The Medical Transcriptionist In Philippines

Medical transcription is one of the toughest jobs I ever went through. It requires speed and accuracy. Better find another job if you are always faint. Spelling and medical errors are excusable but not to the extent of abuse. I am going one month on this job and I don't even got to know why I keep making same mistakes over and over again.

I went over the payroll today and its barely a 1/4 compared to my earnings as an Office Clerk in the other company. It's not to bad. *Sob* I guess I'm really slow with the medical terms, too much drug names, too much garbled dictations, too much deciphering what the American doctors are trying to say.

Let me share how routine my life can be in a medical transcription. You should rise and shine as 5:00 early in the morning. Cook the rice, while you take a bath. If it's not too late, I prefer to eat instant noodles (can be cooked in 3 minutes or you munch it raw!). Before it ticks 6:30, you should be fully geared up and ready to go. When you get to the office, you got to punch your time in with the computer ID scanner. (Or just write a fake time on the logbook if you're really late). Just kiddin! Like a typical information savvy office, we sit in a long row and my computer is at the far end of the row where lots of MTs ALWAYS see me get in late every morning. Bad habit, huh?

Turning on the unit and putting on the headphones is way eazzzy, but nothing compares to how garbled American doctor's voice is. No, I'm not making bad remarks about the way they dictate their diagnosis and stuff, BUT FOR MOST OF THEM, it's just the way they speak. They're from Kansas, Florida, South Dakota, Massachussetts, Wisconsin, etc.

I have to strain my ears to hear and understand what they are saying. Doing so, I can literally hear my own heart beat. No kidding! A cup of hot coffee usually helps, but if it is really HARD, I could down a least 3 cups before my brain really breaks the hard code of garbled medical language!

Err.. there's another voicefile on the line. Gotta work!

Trapped In Fun!

It's 7:00 in the evening. Guess what? It's raining for 4 hours already. This is way too far from 5:00, the time to go home from the office. It's dinner time and I have to cook when I get home. Yeah, I cook by myself. I was really pissed off when it rained. This early morning, I did my laundry. Hand-washed them all and neatly hung each one on the clothesline in the backyard before I left for work.

Rain came in a sudden! The wind blows like there's no tomorrow. My poor clothes! How I wish some fairy godmother came to my rescue and saved them from the torrential rain. This is soooo unreal! I have nothing to wear tomorrow except these soaked clothes! Damn! Even my uniform was among them.

Right now, I am stranded in the office with my fellow MTs. Yeaps, we're killing our time playing games on the Internet. No more American medical reports to transcribe and tomorrow will be another work day. I found consolation in being stranded in the office. My fellow MTs and I are having fun with the computers. Yvon found her time posting articles on myLot, Dissa and TJ are killing each other virtually, with Beta in the side ring, virtually killing them well! Maam Clang got overly indulged on the online chats while I found it very cozy hanging out on the blogsites with my interests. I get to write new emails too!

Then it hit me. Being trapped in an office is not really bad after all. Not in every storm in life, must you feel depressed. There are usually good things in our life that we should really appreciate if bad things come our way. Odd, isn't it? Enjoy every wreaked day in your life and make the best out of it! Don't take things for granted!