What is a Medical Transcriptionist?

The Basics

Becoming a medical transcriptionist appeals to different kinds of people. Some love the emphasis on storytelling as they record notes of a patient-provider visit. Others appreciate the excitement of working in a high-stakes environment like an emergency room. People who aspire to become a doctor, nurse, physician assistant, or other healthcare provider use the job to get on-the-floor experience often required by graduate programs.

Job Overview

“Being a medical transcriptionist, also called a medical scribe, is a really effective way to gain exposure to what it’s like to be a doctor and see patients,” says Aniqa Miazi, a medical scribe with the third-party contracting company ScribeAmerica.

A medical transcriptionist role is an excellent entry-level job in the medical field. It doesn’t require long (and expensive) schooling, yet you’re working closely with doctors and other medical providers who are helping patients.

“I’m not treating anyone, but I’m literally shadowing the doctors I work with,” Miazi says. “I’ve learned an enormous amount of information about what it’s like to be a doctor, the process of diagnosing, and medicine itself.”

A job as a medical transcriptionist allows you to work closely with doctors and other medical providers.

This field is changing, in large part because of advances in technology. It can still be a good career option, especially for those looking to make it a stepping stone to post-graduate education or another medical-related position.

Want to get your foot in the door? Becoming a medical transcriptionist might be your way to do just that.

Steps to Becoming a Medical Transcriptionist

“Being a scribe keeps you motivated,” explains Miazi, who aims to eventually become a physician assistant. “You’re surrounded by EMTs, nurses, and doctors. This job keeps you focused on what you need to do to reach your goals.”

If you’re looking to enter the field, you’ll need to follow the steps in one of these paths.

If you’d like to jump into a medical transcriptionist job with just your high school diploma or GED, consider this alternate path:

Job Duties

“As scribes, we write down the story of why patients are here,” Miazi says. Patient symptoms, medical providers’ observations, results of an examination, histories, lab work, and imaging all need to be properly recorded in the EMR.

Medical transcriptionists do much more than take down notes verbatim. They work side-by-side with doctors as they visit patients and come to understand the full picture of the patients’ health. Scribes do not talk directly to patients but rather listen and take direction from doctors, PAs, nurses, and other clinicians.

Medical transcriptionists don’t work directly with patients, but they do work closely with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers.

They can do this in several ways, according to providers’ preferences or department policies. Some medical transcriptionists move from room to room with a clinician, taking down notes as they go. Others stay at a desk and wait for a provider to come to them and summarize what happened during a visit. Either way, they need to be good listeners and quick thinkers.

“Sometimes it’s not clear what a patient is saying, so you have to make out a coherent story,” Miazi says.

Medical transcriptionists also have to adjust to different medical providers’ preferences and medical record “style.” In a clinic or medical office, a scribe may work with only a few providers. In an emergency department, a scribe may need to work with 20 providers or even more. 

Where Can I Work as a Medical Transcriptionist?

Most medical transcriptionists work in hospital settings. Emergency departments frequently make use of medical transcription services.

“In the ER, your days can bring the unexpected, and the things that bring people in are usually more severe,” Miazi says. In an emergency department, scribes can expect to be on the move during their entire shift and will need to keep up with a fast pace of work.

Other scribes work in clinics or medical offices. These jobs tend to be quieter. “You can expect what you’ll see throughout the day,” Miazi explains, so if you’re working in a cardiology department, you know that day will likely bring in patients with high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease.

Fewer scribes work in diagnostic and medical labs.

How Do I Know if I’m a Good Fit?

Medical transcription is an excellent place to begin a career in the medical field or transition to a new path. Successful scribes have several qualities and skills in common.

Can I Work from Home?

Yes, it is possible to work from home as a telescribe. This opportunity has become more common in recent years.

Telescribes have electronic access to an EMR platform, where they transcribe notes, write reports, and prepare discharge information for patients. They may receive calls from physicians who talk to them directly, or work from recorded voice messages.

Telescribes need a quiet home office environment where they can comply with medical privacy laws such as HIPAA.

What Education Do I Need?

Someone who wants to become a medical transcriptionist has several education options that lead to this career.

You can become a medical scribe with a high school diploma or GED. That said, other people opt to pursue additional education. It’s even possible to begin working as a medical scribe while you’re earning your degree.

Wondering what route to medical transcription is best for you? These are your options.

What About Online Medical Transcriptionist Programs?

Yes, many medical transcriptionist programs are offered partly or entirely online.

Medical transcription does not require a lot of hands-on education (unlike careers that require clinical practice, such as nurses, physician’s assistants, or chiropractors). This makes it a good fit for online programs.

Many digitally based medical transcription programs are self-paced. This option can help people pursue the career while fulfilling other responsibilities, such as caregiving or work.

Medical Transcriptionist Licensing and Certification

Certification for medical transcriptionists is optional, and there is no standard licensing requirement. That said, many employers look for certification when hiring medical scribes.

You can become certified by taking and passing an exam provided by the AHDI. The organization offers two types of certifications for medical transcriptionists: Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist (RHDS) and Certified Healthcare Documentation Specialist (CHDS).

The exams include multiple choice questions covering the processes, ethics, systems, and terminology needed as a medical transcriptionist. They also include questions in which test takers will listen to an audio clip and transcribe portions of the recording.

What Can I Earn?

Medical transcriptionists earn a median annual salary of $35,270, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Salaries can differ by state, region, and workplace setting.

Of course, experience plays into a medical transcriptionist income.

Earning a certification can also impact both salary and the jobs for which you are qualified. A MT certification, such as RHDS, can make you more competitive for jobs. This is especially true for those who are hired directly by a medical organization, as opposed to a scribe working for a third-party contracting company.

Some medical transcriptionists are paid according to how many transcriptions they produce. In this case, increasing your accuracy and typing speed can increase your pay.

Salary by State

While the amount you can earn varies from position to position, average salaries vary among states, too. These are the five top-paying states, according to BLS data.

Highest Paying Metro Areas

In general, metropolitan areas see higher median wages for medical transcriptionists.

When considering where to work, look at salaries as well as cost of living, as it generally costs more to live in a city.

These are the highest-paying metro areas in the U.S, according to the BLS.

Salary by Workplace

Medical transcriptionists work in a variety of healthcare-related settings. Pay can vary by workplace, too.

This is how different settings stack up in terms of salary, based on information provided by the BLS.

Medical Transcriptionist Job Outlook

Overall, the BLS projects a 2% decline in medical transcriptionist jobs by 2029. Technology is drastically changing the field of medical transcription. At the same time, the aging population in the U.S. and the prevalence of chronic health conditions is increasing the demand for and quantity of care.

These two factors result in a push-pull on the future of medical transcription.

On the one hand, advances in speech-recognition technology enable doctors and other providers to dictate directly into these platforms, which create a transcription automatically. This method appeals to some organizations, but it is prone to mistakes.

On the other hand, medical transcriptionists make a strong business case for using a human scribe. They point out that doctors can spend as much time on paperwork, including medical notes, as they do with patients. “Doctors can spend a significant amount of time documenting on computers. That takes away from time spent with patients and the number of patients they’re able to see,” explains Miazi.

Some organizations continue to use, or even ramp up their use of, medical transcriptionists for this reason: Helping care providers become more efficient impacts revenue and can make medical organizations more profitable.

The bottom line is that while many medical organizations are transitioning to technology-based documentation, others continue to work with medical transcriptionists.