Even if some of them aren't harder to manipulate,
Posted By: Topaz on 2009-07-10
In Reply to: YEAH--WHY NO GUYS DOING HOME MT ANY MORE? - sm - Bayou MT
it's just assumed that they are. I've found that the few guys I worked with on-site in the past WERE fairly woman-like in their willingness to be manipulated and taken advantage of. Which is probably why they got into, and stuck with, MT in the first place. Those guys who won't stand for that sort of thing never got into MT at all. Which is probably about 99.999% of them.
The benefits to the MTSO for having at-home MTs is not only the savings of NOT having to run, maintain, insure, heat, cool, and clean a brick-and-mortar building for their workers, but more importantly, the physical and social ISOLATION of those workers by basically chaining them to their desks at home. The isolation makes it far easier for us to be lied to, intimidated, cheated and overworked because NO ONE ELSE SEES IT HAPPENING.
The internet, and forums like this one, have broken us out of that isolation to some degree, but obviously not enough of a degree for change to happen. It's likely that for every MT that knows of this, or other MT forums, there are 10 who don't.
Further compounding the trouble those of us who DO use online forums to communicate with each other have, is the fact that we all know the MTSO suits cruise these boards, and we have to be careful about what we say, and to not reveal our identities, or else we'd most likely find our little selves fired.
So to date, medical transcription, and the sweatshop conditions it's done under, is the healthcare industry's best-kept 'dirty little secret'.
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Example of how companies can and do manipulate
x
They can manipulate Editscript
Editscript can be manipulated by managers to give MTs certain speakers, certain clinics and certain work types, etc. My manager even as much as told me so. I believe they can manipulate line counts too by possibly deleting jobs and lines of course wth the jobs. I have mysteriously lost lines before. In fact, I began losing those lines on Editscript after getting well aquainted with the account and my line count had started to climb. Once I was even told that I had been overpaid by $150.00 and that much would be deducted from my next paycheck. I had already written down my line count and I expected to get exactly what I got paid. After being told I had been over paid, I checked my line count and it was short. No explanation other than manipulation on the management side. It is really not fair.
As far as I know, they cannot manipulate your line count.
However, I believe they can set it up as to how it will count, i.e. headers, footers, etc.
Many companies manipulate the line count either with
headers or footers or some other way and blame it on the account/hospital. This is nothing new. The indians just caught on to it.
All programs can be manipulated.
My own personal opinion, I think that they are charging the client for the H/F and making the profit off of it, like other companies have done. This is nothing new in the MT industry, unfortunately!
Well, besides the outsourcing, they manipulate the line count for their benefit. nm.
nm.
Do you think all the headers and footers aren't getting counted? Lots of places aren't giving
s
Back-stab, manipulate - YES ! Dairy Queen material - NO !
anon
It's harder to get your own accounts
Most guys don't have a choice but to work for nationals in this business or own their own business. Would like some input into how guys work at making that much money in MT. Thanks.
I was doing VR, too. For me, the work is just harder to come by.
I work second shift, and it used to be early evening the OPs would start coming in. I could really roll on those, but they have all but disappeared. I now only get handful per shift and mostly EGDs or I&Ds. I also worked Fridays and Saturdays, which were great for work, but even those days are depleted now.
I think now I just am bummed out thinking I worked my butt off to get to the 5 to 6-year mark where I could apply with the better companies, and there just is no work. My daughter is almost done with her transcription course, and it is scary to me that she has to work for 3 cpl but even scarier that I might have to pretty soon :(
Seems like they are just making their job harder.
They should be taking the time to do the job correct the first time. How is rushing through going to help them in the long run? The reports are just going to come back for corrections, which is then going to take them longer to fix in the end then just editing them properly the first time through. I understand not wanting to get pay docked, but it seems they are only making things worse for themselves in the end.
Working harder for less pay.........
to achieve the same figure on one's paycheck is circular reasoning.
As has been stated before here, it is a pretty sure bet that the clients are being charged the same for their reports whether an MT physically transcribes it or whether a speech engine translates it and an MT cleans it up. That being the case, with the MT being paid even less for speech recognition, the middle man (management) is making way more money off the MTs back and will continue to make more as the MT is pushed to turn out more production.
As for adapting to more coming technilogical changes, you'd better prepare to adapt yourself to another line of work because the MT field will become obsolete as we know it even today. There will be fewer MT positions needed as speech recognition becomes more and more proficient at creating a medical document that is within acceptable limits.
Work Smarter, Not Harder...
Exactly! Go to work for a company that pays for ALL of your work, not just what is reflected in your typed reports. What about time spent looking up physicians out of a data base of 50,000! Trying to figure out what in God's name the doc is saying when pronouncing some foreigner's name, and wasting 10 minutes doing so...with no pay! ALL of my expertise is worth compensation, not just what they see on the final report. How many times do you type an entire report, just to hear at the end, Erase this, I'll redictate! No credit! What a waste of time and I deserve to be paid for the work I did, even though the DOCTOR screwed up and screwed me out of earning my pay for those lines! What a bunch of BS!!!
