February 2009 Archives

The Philippines is again positioning as one of the major players in another BPO industry, the transcriptions industry most specially, in the medical transcription sector.  This was positively projected following  the Philippine Government announcement about the $1.4 million medical transcription and medical coding contract by the local MT companies with American clients last year, and was further confirmed by the growing demand requiring most US hospitals to convert medical records into electronic format in compliance with federal certification requirements,  together with legal and business electronic record keeping that have become necessity more than a trend.

The MT market in the US alone has an estimated 15%-20% increase rate, much more if Europe, Australia and Canada contracts come in. This has become the challenge to the government as well as the private sector to tap all possible means of coping with this driving demand to seriously pursue in getting into the goal as BPO giants like India and South America as well as other Asian neighbors, are reaping major transactions while the US Federal transcription law deadline is still a year more to go. With this in mind, the Philippine government and the private sector have joined hands in developing career advocacy programs, among them are, skills development and training and certification programs channeled through the Technical Education and Development Authority (TESDA), the coordinating Council of Private Educational Association (COCOPEA), and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP). In addition, local firms affirm their support and have developed higher-level training assistance by providing actual training for near-hires to produce quality people in the industry, and eventually initiate a kickoff to hit the goal of establishing a mark as a world-class, global offshore transcriptions provider.

These are the services offered by a growing number of providers across the nation that began earlier in the United States, a multi-billion dollar industry with a recorded growth rate of 15% each year. Medical, legal, business, are just some types of transcription services. Let's take a closer look at what each type of transcription is about.

Medical transcription - a type of service whereby one accurately and quickly transcribes medical records  such as history and physical reports, clinic notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries, office notes,  letters, laboratory reports, x-ray reports, pathology reports, and psychiatric evaluations dictated by doctors and others . It is mainly receiving dictation by tape, digital system or voice file using ear phones, a foot pedal for start-pause control and a word processing program.

Medical transcriptionists need excellent language and listening skills, wide knowledge in medical terms and an updated computer ability. As their experience in hospitals get longer, they are paid higher and make more money as they subsequently pursue as independent contractors and get paid by the hour per line transcribed, the reason why  a skilled Medical Transcriptionist prefers to work from home. Becoming a medical transcriptionist is possible for an experienced word processor, one who is enriched with medical vocabulary and formats.  In the Philippines today, a number of Medical Transcription Centers are offering specialized training for this field.

Legal transcription - the service of transferring legal information from recorded dictation to hard documentation using transcribers and computer word processors. Legal transcriptionists duties include drafting and filing legal documents, assisting attorneys to prepare for trials, time- setting and tracking important deadlines, organizing and maintenance of client files, assisting attorneys to prepare for trials, documenting relevant facts and information pertaining to a lawsuit, all these and many other tasks can be performed by a legal Transcriptionist  possessing  ample keyboard skills, a good spelling ability and a high learning and retention curve, who earns a  specialized training about the law, the formats for legal documents in each state or of a particular area, and various court systems and their venues. Legal transcriptionists  primarily serve as a backbone for legal support provided by law firms, public defenders' and prosecutors' offices, courts, public utility companies financial institutions, corporations and corporate legal departments, real estate and title agencies, Insurance companies, state and federal governmental agencies, and community legal service programs. The widespread litigation process triggers an increasing demand for legal support services coupled by a rising need for massive electronic record keeping. A specialized training in this field can be acquired online or through a modernized home training program.

Business Transcription - is the art of transforming audio files into accurate transcripts for companies encompassing all types of industries. From health care, insurance, airlines to the automobile industry, almost all fields are catered by business transcription service. Business transcription play a significant role especially on businesses registered in the stock market. In compliance to one of the rules, that is to conduct a quarterly meeting wherein they need to report on their business level, the people involved and performance of the business to their investors. The details of the meeting is usually captured as a recorded audio file, to present the details of the meeting in text format, a business transcriptionist does the transcribing job. Other than business meetings, transcribing of conference calls, analyst calls, seminar, budget-planning sessions, sales meeting and all other business conversations are among the scope of business transcription.

The prevalence of a growing need in electronic record transferring and record keeping gave way for transcription business to expand its horizons into outsourcing services, fortunately, aside from the realistic cost-effective solution it provides, is projected to generate recession -proof opportunities and most importantly, encourage the next generation workforce to explore the world of transcriptions.