While most medical transcription services advertise themselves as providing verbatim copies of what you say, this isn´t entirely true. And it´s a good thing. You´d be surprised at what sneaks into a medical dictation!

The idea is to give a report and have it transcribed . . . but often medical personnel are recording while doing other things, so it is quite likely that you´ll have other noises on your dictation tape. It´s quite common for medical transcription recordings to include a few impromptu conversations with other medical professionals or even the receptionist (Thanks, Donna, send him in), but that doesn´t mean these distractions will be showing up in your report.

Also, medical transcriptionists realize that you can´t help all those ums and uhhs that slip into nearly every single recording. They will carefully edit out weird noises, the odd conversation and the comments that you make to yourself along the way. These aren´t meant to be in the report, and this is understood.

So, don´t fret about the whole verbatim thing. You´ll have your reports neatly edited to omit you ordering coffee or talking to the secretary about your son´s birthday. Which means you are free to focus on your job, dictating and leave the medical transcription up to the pros.