Medical transcription training in trouble

Aswathy V

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The US slowdown has nothing to do with it. Yet, the

medical transcription (MT) industry that was supposed to provide employment in

large numbers in Kerala is now facing a crisis with large number of trained

people finding it difficult to seek employment in the medical transcription

industry.

Students having paid hefty sums ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 65,000 for

undergoing MT courses are told by MT companies that they do not measure up to

the mark. Vidya Ramakrishnan who did a six-month course in an institute, paying

Rs 45,000, said, "I have been unemployed for the past eight months despite

the fact that I knocked many doors. In one or two companies the salary offered

was very low in comparison to the amount of work to be done," she added. A

few of her friends who did MT courses from other institutes are also jobless for

over a year now. In Kerala, women were more attracted to this profession than

men. Many institutions including the Nasscom continue to project IT-enabled

services like MT as a lucrative career option for non-technical people. Many

students chose the career in the hope that they could earn Rs 15,000 to Rs

20,000 per month while the industry is offering nothing above Rs 5000.

However, those in the industry point out that there is no crisis in the MT

sector. The crisis is in the training industry. "Lot of people came into

the training sector without any background in MT and gave false hopes to

students," according to Seaview Support Systems managing director R P

Lalaji. Seaview that employs 120 medical transcriptionists finds it difficult to

get people who conform to the standards required for undertaking US projects,

Lalaji said. "Understanding the American accent is difficult for many, if

the doctor's name is miss-spelt we may even lose the contract," he added.

In the US where English is a mother tongue, the MT training spans a period of

over three to four years but in India you have only short term 3-6 month courses

which is quite insufficient.

Some others attribute the crisis to the hype created over MT and IT-enabled

services in general. "Much hype was created over MT as a potential

large-scale employment opportunity. Actually, it is only a glorified

stenographer’s job," according to IT-enabled services firm Jayvee

Computer Services managing director Jacob T Mathew here. There are over 16 MT

units in Thiruvananthapuram but they cannot break even because of failure to

achieve economies of scale. To break even, a company should have 50 terminals

and work two shifts. "What we are getting is a sub-sub-contract work from

the US. When a US firm gets 10 cents per line, the Indian company gets only four

cents/line as the work is subcontracted. They are also not able to get lucrative

contracts because of quality constraints, Mathew added. Productivity and quality

of Indian medical transcriptionists is also low compared to other countries,

Lalaji said.

However, those in the MT industry continue to be optimistic about the future

of this industry. With weaker firms being eased out of business, there will be

consolidation within the industry, Mathew said.

Medical transcription involves transcribing doctor's digitized audio reports

concerning treatment of a patient, performing quality assurance checks and

exporting data back to medical facility in the USA or Europe via satellite.

Recently, the status of medical transcriptionists was elevated by the US Labor

Department to include them in the general arena of health care whereas

previously it was grouped with stenographers, clerks and court reporters.

Despite the elevated status there is a fall in the number of medical

transcriptionists available in the US. This creates ample business opportunities

for Indian MT companies.