Medical Transcription and Medical Coding New Technology for Medical Transcriptionists

This probably was never taught in medical transcription training school or medical billing and coding specialist training, but a new encoding technology is now getting the attention of professional medical transcriptionists and those who are studying to be medical transcriptionists. Called the “HTML Editor,” the fully integrated hypertext markup language (HTML) editor was recently released by Scribe Healthcare Technologies, Inc., a healthcare technology company. 

The evolutionary transcription and editing platform, according to Scribe, significantly expands document creation and management options for medical transcriptionists, who have heretofore used Microsoft Word or some other text editor to transcribe and proofread dictated medical reports.

In addition, says Scribe, with HTML Editor physicians can access (using a password) and review their documents from virtually any spot in the world through a web browser, a mobile device, or a laptop with Internet connection. "Transcriptionists can create structured documents without reliance on MS Word," said John Weiss, Scribe vice president. "Saving companies from expending resources on software installation and upgrades lowers operating costs and lessens support frustration." 

Because HTML Editor has a feature called SmartText, it is able to count template and macro content differently from content that is actually typed in by the transcriptionist. Template and macro content are predefined text, often common terms, that physicians can indicate during dictation to reduce text that will be manually transcribed. This relieves physicians from the burden of dictating entire paragraphs or extensive, confusing medical jargon.

This technology not only is expected to deliver savings to medical professionals and medical facilities that use the services of medical transcriptionists, but actually also boosts an already booming industry. Meditec.com, a top provider of online training courses, offers medical transcription training and medical billing and coding training for those who want to take advantage of a career field that is stable and in high demand.

But what is the difference between medical transcription and medical coding? They seem the same and on a certain level, they are. In fact, medical transcription training and medical coding training are often mainstays in schools that offer allied health education.

Medical coding is the transformation of descriptions of diagnoses, diseases, injuries, and procedures into alphanumeric codes which are actually universal medical codes. These codes enable accurate recordkeeping of diagnoses and procedures, and offer a way to track diseases and other health conditions over time. Coding makes it easier to access health records according to definite categories such as diagnosis and procedures.

On the other hand, medical transcription is the transformation of voice recordings of diagnoses, medications, and procedures as dictated by physicians or other healthcare professionals into editable text files. Transcribed data are verbatim copies of doctors’ reports.

Medical coding is usually done in a medical or semi-medical setting, often in a physician’s office. On the other hand, medical transcription is often done outside the hospital. Both require a strong familiarity with medical terminology.

A career in medical transcription or in medical coding is financially rewarding. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the medical transcriptionist’s average salary is about $40K, while the medical coder can expect to earn between $22,420 and $35,990.

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Pioneering TCEQ-Approved UST Training to Control LUST

LUST is dangerous. LUST is unhealthy. And LUST is everywhere.

LUST, or leaking underground storage tank, was a problem in the making for nearly half a century. The end of World War II kick-started an unprecedented boom in automobile manufacturing, which turned out to be the industrial trigger for the proliferation of gas stations all over the American landscape. That also saw the universal use by the gas stations of underground storage tanks (USTs), nearly all made of steel.

Over 50 years hence—and about a decade past the life expectancy of steel—the USTs are corroded and leaking, putting in danger the environment, the groundwater, and the health and safety of the public. Today, more than 590,000 aging USTs can potentially leak dangerous quantities of petroleum products because rust or improper maintenance has compromised the tanks. (The number is actually down from about a million a few years ago, before the United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] decommissioned them.)
To address the developing crisis, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has mandated UST operators and owners in the state to undergo approved underground storage tank operator training, starting September 1, 2012.

In response, 360training.com, a leading e-learning provider, developed the first online TCEQ-approved online course in Texas, the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course. The coursework was made in collaboration with Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and TAIT Environmental. It took three organizations to put the course together because of the training’s critical mission: To reduce the danger of accidental releases of toxic petroleum products from the state’s many underground storage tanks (USTs), which likely would poison not just the environment but also the groundwater from which Texas gets much of its water.

The TPCA Class A and Class B UST Facility Operator Training Course provides training for the safe operation and proper maintenance of USTs as required by Texas and EPA regulations. It is designed to teach operators to detect and prevent tank releases into the environment. The course also educates the student on all the state and federal regulations relevant to the safe operation of USTs.

By supplying the training, 360training.com and its coursework collaborators hope to contain the danger of LUST and eliminate it in time.

To address the multifaceted nature of UST operation and maintenance, the course covers ten important topics: release detection, initial release response, abatement, and NAPL removal, spill/overfill protection, corrosion protection, installation and technical standards for USTs, investigation and confirmation steps, TCEQ corrective action, waste management, and soil and groundwater cleanup, and financial assurance.
360training.com said that the coursework requires the student to pass the check-up quiz at the end of each of the eight lessons to progress to the next. Upon passing the final exam, the student receives a UST operator certification to operate and maintain USTs in Texas. 360training.com announced that the certification is valid for three and a half years if the course is taken now.

Learn2serve.com, a portal of 360training.com, provides access to the TPCA Class A and Class B UST Operator Training Course.

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Water Wastewater Training- Know Your State Requirements

Water wastewater training is different for everyone. You need to make sure that you take courses that will provide you with the education that you need, no matter what that might be. There is nothing more important than getting career training that is effective and beneficial to your future success. Every state has different requirements for wastewater certification, and you need to make sure that you take the time to figure out exactly what your state requires so that you can get the training and education that you need.

