Healthcare support
Medical transcriptionist
Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries. Transcribe dictated reports and translate abbreviations into fully understandable form. Edit as necessary and return reports in either printed or electronic form for review and signature, or correction.
Median pay
$40,410
Growth to 2035
−4%
declining
Openings a year
6,200
Time to qualify*
12 months
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Medical transcriptionist
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- On-the-job training
- None
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Hazardous conditions
Exposure to disease
Medical transcriptionist: 0% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Return dictated reports in printed or electronic form for physician's review, signature, and corrections and for inclusion in patients' medical records.
- Produce medical reports, correspondence, records, patient-care information, statistics, medical research, and administrative material.
- Identify mistakes in reports and check with doctors to obtain the correct information.
- Review and edit transcribed reports or dictated material for spelling, grammar, clarity, consistency, and proper medical terminology.
- Transcribe dictation for a variety of medical reports, such as patient histories, physical examinations, emergency room visits, operations, chart reviews, consultation, or discharge summaries.
- Distinguish between homonyms and recognize inconsistencies and mistakes in medical terms, referring to dictionaries, drug references, and other sources on anatomy, physiology, and medicine.
- Set up and maintain medical files and databases, including records such as x-ray, lab, and procedure reports, medical histories, diagnostic workups, admission and discharge summaries, and clinical resumes.
- Translate medical jargon and abbreviations into their expanded forms to ensure the accuracy of patient and health care facility records.
Also called: Clinical Medical Transcriptionist · Documentation Specialist · Medical Language Specialist · Medical Scribe · Medical Transcriber · Medical Transcriptionist · Pathology Transcriptionist · Radiology Transcriptionist
Outlook and AI
Medical transcriptionists held 42,000 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 40,200 by 2035 (−4%, declining; all jobs: +3.5%).
Capital/labor substitution - share decreases as automation of the medical transcription process by artificial intelligence (AI) tools reduces the need for medical transcriptionists.
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