Success Starts With Solid Education

We all need to do our part to address the severe work force shortage of qualified MTs.

By Kim Buchanan, CMT, AHDI-F

The transcription industry is dealing with a conundrum. The Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) reports 30,000 job openings right now—and yet we have graduates in the marketplace who aren't able to find work. Where is the disconnect?

While early practitioners of medical transcription learned their trade on the job, the rapidly changing field of health care can no longer accommodate such a homegrown approach to work force development. Profit margins are shrinking and employers today expect new MTs to attend training programs that will prepare them to work without the need for extensive remedial training.

In 2004, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) partnered to form the Approval Committee for Certificate Programs (ACCP), a collaborative committee that approved coding and medical transcription training programs. The approval process for medical transcription programs is based on the AHDI Model Curriculum. Schools seeking approval must adhere to a strict list of criteria that includes adherence to the Model Curriculum, incorporation of the industry standard Book of Style, proof of financial stability, employment of qualified instructors and the use of authentic physician dictation in their training materials. To date, AHDI has approved 14 competency-based medical transcription programs.

A recent study of pass rates on the entry-level registered medical transcriptionist (RMT) exam showed that graduates of approved schools passed the exam 83 percent of the time, as compared to an overall pass rate of 60 percent. Employers are building alliances with approved schools, agreeing to hire their students upon graduation. The registered apprenticeship program is taking graduates from approved programs who earn their RMTs and matching them with employers. The individuals who don't attend approved schools, who can't pass the RMT, and/or who just aren't cut out for the industry are the ones I hear from most often in my role at AHDI. These people are often desperate to find work. They have often invested their hard-earned money into training programs that have left them with minimal applicable skills. More...