Usually, online water wastewater training providers will give you an idea of what you can expect from your training based on the state that you live in, but you should always take the time to be prepared on your own. It’s not difficult to talk to your employer or to check with your local authorities if you don’t have an employer yet to figure out exactly what type of training you need. Being able to be prepared and informed before you start looking for online training courses is the best way to get the right program every time. Plus, by checking your state requirements, you’ll know if online training is even an option.

Some states don’t allow you to supplement your job training with online water wastewater treatment certification training programs, and you need to know if that’s the case. In most cases, you will be able to take some courses online, but there will be a significant amount of training that you actually have to complete on-site. Make sure that you know what’s expected of you so that you can get the right training and get on with your career success quickly and easily, regardless of what you need.

Water wastewater operator certification training is going to provide you with the tools and skills that you need to become successful in your chosen career. You need to make sure that you take the time to check out the different options that you have and find the training that works best for you. As long as you are prepared and educated about your career training options, you should have no trouble finding the perfect program. You must start the process by learning what your state requires, because you have to be compliant with the state laws so that you can get certified to do your chosen job. Keep these things in mind and getting your certification and training should be easier than ever.

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Getting Your Environmental Training Certification Online

When you are looking for environmental training resources, you can find them just about everywhere. One of the best and most convenient types of training programs will be found online. The providers that offer career training over the internet have created a way for more people to get the professional careers that they have been looking for with less effort and time spent on training. This provides people with a variety of benefits and advantages over taking traditional training courses, allowing them to get to work faster and spend less time on their education.

Online environmental safety training programs are not all created equally. You will want to make sure that you check out your available options and find the career that you have been looking for, no matter what that might mean to you. Make sure that you give yourself a chance to find the best online training providers so that you can get the training that you need quickly and efficiently from the top training programs online. After all, getting a quick and easy education isn’t nearly as important as getting the right education for your career. Environmental careers are growing rapidly, and you need to make sure that you get trained so that you can become a valuable prospective employee to any company who needs your skills.

Environmental management training programs are going to provide you with a more flexible and accessible way to get the career training that you need when you choose to pursue them online. With so many different options to consider and things to think about, it may seem more difficult than it really is to get the career training that you are looking for. Just take the time to think about the different opportunities that you have and find the training resources that suit your needs best.

Everyone has different ideas about career training and what is expected of them. If you take the time to figure out what you expect and what you think online training can do for you, you’ll generally have an easier time finding training programs and choosing the one that you want to use. It’s all about being prepared and informed, but as long as you do your homework online training can save you time, money, and hassle in your career training experience. Keep these things in mind while you are searching for your career training programs and your environmental career will be easier to obtain than you might have expected.

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Medical Transcription and Medical Transcriptionist’s Technologies

The Pacman of the medical transcription (MT) world has done it again. For those of you who are just beginning their medical transcription professional career but like to keep close tabs on the industry news, here’s an update: Major medical-transcription firm iMedX Inc., of Shelton, Conn., has gobbled up yet another MT organization; this time it’s the National Medical Transcription LLC (NMT) of Port Washington, N.Y.

The New York firm said that it will soon incorporate its customers into iMedX following the buyout. iMedX, for its part, explained that the buyout will increase its customer base, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region. NMT, which specializes in medical transcription systems, becomes the tenth firm (at least) in the medical software field to be assimilated by iMedX since March 2008.

iMedX is privately held, and is backed by New Canaan, Conn.-based RFE Investment Partners. The company makes the TurboScribe, TurboRecord, TurboRx and TurboFlow medical transcription software products.

The rapid expansion of iMedX reflects the robust health of the medical-transcription industry in the U.S., belying fears that outsourcing is hurting the industry.  It also reflects the industry’s ever-growing reliance on new technology.

One such technology, however, is causing concern among medical transcriptionist. It doesn’t need any medical transcription training, it doesn’t need any coffee breaks, and it sure doesn’t need to get paid. It’s called speech recognition transcription (SRT) software and it’s giving newly-fledged and veteran medical transcriptionists alike an inferiority complex. But should it?

SRT is a child of the computer age we live in. It enables the translation of a voice file into an editable text file in much the same manner that your scanner’s OCR (optical character recognition) magically transforms a page of your book into, say, a .doc file. SRT completely cuts out the traditional middleman, the transcriptionist, from the process. Theoretically, it can make the transcriptionist completely unnecessary, obsolete. But that time has not yet come because the technology to do it is definitely not yet here.

The two main stumbling blocks of SRT in medical transcription are transcription accuracy and medical terminology. To put it simply, it cannot yet transcribe well enough for the job, especially if that job is loaded with medical jargon. SRT, at this stage, simply makes too many mistakes to be considered reliable. In one recent study, in fact, over 600 radiology reports were transcribed, half by a medical transcriptionist, half by SRT. The SRT reports returned an error rate 800 percent higher than the transcriptionist’s report.

At Meditec.com, a premier provider of many online courses (including pharmacy technician courses, medical billing and coding training, and medical office management training), reliability and accuracy are focus points of its medical transcription training program. They will serve well the aspirant medical transcriptionist in a future that will see SRT attempt to make inroads in the medical transcription world.

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