stored there in that hospital's database.

It is not a small industry. Thousands of job opportunities exist for someone with a bit of proper training.

Anyone can become an MT (medical transcriptionist). The most basic qualifications are a strong desire to learn the trade, perseverance, and dedication. While anyone can become a decent MT, those who have the aptitude can become great MTs and go on to editing and higher paying careers in the field, and some, mostly those who lack the drive, will not succeed. In other words, one's educational background is not all that important. What is very important is the person's desire to succeed. We have had so many successful students developing from among those who initially came to us despondent after having failed in some examination, dropped out off school/college, or were hesitant housewives who had left their own school days many many years ago.

Initially, it helps if one is good with languages, and it does help to have spoken English as a primary language, but believe me, these are just helpful in the very beginning of one's training and soon cease to make any difference to performance as the training progresses. Good training programs will start from scratch, assuming nothing, and teaching the student all that she or he needs to know in order to succeed as an MT. Mentoring helps too!