Transcription Tips & Tricks:
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The next four pages have some very basic tips for medical transcription that we hope will help you.

Make sure your transcriber is in good repair

Clean and service your transcriber or computer regularly according to the owner's manual or have it serviced regularly at the dealer. Having your machine(s) serviced around the time of your birthday or some other easily remembered annual event is a good way to ensure you don't forget to get the servicing done.

Make sure you are comfortably seated

You should always try to find the very best chair you, or your employer can reasonably afford. If there are protests about the cost of a really good ergonomic chair (they can easily cost from US$ 399.00 to over US$1,000.00) remind your employer the cost involved if you do get work-related injuries caused by a poor chair. The cost of you going on medical leave will be much more detrimental to your employer than the initial cost of good ergonomic furniture. If you are a home-based transcriptionist, the same advice applies, buy the best ergonomically engineered furniture you can afford. Consider purchasing an ergonomic keyboard and/or ergonomic mouse to help relieve forearm, wrist, & finger pain. For the home-based worker it is a real necessity because if you can't transcribe, chances are you aren't earning any money. Most home-based workers do not have any kind of health or income insurance to rely on so must ensure they continue to have the ability to produce work. Following proper procedures to avoid work-related repetitive stress injury will ensure you have a long transcribing career. If you are not aware of these procedures, please check our copy of Microsoft's reference on ergonomics.

Try to keep your work environment quiet

Seasoned medical transcriptionists know how important it is to have their surroundings as quiet as possible. No doubt this is sometimes impossible, either because you work from home and have small children to contend with or maybe you are in a busy transcription pool with people coming and going. Fast, accurate transcription is most attainable when you can concentrate on the dictated words and virtually nothing else. While you are able to transcribe with ambient noise, speed and accuracy are almost always adversely affected. If you are working in a transcription pool, make sure your supervisor keeps regular "office traffic" away from your area. If your place of work does not have rules about a quiet zone for medical transcription, you may want to raise this idea with your supervisor or employer. Everyone will benefit from you being able to do your work in peace and quiet. If you work from home, you may find that doing work in the evening or through the night becomes the most productive time for you, if you can fit that kind of shift into your life. You may also find specific help from other transcriptionists who have to deal with noise and distractions by visiting Medword's Bulletin Board, MT Gab.

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