Do you live in NJ? You have to go their to train and pick up their loaded computer. nm

• Silent Type Inc - Esme
  • Do you live in NJ? You have to go their to train and pick up their loaded computer. nm - Believe they're near Fort Lee.
    • Nope, don't live in Jersey - Esme
    • ....sheesh! 'there'....nm - wanderer
      • huh?? what are you referring to? saw no misuse of --sm - kps
        • previous message said, you have - Paula
          • okay. I misread it--sm - kps
          • yup, that was it! And I was original responder, not someone else being critical :) nm - wanderer

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A couple of weeks ago I posted that the hospital I worked for is outsourcing and dumping their inhouse transcription dept.  I appreciate all the nice things people here said because so many of you have been there, done that.  

I also guess that a lot of you have thought about starting up your own business.  The other people I worked with at the hospital and I were always talking about it in a joking way because, to be honest, the people who ran the business at the hospital know nothing about transcription and they think we are just typing drones.

I stopped back in the office where I used to work and I am pleased to report that it was total chaos.  The administration is trying to dump all the dictation onto an outside company based in India.  They kept on a couple of Transcriptionist to clean up stuff.  The person now in charge of the whole transcription process used to work in the billing office and she is now going to be proofing and overseeing the outside transcription service.  They are pleased with themselves and very smug about all the money they will be saving the doctors.

The doctors are all spoilt.  Most of their dictation for years has been An 88 year old female.  Severe DJD.  Bilateral knees. Referred by the bozo down the street. Yada yada yada.   An we knew what they meant  and would zip out a three page professional sounding report and referral letter.  We corrected their mistakes, made sure they were talking about the right patient (often they weren't) and that they didn't commit any legal boo-boo like saying the patient was a drug addict. (One doctor I used to work for said this.  I told the supervisor that he should not say things like that or he would get sued.  She said the doctor knew what he was doing.  Since she was not a transcriptionist she believed that.  The doctor and the practice got sued and doctor went to work in a little clinic far, far away.)

I have to admit that I am enjoying the vision of the coming trainwreck.  This is the second hospital I have worked for that jumped on the outsourcing train.  The first one fired the service in six months and tried to rehire us transcriptionists, who by then had gone on to greener pastures.  And this current hospital has handled the decision to outsource in such an unethical and nasty manner that I would not work for them again under any circumstances.

So, in short, has anybody thought seriously about starting up their own company?  Of course other transcriptionists have done that and of course it is not as easy as it seems. What is the first step?  I have the skills and I know many transcriptionists and a lot of doctors who are going to be really ticked off when the billing person they put in charge of their dictation goes belly up.  And I have some really neat names in mind: 

Typed In the USA. 

Been There Done That. 

Fingers For Hire. 

Utalk We Type.

Transcribers Anonymous.

WordsRUs.(how do you make a backwards R?)

Anybody want to join me?

or so voices/accents such as at a teaching hospital.  I have a friend who uses Dragon Medical and she now can achieve great speed, and it has saved her hands, but it took her TWO YEARS. 

I am kind of on the fence about this whole thing.  No matter what we think/feel/etc., VR is not going away.  I have some some VR, and most of it is not even close to as bad as the post by the OP, which obviously was an exaggeration, but it certainly is not a money maker for me.  I would sit there listening, realizing I could type it myself a lot faster. 

I am glad you have it working for you.  Good luck. 

I have seen absolutely no email on this subject of the MT being paid for training nor refresher course.  How are you being paid -- by the hour?

We have had to train for everything on our own time, as we have to do everything else. . . reading emails, filling out timesheets, jotting down every job we do, etc.

There has been no email saying such as you are stating here in your post.

No, the MT will NEVER make as much money as before speech.  NEVER.

The companies will, YES, but not the MT.

If you can afford a humongous decrease in your paycheck, then TT's VR is a good place for you.  The work has been extremely low for a long time now.  We get weekly emails pressuring us to train on VR.  There is a HUGE push for VR, in order words.  If you can make a decent line rate/count VR and cannot feel that you can take the decrease in your paycheck, you should look elsewhere.

They are a scary OVERHIRE at TT right now, and this has been going on for the past several months.  It is hard to believe that they are still hiring, as you have been offered a job there, when we have no work most every week -- no matter what hours you get on the system.