Here's the simple facts of Amphion:
Posted By: ex-Amphioner on 2007-09-20
In Reply to: Not trying to start anything just stating facts - Amphion
I used to work there too. Could not meet my line requirement either. I moved on and am now with a company with a HIGHER LINE COUNT REQUIREMENT and just as difficult QA but I consistently EXCEED their line requirement because their PLATFORM IS MORE FAIR TO MTs. I am not yelling at you, but this subject is being defended by current Amphion employees who are loyal to their company but are not listening to the facts. There are better companies out there who have platforms that are FAIR FOR MTs. Keep looking, and I wish you luck!
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And here are even more simple facts about
I have been with them for 2 years. I work PT (6 hours/day). My average for last pay period was 163 lph. Yes, I exceeded production for PT (6000 lines/pp), I always do and did even when I was FT. I don't understand the complaints or the inability to meet production. The DI honestly takes all of 2 seconds on MOST (I aint saying all cause I don't work on all) accounts. I have worked on 6 different accounts and all but 1 have ADT feed...I am sorry it didn't work out for you because Amphion is one of the best nationals out there...good luck!!
Transcend-The FACTS and only the FACTS
This comes straight from the SEC filing for year ending December 31, 2008, submitted March 11, 2009. Yes, it is public information and anyone can look at it. Keep in mind, all the narrative is from Transcend’s point of view and they are trying to keep and/or get people to buy their stock. So you will have to read between the lines as far as if they will/can meet the needs/wishes of their MTs/Medical Language Specialists in the years to come, or if they will turn into another company too large to keep their employees happy.
Regarding the MDI-MD acquisition:
TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC. (NASDAQ: TRCR), the third largest provider of medical transcription services to the U.S. healthcare market, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Medical Dictation Services, Inc. (MDI) for $16.2 million.
Founded in 1981, and headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, MDI is a leading medical transcription company with approximately 450 employees providing service to approximately 30 customers located predominantly in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, MDI had unaudited revenue of approximately $13.7 million, and currently has an annualized revenue run rate of approximately $14.3 million.
Below are SMALL excerpts of the 64-page SEC filing. I chose sections which I thought would shed some light on where Transcend currently is and where they plan to go, so not only the new MDI-MD transcriptionists but also the current Transcend Transcriptionists could possibly stop stressing about what their future holds.
HOPE THIS IS OF SOME HELP TO YOU.
TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC.
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Delaware |
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(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
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One Glenlake Parkway, Suite 1325,
Atlanta, GA 30328 |
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Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 |
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Transcend Services, Inc. hereafter known as the Company
EMPLOYEES
As of December 31, 2008 the Company had 749 full-time and 423 part-time employees. These included 587 full-time and 418 part-time medical language specialists, virtually all of whom work from home. One hundred and twenty three full-time and three part-time employees work in operations to support and manage customers and medical language specialists. Thirty-nine full time employees and two part time employees work in sales, research and development, implementations, and general administrative functions. Neither the Company nor its employees are currently a party to any collective bargaining agreement. The Company has not experienced any strikes or work stoppages, and believes that relations with employees are good.
As of December, 2008, approximately 65% of the Company’s total volume was processed on the BeyondTXT platform and 35% was processed on other platforms.
Management plans to gradually increase the percentage of voice files processed through BeyondTXT speech recognition from 24% of total volume in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 35% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to approximately 40% by the end of 2009.
Speech recognition technology will allow us to produce the same volume of work with fewer medical language specialists due to the productivity improvements the Company is able to achieve, and may open the market to a new pool of professionals.
In mid-2006, a portion of work began to be processed offshore through partners in India. Volume processed offshore has gradually increased since then.
By the fourth quarter of 2008, the Company had increased the percentage of work processed in India to approximately 19% of total volume. Management plans to increase this percentage gradually over the next several years and believes that in the long-term (5-10 years), market demands could drive the mix closer to 50% domestic and 50% offshore, but in the intermediate term (2-5 years), the mix is expected to gradually grow to about 30% offshore and 70% domestic. At some point in the future, the Company may decide to establish a transcription operation offshore, but currently is relying on partnerships as the preferred solution.
The Company’s income before income taxes has improved in 2006, 2007 and 2008 due in large part to improved customer retention combined with new sales, increased use of speech recognition technology and increased use of offshore transcription partners.
