The Medical Transcriptionist and Medical Record Privacy

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In today’s age of electronics and gadgets it is harder than ever to keep medical records private especially when you work from home. It is very important that medical transcriptionists take care of the information they work with as top secret, and guard it from anyone not permitted to have this information. We cannot talk about our day at work like most people, we cannot even share amusing stories at a dinner party or at girls night out! As a medical transcriptionist, it is very important that we keep a high level of ethics for both professional and legal reasons. We are dealing with extremely personal information which cannot be shared with anyone around us. These ethics relate not only to how we speak to others about our work, but how we obtain, keep and send out information. A medical transcriptionist is a skilled typist, excellent at interpreting what they read or hear, and a good grammarian. They also have to have strong familiarity with medical language and terms. Further, medical transcriptionists must be able to take what they hear and edit it, transform it, or make it logical without changing relevant details or medical information. (Ellis-Christensen 2010). We as medical transcriptionist’s deal with jobs that involve a lot of private information involving a large number of patients and a number of medical personnel on a daily basis. Each day we hold many patients whole medical history in our hands and their privacy depends on us. We as MT’s help make sure the patient gets the best medical care possible. It is our duty to make clear any unclear term or unknown medical finding before transcribing it. (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). This can be done by researching through medical libraries, internet researches, disc... ... middle of paper ... ...fornian-sentenced-to-prison-for-hipaa-violation/. Ellis-Christensen, Tricia. (2010) What Does a Medical Transcriptionist Do? Retrieved January 22, 2011 from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-a-medical-transcriptionist-do.htm. Edwards, Amy. (2006). Medical Ethics - Ethical Considerations for Medical Transcriptionists. Retrieved January 22, 2011 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/82804/medical_ethics_ethical_considerations.html?cat=31 Krauss, Adam D. (2010). Pathologists sue ex-WDH employee fired over privacy breach. Foster’s Daily Democrat. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved January 23, 2011 from http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100311/GJNEWS_01/703119601. Torrey, Trisha. (2009). Medical Records, Privacy, Accuracy and Patients' Rights. Retrieved January 23, 2011 from http://patients.about.com/od/yourmedicalrecords/a/medrecordshub.htm.

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