I had 2 years of school for medical

• Please answer about starting as an MT - SarahE
  • I started in the file room of a 6 doctor urology office.... - MT and worn out
  • I graduated from a local community college. sm - inhouse
  • Learned at my mother's knee. - CrankyBeach
    • for someone with your experience sm - MT 30+ years and running
    • I love your last statement... so true... - sm
  • your old doc - deenibeeni
  • Since you only have experience in one - sm
  • I had 2 years of school for medical - SM
  • My story . . . - CMA - now MT
  • message inside - MTGA

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and have chosen to immigrate to America..or have gotten an appointment at a hospital here. They have not taken anything away from us. They were able to get visas because of their valuable medical skills. Yes they want to make money, like most of us.  Check out some of the profiles of doctors on hospital web sites. Puts a face to the voice.  Like or it not, it's helpful to many people in this country to visit a doctor who speaks their native language.

I don't mind doing legal and will do it now from time to time, but be prepared to be totally bored out of your mind.

At least that's the way I feel.  I love to transcribe, learned legal in college, went on to get my paralegal degree, etc., etc., but I did temp work when the kids were younger, which was about 90% medical and I would never go back to legal except for once in a while.

Booooooring.

An MS4 is a med student till June graduation. He's "Mister So-and-So" then in June when he graduates, he's "Doctor So-and-So."

A 4th year resident is something else entirely. He is an R4 (or that's what they call them here). HE is an MD. The MS4 is not an MD.

x

anatomy and physiology, biology, clinical biology (taking and processing lab tests--drawing blood on each other!!), filing, skills on all types of office machines, English composition, accounting, psychology, economics, medical terminology/transcription, and, of course, typing.  In the second year we did internships at local city hospitals. 

I went into transcription after working as a medical secretary for 7 years in a very large clinic. 

and Tessier's The Surgical Word Book, 3rd edition.  Books you could buy used I would say would be Stedman's Pathology and Lab Medicine and Cardiology/Pulmonary word book.  These are all the books I use the most during my day.  You could buy other speciality word books as you need them and could probably go used with those.

I wouldn't bother with buying a drug book, new editions come out every year and I just stick to the FDA website and RXList as my drug references.

Also FYI, not a book, but I use my Stedman's Electronic Medical Dictationary a lot.  It's easier to open the program than it is to pick up a huge 30-pound dictionary.

background and anatomy and physiology knowledge, a transition into coding wouldn't be hard at all.  From what I can tell by looking through my husband's books, an MT would have to learn insurance regulations and legalities.  We've basically got all the medical background down or we should be if we're worth our salt as an MT.

I even contacted AHIMA and found that the qualifications for taking the CCS or CCP coding exams are completion of the a coding program, RHIT program, or RHIA or related work experience.  Transcription is part of HIM, albeit the red-headed stepchild of the HIM department, but a part nonetheless and so satisfies the qualification of having work experience.

The test is tough though.  My husband didn't pass it his first time out and I think I read something like only 20% or so pass it the first time.  So it would probably be best to take some sort of formal coding class, in my opinion.

It would take me all night and pages and pages to describe what a bad person my ex-husband was.  After six years of putting up with his OCD, verbal abuse and alcohol, I left him the house, took the kids (5 and 1) and didn't look back. That was 20 years ago.

I wasn't looking to get married again, but I did.  After 13 years I only complain when hubby doesn't see things my way. :) 

My older kids, who were 5 and 1 when I left, are married and have kids of their own now.  My husband gets the Father's Day cards.  Their "real" father sits alone in the perfect little house I left behind and let him have and he drinks himself into oblivion every night because nobody is "perfect" enough, including his kids and his grandkids that he never sees. 

Sad, but true.  So glad I smartened up and got  out of there when I did.

What is the big deal.  Look at your clothes, cars, items in your house.

basically had the words correct.   They were such common terms I don't know how anyone could have gotten through school and not had them at least 100 times.

Also doing one search on Google with the misspelled words would have probably turned up the answer.

I have a national coding certificate.  I cut back on my MT work and got a job auditing physician records and scoring their documentation, then gave them feedback to maximize their reimbursement for the services they provided.  When I moved to a new area, the field for the type of coding I was doing had less of a demand, so I increased my MT work.  Now that I'm back in my "home town" I need to network and re-enter the field.  The money is just as good, if not better in some cases, with much better benefits, plus it is something you leave at the office at the end of the day.

d~

But I try to keep them all as simple as possible, one office with 2 surgeons has their own letterhead, so no problem there and they want things very simple.  All work for all also, besides getting printed by me, is put on a diskette for them to download on their systems for them to make whatever changes they choose.  All others with no letterhead, I supply all paper for (Xerox) and free delivery and pickup to all.  It is free for them, I pay someone to pickup/deliver.  That's how simple I want it, and I also want to bill out and get paid only once a month. 

Everyone seems to like the idea, and it has been working for quite some time (10 years) and my theory is, if it isn't broken, don't fix it.  *LOL* 

As for the national, my weekend work, each client has a CP (client profile) and some of the CPs are more difficult than the others and once in a GREAT while, I might forget SOMETHING but then I contact someone beyond who usually fixes whatever I messed up.