The Company provides medical transcription services to the healthcare industry. The Company’s mission is to provide accurate documentation of the patient / medical provider encounter on-time at a fair price. Transcend’s customers include hospitals, hospital systems, multi-specialty clinics and physician group practices in the United States. Transcription services consist of three primary phases:
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Phase I: Dictation Capture. In this phase, a physician dictates the results of a patient encounter or procedure into a number of different voice capture systems, including hand-held devices, dictation capture systems at customer sites and telephone dictation capture systems located in Transcend’s data center in Atlanta, Georgia. The result is an electronic voice file that is ready for processing. |
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Phase II: Voice to Text. Using a workflow system, voice files are either routed directly to medical language specialists (MLS) to be transcribed (typed) or are routed through speech recognition and natural language processing systems which produce a draft which is routed to the MLS for editing. In certain cases, documents are routed through Quality Assurance teams as well. The result is a text-based report that is ready to be returned to the customer. |
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Phase III: Distribution. Completed reports are distributed to the customer electronically and are either interfaced to the customer’s electronic medical record and/or hospital information systems, printed at the customer’s site or faxed to the customer. |
The Company provides two primary medical transcription options for customers: (1) the provision of transcription services and technology using the Company’s proprietary BeyondTXT workflow platform or (2) the provision of transcription services using the customer’s proprietary or licensed third party transcription system. If the customer does not have its own transcription technology or no longer has the desire or resources to maintain and upgrade the technology they do have in place, the BeyondTXT platform provides a turnkey solution. If the customer has invested in their own transcription technology and wishes to keep their system in place, the Company’s transcriptionists access the system and perform all transcription services using the customer’s system. Management believes that our ability to serve a customer regardless of their use or non-use of our platform is an important factor in our success. As of December, 2008, approximately 65% of the Company’s total volume was processed on the BeyondTXT platform and 35% was processed on other platforms.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Medical transcription is either performed in-house by hospital or clinic personnel or outsourced to local, regional, national or offshore vendors. Hospitals and clinics may choose to outsource for many reasons: (1) the shortage of qualified medical transcriptionists; (2) the unique and burdensome management challenges of managing a 24/7 operation that must deliver critical patient care information quickly; and (3) the high cost of equipping in-house personnel with the hardware, software and support necessary for their jobs. Successful transcription companies make use of technological advances in Internet access, speech recognition, security, software and hardware that allow remotely located, highly trained personnel to function as well as (or better than) in-house employees. Management believes that the principal historical competitive factors of price, accuracy and turnaround time are expanding to include other factors such as speech recognition capability, electronic security, hardware redundancy (to protect against data loss) and data integration. In addition, management believes that the ability to recruit, train and, most importantly, manage personnel nationally and internationally will lead to further outsourcing, and that only those companies prepared to compete using resources outside the customer’s local market will prosper.
The market for medical transcription services is sizable. The total annual market potential for medical transcription is estimated to be $12 billion, of which an estimated $5 billion is outsourced. These figures include not only hospitals, but also physicians’ offices and clinics. The Company focuses primarily on the hospital market. There are approximately 4,900 community-based hospitals in the U.S. (hospitals accessible by the general public) with approximately 800,000 beds that comprise the Company’s primary target market. If the average annual market value of transcription services per hospital is $400,000 (our estimate), the Company’s primary target market is approximately $2.0 billion. The market is highly competitive and fragmented, with several thousand transcription services companies nationally. Management believes only a dozen or so competitors have revenue in excess of $15 million.
Demand for medical transcription services is growing as the demand for healthcare services increases. Macro-economic trends such as the aging of the baby boomer generation are projected to have a major impact on the demand for healthcare services in general and should lead to a corresponding increase in the demand for medical transcription services.
HISTORY OF THE COMPANY
We were incorporated in California in 1976 as TriCare, Inc. (“TriCare”) and reorganized as a Delaware corporation in 1988. TriCare completed an initial public offering of its shares in 1990. In 1995, the Company acquired Transcend Services, Inc., then a Georgia corporation, by the merger of Transcend Services, Inc. into TriCare and changed the name to Transcend Services, Inc. The historical financial statements of the former Transcend Services, Inc. became the financial statements of the Company and include the businesses of both companies as of the effective date of the merger. Between 1993 and 1995, the Company acquired five medical transcription companies.
