Will the EMR (Electronic Medical Records) take the place of the Medical Transcription Career?

The answer to this is NO. 

The EMR will not take the place of the Medical Transcriptionist, however it might change the way the Medical Transcriptionist transcribes the physician’s dictation in future years. It will also open up additional avenues for the Medical Transcriptionist such as medical report review and editing.

There will be some Doctors that will change over to the EMR system completely (a low percentage), however most doctors will still use Medical Transcriptionists because it will take them too much time to dictate, transcribe, review and edit the document created by the EMR / SRT system. Those few that do switch over will soon find that they will still need the "extra eyes" of the Medical Transcriptionist to ensure accuracy of their medical reports.

Many years ago; medical transcription was dictated on tapes and then transcribed on typewriters, then we moved on to computers. 

The next change in technology was that the dictations were dictated in digital format and the MT was able to hear the dictation on devices such as a C-Phone, CD or over the Internet. They would then transcribe the dictation into a report formatted document and then upload the document digitally back to the physician or Medical Transcription Company that they work with.

Many MTs are still using the digital transcription method and receiving their dictation files over the Internet and then transcribing them from their home office.    This will not change anytime soon.  

One of the latest changes that “tried” to make it into the technology change was Voice Recognition / Speech Recognition Technology.
A lot of physicians’ tried this method and thought it was great at first.  Yet, when they had to “train” the software to their voice and then go back and correct the many mistakes the software would create on the report; they realized they were losing money and time.  They then went back to using the Medical Transcriptionist!  Some physicians’ that continue to use the SRT (Speech Recognition Technology) are still having MTs listen to the digital dictation and edit the report that the SRT created to ensure accuracy.    For those MTs that use this method, most love it because by editing the SRT report they are not having to transcribe the entire report and are still making money. 

Some of the changes that could take place in the future are that MTs will be doing more editing of the dictated reports than having to transcribe the whole thing from scratch.   If a physician decided to use SRT software with the EMR system that would dictate and create a report for them, they would then have the Medical Transcriptionist listen to the digital dictation file and review the report that was created.   This is important because computer can make errors.   Every physician needs an “extra set of eyes” to review the patient report and make sure it is accurate.  MTs are the best "extra set of eyes" there can be because of the knowledge they have in both medical terminology and medical diagnosis.  More medical law-suits are because of inaccurate information than any other medical law-suit out there. 

With EMR, patient information will be available to all of the patient’s physicians’ to look at.   If a patient report has inaccurate information in it then the next physician could make a wrong decision for that patient based on the report from another physician.   So you can see how very important it is to have MTs to still review and edit these medical reports for complete accuracy.   This is for both the patient and the physician’s benefit.      The percentage of physicians’ that will transfer 100% to EMR / SRT systems and stick with it will be very small!    Most will get frustrated with the SRT and will use MTs to transcribe the reports and then upload the reports into the EMR system. 

It is because of the evolving technology that the Medical Transcriptionist needs to keep up with the changing times.  It is very important for anyone in the medical transcription career field to continue to keep updated with any new medical terms, style and formatting changes, and new technology updates.  MTs can further their career and job security by keeping up with any new updates in their career field and by taking their career to the next level.  Once you have completed a medical transcription training course to become an MT; you can then take your RMT (Registered Medical Transcriptionist) exam and when you pass it you will then be a RMT.   

The next step is to become a CMT (Certified Medical Transcriptionist).  To become a CMT, you would need to have taken a medical transcription training course from a medical transcription school or program and then work as an MT or RMT for at least 2 years.  Once you have worked for 2 years as an MT or RMT you can then take your CMT exam.  There are also Continuing Education classes that are very inexpensive that you can take to improve your knowledge as a Medical Transcriptionist.  You can list all of these on your resume and this will be a huge plus in your Medical Transcription Career.

Any career you get into takes time and effort, the serious Medical Transcriptionist will invest their time of keeping up with any changes in their career. 

We hope this information has helped you to understand more about EMR / SRT  and what it will mean to the Medical Transcriptionist. 

The following quotes are from the source of the AHDI Sept. 2009 Plexus Issue about the Medical Transcription Career - 
(AHDI was formally known as AAMT - American Association for Medical Transcription)

We recommend all MTs to become a member of AHDI!

“There is the perception that transcription is either being off-shored at an alarming rate and that transcription jobs will become extinct here in the United States or that voice recognition will make the transcriptionist obsolete, thus taking the human out of the picture.
The fact is that dictation has increased at a rate faster than we can educate or reeducate domestic transcriptionists.  We are 35,000 transcriptionists short.  We need to take a serious look at the process itself and make significant progress filling the vacancies with a qualified, educated, credentialed workforce.”  

“Current statistics suggest that the US medical transcription industry’s workload is increasing by 20% annually  and that manpower is decreasing by 10% annually, making the question of who will do the work a difficult one to answer.” 

“US Department of Labor has recognized the industry shortage of US transcriptionists and took action by recently declaring medical transcription to be an apprenticeable profession, which is the first step to establishing a national apprenticeship program.”

       The above quotes are from the source of the AHDI Plexus September 2009 / Volume 5, Issue 5 articles. To find out how you can obtain copies of the Plexus Magazine please visit the AHDI website. Members of AHDI receive these magazines as part of their membership.     

We highly recommend all students (regardless of what medical transcription school you went through) to become a Student Member of AHDI. They will keep you up to date on all the different changes in the medical transcription career field.

Also see what another Medical Transcription Service website has to say about
EMR and Medical Transcription: 
Click Here to read their article.