I must agree with you. Seems harder the older you get.sm
When I was in my 20s, sure I could do 1800+ a day, but it's a different story now that I'm in my 40s. Sore wrist and fingers. Forearms tight and painful.
IT SUCKS!!
PS: Chinamom, sorry, I didn't mean to reply by email. Clicked the wrong thing by mistake. I must be getting old!!
Yes, for some reason Bayscribe does seem harder (sm)
Harder to make your lines, that is. The only time that Bayscribe will not add demographics (or autopopulated info) to your character count is if you mark the report as a No Report. Otherwise, on all reports, including the ones marked Incomplete Report, it will count all the demographic info too.
They say that Bayscribe is Word-based, but personally, I haven't seen much simularity at all between Word and Bayscribe. I do know that when I switched from using Word to using the Bayscribe platform, my average lines-per-hour production dropped somewhere around 25%.
So yes, with Bayscribe, I do find myself working longer hours in order to make the same line counts that I used to make. I'm not really sure what the answer is, but I don't think that it's the accounts.
Sometimes the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Lots of these big MTSO co's are in bed with AHDI, and I have a hunch the whole kit-n-kaboodle of 'em are ridin' for a fall. Or a public hangin'.
Is it getting harder for anyone to get jobs now with all the people applying for them. How does
this seem to be going for most MTs looking for jobs. What seems to be the one factor that gets MTs a job before all the other 100 or so looking for the same job and what are the most desired qualities today that companies are looking for.
Anyone else going from DQS to ExText and noticing lines are harder to get? (sm)
Both accounts are about the same difficulty, just find ExText more cumbersome and where I used to do 1200 lines in 6 hours on DQS I now take every bit of 8 hours and sometimes that doesn't do it. Am i just getting slow to learn new things or has anyone else noticed this same thing?
Definitely harder and I've given it a lot of time. I'm thinking about
nm
You have it all wrong. I work SMARTER, not harder.
I will take on any acct. After months of getting used to it, I see what I am making an hour. If it is worth the work required to do that acct, great. If it isnt, I ask to be taken off acct and so far, have never been refused. Sometimes takes little while for them to get another MT for acct but have never been refused. Company is not working for the prestige, loyalty to an acct, or ME for that matter, or for the good of mankind. Why should I? I am in this for the money, just like the company. I am very much a pro, which is probably why companies would rather have me on another acct, than to quit giving me work all together. They know many companies are always looking for a good MT. Like other posters, I dont understand why someone would work below their worth. There are too many companies out there to try. I have tried several, staying with the ones where I could make good money.
Acute care is quite a bit harder than clinic.
Definitely. Never a good idea to lie. You won't find anyone at most big companies to ask beginner questions to, on ops or otherwise.
I, too, went from MQ to TT, and line counts are much harder to get at TT with Dictaphone ExText.
I have always been called *firey fingers*, so know it is not me, as I am very fast and accurate on the keyboard. Line count continually gets harder to achieve. I know it depends on how the company has Dictaphone set the line count parameters -- whether to pay headers, footers, spaces, demos, normals, expanders, etc.
Also speech recognition using ExSpeech at TT is so cumbersome and awful. Really made good money and line count with DQS speech editing. Just must my opinion. Other comments would be interesting.
The requirement is 50% participation. It is actually harder for a larger company sm
than a small company if they are national to get good rates. Once in, they will have it easy after that. I dealt with it personally for another company and it was a nightmare. Insurance is crazy and once national, it is harder to get the insurance. They should have gone with BC/BS when smaller but chose Unicare for some reason. Now they are regretting it.
Burnout...wanted to work smarter, not harder.
It seemed like I was sitting at my desk for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, just trying to pull the bare minimum. I had to hop around from one hospitals operating system to another and to another constantly...and if you've ever had the pleasure of doing that, you know that lines don't come easy that way because you spend all your time waiting for things to load and what not. There just wasn't enough work to stay on one account all the time, the way I think it should be, so instead of becoming an angry and bitter employee, I left.
They really did try to make me happy, but all they could offer were more hours, or more accounts, and like I told them, I simply wanted to work my 8 hours and make a decent living. Had a really hard time doing that over the winter. I think they overhired but I never asked that question head on. It was a great company when they first started out, but then got really big really fast. Great benefits though, if you can make the lines.
If I needed to get my foot in the door, I'd work for them, get the experience, and move on. It's that kind of place. But during a moonlighting gig I tasted freedom, more money due to a more efficient way to work, and better overall work environment, surrounded by people who truly loved their jobs, and when I was happy to log on for THAT job, and got sick to my stomach when I had to log on at DVHP, well that's when I knew it was time to be on my way.
Sometimes you get spelling and abbrvns over the phone, typing later on. Bone up on your harder
s
It is much harder on the wrist to constanly use the mouse to jump around the report to edit, rather
x
I agree that it is an easy platform, but compared to other platforms I have used, lines are harder
to get, probably counted or weighted differently.
