You won’t be researching becoming a medical transcriptionist for very long before you start to hear about medical transcriptionist certification. Some people get scared off from achieving a great at-home career when they first hear of this because they don’t understand a few basic things about certification. Let me break this down for you:

First, the most important thing you should know is that you do not need medical transcriptionist certification in order to work at home as an MT. In fact, most doctors still do not even know that certification is an option for the medical transcriptionist! While there are some MTs who have certification, the majority to do not (estimates range that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 MTs in the United States and at the time of this writing there are only about 3,000 certified medical transcriptionists). That percentage may change in the future as technological advances cause more MTs to transition to being MT editors, with an increased skill level needed to edit advanced healthcare documentation.

Second, you are probably wondering exactly what is a Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT). It is a voluntary certification offered by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). (Formerly called the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) and many people still use this name, though technically it is incorrect).

AHDI’s purpose for encouraging all medical transcriptionists to hold credentials is to encourage high professional and ethical standards in the medical transcription industry. They thought that if there were certification it would be a sign both to the public and to doctors that the transcriptionists who obtained it had worked and studied hard, really had a firm grasp of what transcribing reports is all about, and had a few years of experience to prove it!

If you choose to become a Certified Medical Transcriptionist you will be required to take a test given by AHDI. While they don’t actually require it, AHDI does strongly recommend that you have two years of acute care transcription experience before you take the CMT certification examination. They recommend this because they want to be sure that you are truly ready to take and pass the exam the first time you take it. Those two years of experience need to include multiple dictators who speak English as a second language, many different types of reports including surgery, and some specialty clinic work as well. If you have all that experience you will have a much greater chance of passing the exam the first time.

While it’s not a requirement that you become certified, some MTs find it results in greater financial reward, while some report no change at all in their financial picture. Some employers will grant pay raises to those MTs who have the CMT certification while others will not. It is worth your while to read through the material on AHDI’s web site to decide if this is the right choice for you to pursue in the future when you have the recommended experience. They suggest two years of acute care (or equivalent) experience before you are allowed to take the CMT test, so you don’t need to focus on this too much right now if you are just beginning in this career. You just need to know it’s available and it’s something to aim for in the future if it interests you.

It’s not hard to get medical transcriptionist certification, but it does require experience and diligent study time so that you are ready. In the meantime, though, not being certified will make no difference to your ability to embark on this new career path.

Susan B. Eliot is a wonderful resource in this field and is an expert when it comes to medical transcriptionist work. She owns and operates her own transcription service and knows first hand all the details about medical transcription training.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 12:15 am and is filed under Jobs and Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.