Extra income on the homestead

[BeckyW]

This morning I was talking to a friend who is a retired medical transcriptionist. She was telling me there is such a shortage developing in this field that the feasibility of having this work done off-shore is being examined in some major cities (they're looking at India -- technology saavy and English language skills.)

I'm not in this area of medicine however it might be something to check out. Courses are readily available online as well as many JC's -- med terminology can be learned even on your own -- textbooks for professionals available on amazon.com as well as other online sellers. And with a good computer, data line & FedEx you could do this anywhere. It has deadlines although allows some flexibility in the work schedule.

Anyways, I thought I'd put this out there should someone be looking for businesses to research. Wish I had more specifics although hopefully those quickly surface with a little research.
BW

[Grandmotherbear]

The ads I have seen locally want 60 wpm typing speed and /or 2 years experience...If you can market yourself locally, that would be a good place to start....

[Buffy in Dallas]

Most of the time you wouldn't need Fedex. The doctor calls the computer and talks, transcriber downloads the "recording" then transcribes and emails it to the transcription company who then checks it for errors and emails it back to the Dr. who prints it out. This is how my sister's company does it. It is very slow with dial up. When I was doing it we had to pick up tapes to listen to. There really isn't a lot of money in this unless you type Really Fast and are really smart. There is a lot of terminology to learn particularly with specialists. This is not an easy job. Have you ever tried to understand a doctor with a thick accent? Even the American Drs mumble, mispronounce words or talk so fast that a sentence sounds like one word. Can you tell why I quit? :no:

[GrannysRoost]

I have been doing transcription at home now for just about a year and a half. I took an online course - be careful as to which one you take....!! I was hired by a national company before I even finished my course and would spend all day literally to get my lines in. I switched companies due to granddaughter whom I have custody of getting nephrotic syndrome and not being able to start school this year so am homeschooling. The one I am working for now doesn't pay much but lots of flexibility. Can do anytime day or nite as long as have back via FTP site by morning. The docs I have now are great from a children's surgery center in TN. I can work an hour to hour and a half and make about $20.00 an hour doing mostly cut and paste since they basically say the same thing. The hard part is learning the terminology in a specialty. Once you put in the time it gets much easier as with anything. You just need to be patient. The big reason there is such a need for transcriptionists is the fact the companies are outsourcing to India and that takes our pay down here in the US. Deb

[Corgitails]

Granny, could you tell me which course you took? I type 90 WPM and think this might be a good thing for me to get into!

Cait

I honestly don't know the future for this field, but feel that once the technology gets to the point where the "speak and it types" stuff *really* works (I've asked people in the computer field about it after seeing some of those commercials, and they say it does NOT work as well as you see it on the TV), the doctor/nurse could conceivably do it right in the office with you there, have you look it over and not have to outsource anything.

Imho, they need to pass a law prohibiting any outsourcing of jobs that involve ANY person's private information--making widgets somewhere is one thing, but talking over bank/credit/medical/address information with foreign nationals of any country is just wrong. The law should also apply to prison workers as well. Teaching them to use computers is one thing, but they shouldn't be doing anything that could possibly compromise someone's personal information, or put them in danger.

[GrannysRoost]

I PM'd you Cait!.