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Thursday, August 14, 2003
Transcription school looks for franchisees
ENTREPRENEURS and businessmen in Cebu are encouraged to franchise a medical transcription school to meet the growing demands for medical transcriptionists in both the local and foreign markets.
In a press conference yesterday at the International School for Medical Transcription (ISMT) building located on Fuente Osmeña, ISMT president and chief executive officer Jeffrey Garcia said the demand from countries such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Europe for qualified medical transcriptionists in the Philippines reaches 2,000 every month. But the current workforce supply of the country cannot cope with the demand.
Medical transcriptionists are those who interpret and convert voice dictation (either in cassette or digital form) made by physicians and other health care professionals into a permanent written record using word processing equipment and software.
In the US alone, Garcia said, the medical transcription industry is estimated to be worth $24 billion with a growth rate of 20 percent per year.
Garcia estimated that within four years, the demand for medical transcriptionists in the Philippines would increase by 51 percent.
Garcia explained that since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a law that requires all US hospitals and medical institutions to convert medical records into an efficient electronic format system to ensure the patient’s health care coverage, was passed, in-house medical transcriptionists in US hospitals and clinics could no longer cope with the amount of information to be transcribed.
The US is experiencing a shortage of medical transcriptionists, which led the country to outsource medical transcription services to countries like India and the Philippines, he added.
“Our aim is to make the Philippines the medical transcription hub in Asia,” he said.
ISMT, the country’s first medical transcription school, will start its classes on Sept. 15. It offers a one-year medical transcription training program for P110,000. The course is divided into three semesters.
Garcia said students will undergo a dual training system in the second semester, making them earn money and learn at the same time.
In an earlier report, ISMT executive vice president Ma. Lourdes Go said medical transcription companies in the United States usually pay medical transcriptionists $0.80 per line while some even pay as much as $2 per line.
ISMT will also open its medical transcription center two months from now, and some 500 medical transcriptionists will be needed, Garcia announced.
In Manila, there are almost 20 firms offering medical transcription services.AEL |
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