Joel Felix Kirubakaran epitomizes the new generation of young, energetic and hardworking Indian medical transcriptionists. Unlike you or me, he goes to sleep at dawn. He is one of many thousands of hard-working Indian medical transcriptionists who work nights or what is known as the “night shift” in MT lingo.
Twenty-eight-year-old Joel is a “night bird” who works for the Chennai office of one of the biggest players in the medical transcription industry, Acusis, and prefers to work at night. He affirms that the silence of the night helps him to concentrate and do justice to his work. Of course, the night shift allowance is an added incentive that motivates him and many others to work hard and save money for their families and invest in his children’s education.
Why does Joel work nights? The reason is simple. It’s night in India when it’s day in the US, and STAT jobs (those that need to be done as soon as possible) are done during the night shift (late afternoon in the US). ) and have few takers among American transcriptionists. Very few American transcriptionists work nights and Indian transcriptionists take advantage of this. In fact, one can find Indian medical transcriptionists, like Joel, working seven days a week, something that would be anathema to an American medical transcriptionist. For transcriptionists like Joel, this is a heaven-sent opportunity to add wealth to their middle-class families.
Joel transcribes an average of 600 lines per shift and then edits 1,000 lines done by junior transcribers who have not yet reached the grade of direct upload transcribers. He is a Difficult File Specialist, a designation created for experienced editors who are confident in accepting files dictated by ESL doctors (doctors who are not proficient in English but have learned English as a second language) or doctors who babble or eat an apple or a snack while dictating, without any regard for the people who transcribe their reports. Estimates put ESL physicians in the US at around 40%, but those who dictate as if they don’t care if their reports are transcribed correctly or not is much higher. In fact, many medical transcriptionists have complained about the quality of the doctors’ dictation, with some even going so far as to describe the dictation as “verbal diarrhea.” In fact, one of the leading luminaries in the field of medical transcription, George Heymont, has a website titled “Dictation Therapy for Physicians.”
There are many doctors who babble and dictate while eating an apple, a sandwich or whatever. Joel cracks up as he corrects the mistakes of freshmen who transcribe phonetically instead of taking context into account; For example, an Eastern European dictator may seem to say “dyspareunia” when he really means “dyspnea,” but since Joel is particular about medical terminology, he edits out any errors and marks a copy for the transcriber so they don’t get lost. repeat the same mistake. .
Joel is intensely religious and prays to the crucifix on his desk every time he starts work. He firmly believes that God has a mission for him and that this mission is the transcription of accurate and error-free medical reports. He loves his work and takes intense pride in his work. He prefers to think of himself as a sort of Florence Nightingale filling the void created by the shortage of American medical transcriptionists. As he says himself: “Those patients need their reports as soon as possible, and we Indians are doing them a great service by sending them as soon as possible. Imagine how eager those patients are to get their reports on time. I am grateful to God I’m in this profession.” I can only nod as I share a cup of tea with Joel and wonder what height India will reach if all Indian citizens start copying Joel’s work ethic.
Joel takes a break around midnight Indian Standard Time, which is around noon US time. He has a refreshing cup of coffee and some snacks while he chats for a while with his colleague, Christy Isaac, with whom he shares a David-and-Jonathan relationship. They often talk about Tamil movies and his favorite hero, Rajnikanth. He also helps others on the floor to “figure out blank spaces” in his reports; This process is called “buddy help” in the company and makes it easy to submit an accurate report with no blank spaces.
Joel specializes in operational reporting and has an amazing memory. He can, for example, name all the instruments needed for heart bypass surgery, and his recollection of medications used for various conditions is the envy of his teammates. He has been in the medical transcription industry for almost seven years and scrupulously maintains a bookmarks list that allows him to refer to resources whenever he deems it necessary.
If you have free time, visit mtdesk.com, which is an online resource center for medical transcription professionals. Stay up to date on the latest FDA-approved drugs by visiting their website or other websites such as the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Medicine. Health. Share your knowledge with your teammates and help orient newcomers to the company’s corporate culture.
