WAHPETON,
N.D. - Colleen Keller has been driving about 2 1/2 hours a
day for the last nine months to learn how to transcribe medical
reports. Her next commute should be down the hallway of her
rural Gwinner home.
Keller
is joining a growing number of rural North Dakota residents
who are working from home on their computers. She's one of
about 30 students enrolled in the one-year medical transcription
program at North Dakota State College of Science.
"To be
able to work for a big facility and stay in the rural area
is a huge benefit," said Keller, 43.
Eide Bailly,
an accountancy and consulting firm with offices in North Dakota,
South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa and Arizona, has announced
it will hire about 100 medical transcriptionists in the next
year, and up to 300 in the next five years.
"There
are so many people in small communities that are looking for
opportunities like that," said Penny Fedje, director of the
medical transcription program and NDSCS. "This is something
that can keep younger people in the state."
Of the
15 transcriptionists working out of Eide Bailly's Minot office,
nine of them live in rural areas or small towns, said site
manager Ann Solberg.
"We're
flexible with scheduling, which can be good for a farm family
that may have chores or other work to do," Solberg said. "And
someone with experience can make a pretty darn decent wage."
Patty
Munro, 33, of rural Page, quit her job as an accountant in
town to raise her children and help her husband on the farm.
She decided to enroll in the NDSCS program after it was advertised
as a well-kept secret.
"To be
able to work from home and have the benefits and the pay I'm
getting, I don't think I could be doing anything better,"
said Munro, who works for Fargo-based MeritCare.
Transcriptionists
are paid on performance, but most earn between $17,000 and
$22,000 a year, an NDSCS report said. Top workers can make
more than $20 an hour, Solberg said.
Vicki
Brakke works as a transcriptionist near Aneta, where her husband
is a farmer. She packs up her computer before Thanksgiving
and moves to the Seattle area, where they spend winters.
"I just
take the job along," Brakke said. "I love telecommuting. It's
really the ideal job for people who live in rural areas."
Medical
transcriptionists listen to dictated recordings by physicians
and other health care professionals and transcribe them into
documents. It requires an understanding of medical technology,
anatomy, procedures and treatment.
"Medical
is its own language altogether," Fedje said.
Transcriptionists
must achieve a 98 percent accuracy rate, Keller said.
"That's
not much room for error," she said. "That's good, because
it needs to be correct, but it does put a lot of pressure
on you initially."
About
75 students have completed the NDSCS program since it began
in 2000. Eide Bailly recently gave the college hardware and
software to help with the training, which also is available
through the Internet, Fedje said.
Not all
graduates of the program are qualified to work from home,
Fedje said. Some students are required to work on site for
six months to a year, depending on ability.
"I really
enjoy typing and I think it's a career where you're always
learning new things," said Jessica Kubischta, 20, from Dickinson,
who's set to graduate. "And being able to eventually work
from home is a good deal, too."
Reprinted
from http://www.AberdeenNews.com. Article by Dave Kolpack,
Associate Press. Posted on Wed, May. 12, 2004
