Excellent summary! Kudos!

• Why are they begging for MTs for VR? - mtme
  • no - nm
  • Unionize - rand_man
  • It's a Brain Drain all right! - NightOwl
    • Maybe you were just not meant to do - LOVING VR
      • Perhaps that's it. - NightOwl
        • Excellent summary! Kudos! - mtme
          • Who walked off the job in the 70s? - VR
          • Just thought of something else - NightOwl
      • I can transcribe faster than edit - mtme
        • Nah, she just loves VR, as do I, quite honestly - LoveVR
        • Notice when someone does not like they always say something like - LOVING VR
          • Yes, and very shortly (see inside) - VR-MT
            • The only drawback I have to editing is - LOVING VR
              • For example, I count every hour on the hour with my job - LOVING VR
                • me think thou doest protest too much - mtme
                  • What I really hate to see is - LOVING
                    • Responses too strong - mtme
                      • That is another common comment - LOVING
                    • Just a note to above - VR
              • Ever analyze this kinda stuff??? - Same here :-)
                • Right there with you - LOVING VR
                  • Ummmmmm - NightOwl
                    • I don’t have to spell check here - LOVING
                  • I would love VR as well........ - Not loving VR
                    • What we were told - VR
                      • I do that in select instances - sa

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I currently work with MDI, absolutely LOVE the company.  But I will probably quit now.  I used to work for Spheris (back when it was Edix), and when they started sending work overseas, I quit.  I just think it's so un American.  I think it's definitely to save money.  I hear they can pay those people a lot less than us. 

I'm really disappointed. 

I guess it boils down to the luck of the draw (not skills).  You will either double your line count and be happy, or you will lose a lot of money.  If you are a gambler, your odds are 50/50! Fair statement?

don't forget the advice about not putting all your eggs in one basket ( I could count the months that I worked solely for one service as an IC, or even as an employee )

and

dont forget the advice about not quitting your day job.

I wish you well!

Quite honestly, I think medical transcription is a dying field. With advances in voice recognition software, eventually the only jobs available for transcriptionists will be editing reports created with VR software. In Oklahoma City (near where I live), the Integris hospital system has already gone to VR software, and they only employ about five transcriptionists for two huge hospitals, a huge rehabilitation center, and many other smaller facilities.

No, VR may not take over the field in my lifetime,  at least during my working lifetime (I'm in my 50s).  But it is not a field that I would advise someone in their 20s or 30s to go into.

Just something to think about.....

...but I KNOW that being on this board is shooting myself in the foot BIG TIME.  My morale is down the tubes lately because I DO work for the squid, and I have felt doomed, but you're absolutely right, even when I'm wearing slippers I must envision bootstraps on them to pull myself up, and it's good to know that if I do that, and summon the work ethic that I have in me somewhere, I know (because I've done other, harder things in my life, believe me) I too can make a living wage.  Besides, I've gotten a new job and will be making the change within the next 2 weeks.   Time for the proverbial new leaf.   Thanks, Lil Ole You.

For standing up to these lousy companies who think they can s*** on us and feed us a line of crap, thinking we're too stupid not to buy into it! I am so disgusted and angry about what I've been reading - if Medquist pulled this on us I'd be outta there in a New York second. You guys are too good and there are too many other companies out there to put up with this kind of bull. Remember, we are in the driver's seat, we can be picky - demand far exceeds supply for professional MT's and you guys are sticking it to Transcend as should all new and old MT's. I also believe MTStars should ban any further job postings from Transcend - it is a total insult to us to allow them to continue to post, IMHO.

Thank you for standing up for yourselves and, indirectly, for all us MT's!

 I just want to say that these last 2 months with TH have been very difficult.  I have struggled every day with the work type, but am learning more each day and it gets easier everyday.

Well, I have not exactly been an exemplary employee.   I'm not up to my line counts yet, had to leave work once to bring son to ER, and today had internet problems so wasn't able to work (and I called later than I should have to let my boss know).