As a result of these transactions, the Company now operates in one reportable business segment as a provider of medical transcription services to the healthcare industry.
In 2004, the Company introduced the BeyondTXT transcription workflow platform.
On January 31, 2005, the Company acquired Medical Dictation, Inc., (MDI), a Florida-based medical transcription services company. During 2005, the Company’s field operations were reorganized to form customer-centric teams that are responsible for all aspects of production, quality and customer care. Effective December 30, 2005, certain assets of the transcription business unit of PracticeXpert were purchased.
By early 2006, the Company began processing significant volume through the Company’s speech recognition solution and, throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008, have steadily increased the percentage of work which is electronically converted and then edited versus transcribed (typed) from recorded speech. In mid-2006, a portion of work began to be processed offshore through partners in India. Volume processed offshore has gradually increased since then.
On January 16, 2007, the Company purchased certain assets of OTP Technologies, Inc. (OTP), a Chicago area medical transcription company, for a purchase price of $1,110,000.
On January 1, 2009, the Company purchased certain assets of DeVenture Global Health Partners (“DeVenture”), a Canton, Ohio based medical transcription company, for a base purchase price of $4,250,000 plus potential consideration based on results for the first six months of 2009. The Company does not currently expect to pay any additional potential consideration.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Transcend’s sole focus is providing medical transcription services to the healthcare industry. The Company’s strategy is to succeed in the marketplace by successfully executing six key strategies.
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Provide unparalleled service to customers |
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Increase market penetration |
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Sustain technological leadership |
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Attract and retain talented professionals in the U.S. |
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Increase utilization of offshore resources |
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Successfully complete and integrate acquisitions.
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Provide Unparalleled Service to Customers
The key to the Company’s success will always lie first and foremost in providing excellent service to customers. The Company retained 98% of customers in 2007 and 2008, which is believed to be superior to most of our competitors. Management believes that customers who are consistently receiving high quality documents on time at a fair price are likely to remain our customers year after year. Satisfied customers provide sales leads and referrals that help us drive new business. Accordingly, the Company has an ongoing program to monitor and improve customer satisfaction which includes continuous monitoring of transcription production statistics relative to contracted standards, periodic customer surveys and a dedicated regional operations support organization that maintains regular (often daily) contact with customers. Management believes that regional operations managers provide a competitive advantage in sustaining customer satisfaction. As our regional operations managers typically come from a Transcriptionist background, they possess the expertise to continuously improve quality. In addition, they provide customers a central contact person in the organization who is directly responsible for resource scheduling and quality control and can quickly resolve any issues that arise. The Company practices continuous quality improvement with the goal of improving the level of service over time.
Increase Market Penetration
The transcription industry is large and highly fragmented. In addition, it is currently estimated that 60% of transcription volume is still performed in-house. As a result, management believes that the Company is well-positioned to increase market share both by winning contracts with hospitals who are now actively considering an outsourced solution and by taking business from competitors. Management believes that the level of service provided by many of the Company’s competitors can be very inconsistent. As a result, the Company is often asked to submit proposals on new accounts where Transcend will replace a competitor. In addition, the Company believes that smaller competitors are increasingly unable to keep up with advances in technology and lack the capacity to give customers assurance that they can consistently meet turnaround time requirements. As a result, the Company frequently wins new customer accounts from customers who have outgrown the capabilities of their smaller providers. The Company’s tested and proven infrastructure enables it to serve substantially more customers without a significant increase in fixed costs. While continuing to focus on day-to-day customer satisfaction, the Company intends to add new accounts to the existing customer base to efficiently utilize the capacity of the infrastructure and established customer-oriented support organization.
The Company intends to grow by focusing the sales team on potential new accounts and utilizing the operations management team to increase services to the existing customer base. The Company’s target market is focused on community hospitals with over 100 beds. Based on experience, this target market can realize the most benefit from services while still allowing the Company to provide superior customer service at a reasonable profit. The Company targets new business from hospitals where there is not a current relationship as well as affiliated hospitals of existing customers. A telemarketing partner is utilized to help identify hospitals within the Company’s target market that are interested in transcription services. New business leads are also generated from regional operating managers, who receive referrals from the administrators they work with daily. Management anticipates continuing to add sales resources to help deliver revenue growth.
