ALT-1 Will Medical Transcription get you Rich Quick
The short answer: No.
I've been a medical transcriptionist for the past 8 years. One would assume that, if it was going to make me rich "quick", it would have happened by now. It hasn't.
Yes, my bank account is a slightly happier place than it was before I became an MT and I've been able to show enough income to be approved for a small mortgage and buy a house but, trust me, it hasn't made me rich.
As a Canadian MT who works from home, my experiences may not be the same as those of transcriptionists who are employed directly by hospitals and work on-site, but they are probably a fairly typical representation of the at-home transcription experience. The company I work for, which is (according to their website) "the world's largest provider of "voice to coding" solutions for healthcare, dictation, speech recognition software, outsourced medical transcription and coding service needs", pays on a per-line basis. Every 65-character line you type is worth a few cents, ranging between 8 and 13 cents per line, on average. So, at the top of the pay scale, I would have earned a whopping 91 cents for typing this paragraph.
That may not sound too bad but, as you can imagine, there are any number of things that could slow down even the speediest typist. Heavily-accented doctors you might have trouble understanding, terminology you're not immediately familiar with, new medications you have to check the spelling of and the countless potential distractions that working from home provides can all take a bite out of your bottom line.
Of course, as is true in any production-based business, the more you work, the more you'll get paid. A transcriptionist could certainly put the pedal to the metal, work 18-hour days, 7 days a week, and have an amazing check to show for it at the end of the pay period. However, that kind of productivity is difficult, and potentially dangerous, to sustain. (Carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real problem for many MTs, particularly after they've been in the business for a number of years.)
Although I could follow that pedal-to-the-metal example above and make more money than I do now, I choose not to. While being a medical transcriptionist hasn't made me financially rich (and I don't see how it ever will..), it has added richness to my life in other ways. Working from home has given me time with my family I wouldn't have had otherwise and a schedule flexible enough to enjoy my garden, take on new projects and find time for the gym. No inter-office politics, supervisor looking over my shoulder or lengthy commutes has reduced my stress level almost to nil.
In a nutshell, medical transcription can earn you a decent wage and has the potential to improve your quality of life in other, less tangible ways but, unless you move to Hollywood and parlay your transcription skills into a job writing for Grey's Anatomy (Shonda, if you're reading this, I'm available!), it's not going to "get your rich quick."
