Last night, we had a great webinar about how medical transcriptionists can transition to the electronic health record. I wanted to share some of the things from that meeting with you because I believe it’s valuable and hope you will find it helpful.

For several months now, we’ve been having discussions that ask the question “But what do I need to learn to be ready?” Some folks have looked at those six workforce roles and decided that’s really not for them and wondered what else they could do. Last night’s webinar provided an option for that. We had a great group with over 60 registered. There was a lot of good dialogue about how we can prepare for the future.

When we started the EHR Training Academy site, we had a couple of goals in mind. (And I say “we” because I do have another educator working with me on this project.) We certainly wanted to be able to offer the full training for the six different roles. We also wanted to be able to provide continuing education opportunities for medical transcriptionists. In the last several weeks, we came to realize that just wasn’t enough. We wanted to provide a course for those who have an understanding and grasp of healthcare documentation that could give them the skills and knowledge they needed to really prepare to compete for these emerging roles. Now we have it!

Last night we announced a brand new course: The Clinical Documentation Specialist certificate program. Yes, I am indeed claiming that name for us. You’ve all heard how I feel about not allowing others to define us. It’s time we take a stand and decide who we will be and what we will call ourselves. So that’s the name of the course. The other thing we’ve done is worked to make it easy to do while someone is still working, which means we stretched it out to a 9 month program, and affordable, which means there is a monthly payment plan. It’s not a simple 3-4 week course and there is a lot of material. You can read more about the program and the courses that are included in today’s post at the EHR Training Academy.

This course will begin on September 12, and the registration deadline is September 8, 2011. We’ve already had some from last night’s webinar indicate they plan to enroll and I hope you will consider it as well!

If you have questions, now’s the time to ask. I’m excited that we have been able to put together what I believe is a great option for MTs to get better prepared to tackle what I believe is an exciting future.