I DESERVED to be fired today.  I'm in my probational period and figured I was outta there!  I certainly wouldn't have blamed them if they gave up on me today...I might have fired them if the situation were reversed, but they were absolutely wonderful.  They calmed me down and assured me that it was okay and that I'm not going to be fired...that they understood.  They said once my internet was back up then I could go back to work....no problem.

Wow!  They have totally earned my respect, admiration, and loyalty.  As you can see, my internet problem is resolved, so I'll be burning the midnight oil to get some lines in today....so I better end this post for now, but I wanted to share this great experience that I had with TH because all too often all we seem to hear is the negative about all of these companies.

Have a great night everyone!

Chickadee

xx

Transcription Systems of Illinois has an immediate opening for an experienced acute care MT (hospital dictation). This position requires a minimum of 4 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, 8 hours on Friday, with the flexibility to do more if necessary. No weekends. Employee status. Only MTs with a strong background in operative reports, discharge summaries, H&Ps and consults will be considered.

This account requires a C-phone and has a high percentage of ESL's as well as a few difficult English-speaking dictators. No long distance charges. We provide many samples and lots of feedback. Our MTs like this account, once they're over the hurdle of the learning curve, and reap a very nice income from it. We guarantee no cherry-picking and you will not be switched to different accounts. A line is defined as 65 characters with spaces, and you calculate your own line count.

We are a very stable company who has been in business for 25 years in Central Illinois. Our MTs are so content with our company that we will be happy to provide MT references to serious applicants. 

All resumes will be reviewed and responses sent promptly to those who qualify.

You obviously spent a great deal of time on your post. If only all of us could have you as our representative when we apply for positions with companies you treat us just as you have written. Thank you for taking the time to come up with the list and sharing it. What a great job. Kudos. You hit it right the nail right on the head.

So much of what you said is true - you commented briefly about how much the leads do for the MTs and so much of what they is not paid for.   Medware keeps track of their employees time by Merit Minutes.  Merit Minutes constitutes the time spent TYPING in a chart.  If you need to research a drug name and spend more than 5 minutes looking for it, Merit automatically shuts off the clock.  So you have spend your time researching an item but you do not get paid for your time after 5 minutes.  Lately, it also seems harder and harder to achieve the minutes needed to equal 8 hours.  I know several people, myself included, who have made comments that it seems like 10 hours are needed before the 8 hours mark is reached.  Additionally, if you have phone your supervisor for something, if you run out of jobs and have to email the lead MT (who no longer exists) for more work, that is time spent which you don't get paid for.  If Medware's computer goes down or they experience a power outage, you have to make up the time for it later.  If Medware performs a maintenance check on Merit, you have to wait and make up the time later.  In a real world office, you would be paid for that time, but not at Medware.  And taking time off for yourself?  That is definitely frowned upon by certain team leaders.  Taking sick time?  They will actually ask you to make up that time later even if you have accured the sick time benefits! 

Even though Medware will tout itself as the AAMT employer of the year, not once or twice, they certainly do not treat their employees well.  For MT week the lead MTs positions were eliminated.  About 6 months ago the MTs who review the offshore work, listening to the reports word for word, fixing dosage errors, incorrect words, grammar, punctuation, and often fixing complete sentences which were creatively transcribed, found out that their hourly salary was about to be cut in half.  They would now make $8.00 an hour plus an incentive bonus for editing over 2000 lines a day.  Nothing  changed for them, the same quality demands were still in place, the offshore work remained the same, not better, but suddenly they had to produce twice as much as work in the same amount of time in order to keep their salary at or close to the level it had been.  Additionally, their vacation pay, which they had earned during the time when they made $14.00 or $15.00 an hour, was suddenly decreased to $12.00 an hour. And this is the company who wins the coveted employee of the year award?

This company looks out for number 1, themselves, and no one else.  They deserve to lose their lead MTs and anyone else who is disgusted with the self-serving practices.  Maybe if enough people leave, Medware will wake up and smell the coffee and remember that it takes management and employees working together to make a company productive. 

about not updating to internet connection instead of using C-phones.  I guess they do it because they find people who will accept it.   It also seems odd to me that they are willing to risk the reputation of an at least decent company to keep one account that is ruining their image.