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Texas Medical Transcription Institute Attracts Students With Online Training(Market Wire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) ROUND ROCK, TX, November 27 / MARKET WIRE/ -- As demand for medical transcriptionists keeps rising across the country, the Texas Medical Transcription Institute is rolling out an online education program to train even more medical transcriptionists -- one of the country's fastest-growing home-based careers. According to Loren Tunnicliffe, chief operating officer, and Christy Cole, RHIA, training program administrator, medical transcription is an ideal career path for stay-at-home mothers, retirees, college students and others. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts employment of medical transcriptionists, compared with other occupations, will rise between 18 percent and 26 percent through 2014. "Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population," the bureau says. For seven years, what is now known as the Texas Medical Transcription Institute has operated an on-site school for training medical transcriptionists, with 20 students in each 10-month class. Once the online program kicks off in 2008, the institute will be able to accommodate as many as 60 students a year. The institute plans to accept five students a month starting January 1, 2008. Students will finish the online training at their own pace. "We're no longer going to have a brick-and-mortar program. We're moving it completely online," Tunnicliffe says. "By starting the online program, training classes from the Texas Medical Transcription Institute will be available to more people in Texas and around the country." Each graduate of the Texas Medical Transcription Institute obtains a six-month paid internship with MTS of Texas, a medical transcription provider that is a sister company of the institute. Like the coursework, the internship will be done from home. A full-time medical transcriptionist can earn about $37,000 to $58,000 a year, Tunnicliffe says. "People who have great self-discipline and a strong work ethic will enjoy tremendous success in medical transcription," Cole says. The institute currently has two instructors and plans to add one or two more to handle the increased enrollment through the online program, Cole says. In addition, MTS of Texas plans to add two sales representatives to help generate more business for the increasing number of program graduates. MTS of Texas employs more than 140 medical transcriptionists; about half of them graduated from the institute's program. MTS of Texas has about two dozen clients, mostly in Texas. Among them are the St. David's HealthCare Partnership hospitals in the Austin area and several medical clinics. "This is a good-paying, in-demand career path for people from all walks of life," Cole says. "All of our medical transcriptionists are independent contractors who work from home." While some medical transcriptionists do work in traditional office settings, many of them telecommute from home-based offices as employees or subcontractors for hospitals and transcription services or as self-employed, independent contractors, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Training at the Texas Medical Transcription Institute involves learning about medical-legal issues, anatomy, physiology, diseases, laboratories and pharmacology, as well as proper grammar and medical-writing style. Medical transcriptionists listen to dictated recordings made by physicians and other health care professionals and convert them into medical reports, correspondence and other documents used for patient care, billing and health care communications. Before a prospective student is enrolled in the Texas Medical Transcription Institute, an online application, an online entrance exam and a telephone interview must be completed. Each potential enrollee must have knowledge at least equivalent to that of a high school graduate, Cole says. The training program at the Texas Medical Transcription Institute costs $2,000, compared with $3,000 to $5,000 for similar programs, Tunnicliffe says. Each student's tuition includes books, practice CDs, software, a foot pedal and a headset, as well as the RMT credentialing exam. Software required for the post-graduate internship will be provided once a student graduates. For more information about the Texas Medical Transcription Institute, visit www.txmti.com or call 512-251-8383. For more information about MTS of Texas, visit www.mtsoftexas.com or call 512-251-8383. Media contact: John Egan, UpWord Communications For the Texas Medical Transcription Institute 512-799-1022Email Contact Copyright 2007 Market Wire, Incorporated |