Easy tests versus harder tests...
Having passed both and offered jobs at both, which company would you likely go for? They both have the same basic benefits and line rates. Would I be assuming that the harder testing will mean that the dictation is more difficult? Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated!
You work longer AND harder and the work is
??
You aren't the only one, believe me. NM
x
Aren't they the ones who are
supposedly looking into buying Heartland?
aren't they all going to be
under regional supervisors within a year??? If you can get yourself under the northeast regional supervisor, do it. She's great.
Oh MY aren't you a gas
Why would you care. Bitter? I got a great job by not being hired by them with innumerable benefits and assigned to a nice a/c with great potential.
Don't get my way - do you mean expecting to be paid on time is being bitter and spoiled? What planet do you come from? LOL
And yes SD is said - it's not my fault they auto cap it - boy do you have issues!!!! sd is standard shorthand for said my friend. can't imagine even noticing something like that.
Uh, no. They aren't doing that
The letter I received a few months ago when I cancelled my membership said something quite different. It had nothing to do with keeping the jobs US based. It was all about quality healthcare documentation which is important; don't get me wrong there. However, there was NOTHING in there stating anything about keeping this work here at all. Instead it was all about the global marketplace and a cop-out.
I personally feel that the bulk of the healthcare industry knows cheaper doesn't necessarily mean better or even close to what is expected. I don't think all of the jobs are going to disappear.
I have written, called and probably annoyed my senator and any other government official in my state about outsourcing private healthcare information. India, for example, does not have stringent laws about private information like we do.
We do have a personal responsibility though. I have brought this up on other boards, but we need to ask our healthcare providers if their back office is handled here. If not, choose another provider if possible. Of course avoiding purchase of everything that comes from somewhere else is virtually impossible, but there are lots of other things. This may also sound mean, but if I get on the phone with customer service somewhere and realize the person I am speaking with is offshore, I have my call transferred. Nothing against the person, but I am not discussing my personal account information with someone who is not 100% required by law to protect that information. Period. If enough people take the intiative (not saying in this particular way), the gov't and other organizations won't have a choice but to listen.
Outsourcing globally is not the trend right now. I really think pulling together can stop it from becoming so.
Aren't they like about $40,000 ???
My car's OLD - only kind I can afford.
And just because you aren't a fan sm
doesn't mean it is a bad company for everyone.
Aren't we all?
nm
Now I know you aren't exp'd - there is SM
no earthy reason to BUY A PDR to look up drugs. Caught again.
They aren't even in the US - ya think?? *-D) nm
nm
You REALLY ARE NEW aren't you?
Snort... How naive.
Look, the really sad thing is that work has really picked up at TT and if whomever the fool is that decided to file this lawsuit had just waited a bit, things on MT Stars would have died down. Have you seen any negative postings about TT recently? No, because there is WORK!!
If you let your anger rule your head, you will show yourself for the fool that you are.
Sad, truly sad....
Obviously, you aren't one of them...
If you had the slightest legal knowledge, you would know that any person can file a lawsuit against anyone -- the claims don't have to be true. Again, enjoy your Law 101 class.
If you aren't happy
why don't you leave? You seem to know so much, so you must work for OSi. You musn't be able to get another job elsewhere.
If you aren't using an expander just think how
many more lines you could produce with an Expander and then that would be like gettin a raise.
Why don't you just go back to MQ, they aren't that bad
I was full-time with them and quit for reasons not related to all the new changes, but after thinking it over, I decided to keep some part-time hours because I enjoy the work.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not spellchecked or proofread for errors, so if you find one, please don't bash me......
A little snippy aren't we?
nm
No they aren't. They are looking for editors
Is there a little emoticon for putting a finger down one's throat and retching?
Maybe we aren't talking
not sure what kind of rate could result in $4.25/1000 words...but I'm doing much better than that...so far.
I have worked for TRS and while they aren't the
worst company out there, I certainly would never recommend them. Any time people can't figure out how much their making, it isn't an ideal situation. The Trinidad issue and how it was handled is another strike against them.
They aren't outsourcing. nm
nm
Wow, aren't we cynical!
I am working for TT because a couple of TT employees took the time to answer my questions about the company and it sounded like it might be the place for me. I am very glad they were so helpful, because now I work there and I'm very happy. I haven't found any drawbacks to working there. If the companies you have chosen to work for have not turned out well, I'm sorry, but don't assume they are all the same. It is absolutely not fair to try to run down a company's name when you admit you never worked there. I do work there, and the company hasn't asked me to advertise for them. I can't believe you would judge people who go out of their way to try to help other MTs find a good company.
You aren't getting paid? nm
x
You aren't missing much with sm
Transhealth. Chartmatrix stinks, doesn't integrate well with Word at all (cannot use autocorrect), crashes alot, and hard dictators. Their test dictators are actual doctors on their system. Management and office staff turn over quite frequently. Transolutions last I knew started out at 6 cents a line. You may want to go IC if you don't need the benefits.
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