Many hospitals are members of group purchasing organizations (“GPOs”), which provide value to their members by pre-screening the best vendors for a particular product or service and pre-negotiating terms and conditions with the vendors. The Company signed an agreement in 2008 with one 1,400 member GPO and will attempt to secure additional GPO contracts in the future in order to increase market penetration and accelerate growth.
The Company also expects to continue to win new business by working with technology partners. Technology providers, such as Nuance and 3M, license their proprietary transcription platforms to hospitals across the country and refer the transcription work to preferred service providers like us. Management believes Transcend’s size and superior customer service make the Company a preferred provider to these partners.
Speech recognition technology represents a sea of change in the transcription industry. The Company has invested heavily in fully integrating speech recognition technology into the BeyondTXT platform. The Company licenses the speech recognition engine, natural language processor and various editing tools from MultiModal Technologies, a leader in the industry, under a September 2006 agreement that renews annually at Transcend’s sole option through September 2010, with the last such option period ending August 31, 2011, and thereafter if mutually agreed by both parties. The Company’s speech recognition solution requires no physician training or change in physician work habits. Voice files are collected in the same manner regardless of whether the job will be transcribed (typed) or edited using speech recognition technology. Once a physician’s voice profile is built that meets predicted quality criteria, future work from that physician is edited. When a medical language specialist is presented with a draft document, they listen to the voice file and edit the document as necessary. Their edits are fed back into the voice profile, which learns over time in order to continuously improve the quality of draft reports.
The use of speech recognition technology in BeyondTXT results in a more efficient transcription process and leads to lower direct costs and higher gross margins while allowing the Company to offer competitive pricing. The Company’s medical language specialists earn less per line of text for editing, but their increased productivity generally allows their total compensation to remain unchanged or to increase. After the cost paid to MultiModal Technologies, the Company is still able to reduce the average cost per line of text. This is a key defensive strategy against pricing pressure in the industry.
Management plans to gradually increase the percentage of voice files processed through BeyondTXT speech recognition from 24% of total volume in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 35% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to approximately 40% by the end of 2009. Longer-term, the percentage of transcription volume that is edited using speech recognition technology is dependent on such factors as the mix of transcription volume that is processed on the Company’s platform versus customer platforms, the percentage of dictators for whom high quality voice profiles can be built, and the ability to hire, train, and retain editors.
Attract and Retain Professional Staff
One of the Company’s critical success factors is the recruitment and retention of the industry’s best knowledge workers, including medical language specialists, application developers and service professionals. The goal is to be the best company to work for in the industry. Management believes that there will be a shortage of qualified traditional medical language specialists in the future. There are two domestic solutions to this problem. First, workers will be attracted and retained by offering competitive pay and benefits, stable and responsive management, a predictable abundance of work, a stable and efficient platform, career development opportunities and the opportunity to work from home. Second, speech recognition technology will allow us to produce the same volume of work with fewer medical language specialists due to the productivity improvements the Company is able to achieve, and may open the market to a new pool of professionals.
Increase Utilization of Offshore Resources
The Company operates in a global economy in which medical transcription services can be performed efficiently and cost-effectively by offshore medical transcription service organizations. Customers have differing views of offshore production. Some believe it allows them to realize improved turnaround times and sometimes obtain a lower price without sacrificing quality or security of data. Others remain committed to domestic-only medical transcription. From management’s perspective, offshore production allows the Company to improve turnaround time by providing consistent staff at night and on weekends; alleviates the need to hire as many domestic medical language specialists in a tight labor market as would otherwise be needed; and reduces cost. Management plans to meet customers’ needs by providing services using a combination of domestic and offshore labor. In July 2006, the Company began subcontracting a portion of work to offshore medical transcription firms. By the fourth quarter of 2008, the Company had increased the percentage of work processed in India to approximately 19% of total volume. Management plans to increase this percentage gradually over the next several years and believes that in the long-term (5-10 years), market demands could drive the mix closer to 50% domestic and 50% offshore, but in the intermediate term (2-5 years), the mix is expected to gradually grow to about 30% offshore and 70% domestic. The growth in offshore volume is not expected to displace the domestic workforce, which the Company expects to grow over time. At some point in the future, the Company may decide to establish a transcription operation offshore, but currently is relying on partnerships as the preferred solution.
