Hi everybody! I am recently a single mother and have been a stay at home mom for 3.5 years. I have two boys and a girl on the way. I have looked into every opportunity to be able to stay at home with my kids until they are in school. I am starting a internet course to be a medical transcriptionist and I was wondering if there is anybody out there who does this from home. Just to get an idea of what I am getting myself into!

My sister does it part time. She does it through a local scribeing company. It seems to work for her, but now she's looking int to selling Nutra-life.

Be very careful. It sounds like you already started this internet course. I hope you didn't put too much money out for it, because there are tons of scams out there. You should try to investigate the company you took this course from and be sure that it is reputable, otherwise you could be in a lose-lose situation. Just a kindly warning. I know that some local colleges (mostly specialty type ones) offer these classes, but as I said, I don't know who you went through to get this class. It's tough to work at home. Although I do it and have been for many years now, I already have a bachelor's degree and I was able to obtain a freelance contract as a medical copyeditor for a major publisher in New York, but I've been doing this kind of work outside of the home prior to being able to work out of my home office in Florida. Good luck. Let us know what happens.

Starlight-Starbright

If you are motivated to do an internet based class you are learning how it will be once you start working at home. This is the time to work out the "kinks" such as setting scheduled times to do your work, ignoring telephone calls and all that goes on. This will be your work time. It is great that you are able to do that and stay home with your kids.

Hi

I do medical transcription from home. I want to be very upfront and tell you that it is NOT easy and is very time consuming. Unless you have had a medical background... it's incredibly tough. I am learning as I go while working for a woman here in my area. She proofreads my work before it goes back to the doctors. I get "corrected files" back and notes to explain my errors, etc. I have been doing this since September. It gets easier over time... but honestly, I would suggest taking a class with your local community college and NOT over the internet. There is also another 'work from home' company out there selling tapes and it costs you at least $1400 to do it. Not worth it. It will take you forever to cover your initial expenses. You really need to have someone be able to work with you, explain the terminology, etc. You need to know anatomy and the function of various systems - musculoskeletal, nervous, genitourinary, dermatology, cardiology, endocrinology, etc. Each specialty has its own terminology, tests, procedures, diagnoses, prescription drugs, etc. You need to know which is generic, which is brand name, etc. It is a lot of hard work that pays very little while you learn. I believe the current rate averages 13 to 16 cents per line. You MUST MUST MUST be perfect when doing this. Sometimes it's hard to tell what the doctor is saying. Words like abduction and adduction have two very different meanings but can sound exactly alike on the tape. Omitting a word or two - or messing up a dosage or drug name could have serious adverse consequences.

Also, many practices are now using software that you speak into a microphone and it types it for you, PDA's and computer entry or outsourcing to India. I highly suggest you researching what your job possibilities will be before you get into this. Future trends are predicted to be heading away from outsourcing. I am doing this while I start my own business as a virtual assistant. because I signed a non-compete doc, I cannot offer medical transcription through my virtual assistant business.

Again, unless you have had a background in medicine and have great secretarial skills (grammar, punctuation, typing, etc.) I would encourage you to look at it very hard. It takes a lot of time just to do one tape - no matter how fast you type. It's even harder when you're trying to learn the terminology, etc.

The other downfall I find to this is - although I am home with my son, he must be 100% quiet and not distracting me when I do this. As a result, a lot of the typing ends up being done when he's napping or in bed.

Not trying to discourage you - but I'm being honest and telling you that it is not easy and that you really ought to take a class at a local college and not over the internet or other work from home schemes.

I also sell Tupperware and Tastefully Simple on the side. Both companies have the ability to provide you with the ability to stay home with your child(ren). I have been doing this for about a year - again, while I try to start up my own Virtual Assistant business. (You need a back up when trying to find clients - ha ha)

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

This post is a little old, but I wanted to respond. I am medical transcriptionist. Have been in the field for over 8 years. I wanted to say back when I started it was a great way for a single parent to make a living. The problem with transcription is it takes quite awhile to get up speed. That is why our community college instructors suggested going for in-house positions that paid hourly while being trained. Most MTs who work from home get paid by the line (production pay) which is not really very feasible for a newbie. I did just as instructed. My first job was only $10.00/hour (in Michigan in 1999) but I got excellent training and bennefits while working for a large teaching hospital. Eventually (after 8 months) I was allowed to go home to work and go onto production pay. I was assigned one clinic and did operative notes and discharges. I got to know "my" doctors really well and so by that time I was making 14-16 per hour from HOME! with benefits. Not get rich money but my kids and I were doing wonderful. After 2 years of this the bottom dropped out. Hospitals in their pursuit of saving the almighty buck outsourced all their medical transcription to India! (overseas). The entire staff was given 90 days and out of a job. I thought I would have no problem with my experence. However, finding another Hospital-based job proved difficult. All the hospitls seemed to be outsourcing to services here in the US or Indian-based. So I worked from home for many national transcription companies. The line rates got less and less years after year. Yet they expected higher quality and high production. Slowly it began to feel more like a sweatshop than a job and my once decent income was dwindling. I am not 40 and still a single parent and desparately need to get out of this field. There is no future. The Indian companies are terrible with quality but hire Amercican MTs to "clean up" the dictation. Of course everyone makes less.

I myself would not recommend anyone going into transcription unless it was short term. But today you will probably find it very difficult to find an in-house hospital department to train you. It's incredibly hard for newbies to get a foot in the door athome with the services right away. Even if you do you will be so slow at first you will not make anything (they still won't pay your hourly even though you are new).

So these are things you really need to consider before spending the money.

I stayed in the field because my younger son was diagnosed with autism and it was next to impossible to find daycare and also had to have the flexibilty to work with his therapy and schooling issues.