StenoTech Career Institute is an accredited vocational school with two campus locations, one in Fairfield and another in Piscataway. It offers a complete medical transcription program with day and nighttime classes available. The program requires 960 hours of training over a 40-week period for students on a full-time schedule; however, schedule modifications are available for part-time students. Concentrations of the program include emphasis on transcription fundamentals, surgical and laboratory procedures, as well as hands-on transcription work.
CAI Medical Transcription, located in Barnegat along New Jersey's coast, offers a 300-hour online transcription program including about 100 hours of book study and 200 hours of actual transcription work. Students are allowed one year to complete the entire course, but the average actual completion time is six to nine months. If a student cannot finish within a year, he must apply for an extension to receive more time. Although the course is completed online, there is a cd/dvd version of the program for students without Internet access. The cost of the course includes a book and equipment package along with online lessons, but excludes the fee of $75 for the final exam.
Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey, is an accredited institution that offers a medical transcription certificate program. To acquire a certificate, students must complete 32 credit hours including 13 general education credits and 19 credits of regular curriculum. It generally takes students an average of three semesters--the equivalent of one year--to complete the program, which consists of courses in business communications, word processing, health care terminology and pharmacology.
There are several colleges that do not have campus locations in New Jersey, but offer remote online programs for students anywhere in the United States. Kaplan University offers an online program which allows students to obtain an associate of applied science degree in medical transcription by finishing 90 credit hours in major and elective courses. Penn Foster offers a basic and advanced program in medical transcription for online certification. After students receive a diploma for the basic program, they can enroll in the advanced program which concentrates on increasing skill level.