Successfully Complete and Integrate Acquisitions
The Company intends to increase market share through acquisitions and believes that the Company is the third largest of the more than several thousand medical transcription providers in the United States. Technological developments such as voice recognition technology and the need to provide customers with an off-shore solution are making it increasingly difficult for smaller medical transcription businesses to compete effectively. As a result, management believes that the Company will be able to make acquisitions on an opportunistic basis that will enable it to grow the business. When the Company acquires these businesses, it is often able to add the acquired companies’ customers to the BeyondTXT platform and to eliminate a substantial portion of their overhead. It is expected that acquisitions will be financed through a combination of cash on hand, debt, and shares of the Company’s common or preferred stock.
For customers who already have their own transcription workflow system, the Company provides outsourced transcription and/or editing services on the customer’s platform. For example, the Company has a partnership with Nuance to use their eScription platform, which is a popular hosted ASP solution that can be licensed by healthcare organizations. Customers contract directly with Nuance for the system implementation and contract with us for transcription services. eScription is speech recognition-enabled, allowing the Company to provide editing services to those clients in addition to traditional typing services. The primary advantage to this business model is simplicity—there is no proprietary workflow system to develop and maintain. There is, however, less opportunity for the Company to leverage technology to improve profitability. Some customers have legacy systems they have developed themselves. Over time, the Company expects to migrate customers with outdated legacy platforms off of their own systems and onto BeyondTXT. The Company provides services on numerous platforms: other notable examples include ChartScript (a 3M platform), Dictaphone (a Nuance platform) and Meditech.
CUSTOMERS
As of December 31, 2008, the Company delivers dictation and transcription services to approximately 154 hospitals and clinics with recurring revenue generally under long-term contracts or other arrangements. The average level of annual revenue generated by each customer was approximately $316,000 in 2008. The top 10 customers accounted for approximately 27% of 2008 transcription revenue, averaging $1.3 million of revenue each.
Revenue attributable to one contract with Providence Health System—Washington for four hospitals totaled $3,728,000 $3,269,000 and $3,017,000 or 8 %, 8% and 9% of total revenue for 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. As of December 31, 2008, the Company had separate agreements with approximately 44 customers who are owned by Health Management Associates, Inc., a single healthcare enterprise. Revenue attributable to members of Health Management Associates, Inc. comprised $10,267,000, $9,611,000 and $8,473,000 or 21%, 23% and 26% of the Company’s total revenue for 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.
On January 1, 2009, the Company purchased certain assets of DeVenture Global Partners, Inc. and acquired approximately 30 customers with this transaction.
COMPETITION
The Company experiences competition from many local, regional and national businesses. The medical trans
Current Amphion employee...I'm very happy. The part of Amphion I work with has no faxes, lists,s
minor demographic work..superb QA and feedback. Fellow MTs on same account are more than willing to help and now they also have mentor program. My pay is what they said. They do have different pay for different levels. 
It is simple...
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Moderator
It isn't quite that simple...
Thank you for your input; however, it is a deeper issue than that. It is a major opportunity to teach the offending MTSO a lesson. Speaking for the collective MT group, we are human beings and we deserve the same respect as any other human being. It seems that MTs have, for too long, allowed themselves to be doormats. Obviously, there is an exception to every rule, but I am not referring here to those few exceptions.
It is that simple...
There is no deeper lesson to be taught. If you feel that you are being treated as a doormat and do not want to be, then do not accept the position and move on.
Moderator
Simple
If you type 100 minutes of dictation for this company and their operative notes are 1-2 minutes maximum (I worked for a company that paid like this) and they add up to 30-40 lines per report, you would be typing anywhere from 3000-4000 lines for 100 minutes, which equals $100.00 for this amount of lines, which in turn equals about 3-4 cents a line. Believe me, they pack the dictation in this amount of time. The company in turn charges the hospital or clinic per line and they pay you the minimum.
It isn't that simple
It isn't just whining! These people are taking MONEY out of the other MTs' pockets! While an MT with integrity does all the jobs that are assigned to her and gets hung up on an extremely difficult dictator, while the other MTs are taking all the easy dictators and making money hand over fist. That is NOT fair to the MT with integrity who makes chump change because she refuses to stoop to that level.
It is not fair and it is up to management to put a stop to the practice.
Don't judge others until this has happened to you. It isn't fair and this is the only place MTs can come to vent their frustrations over it. If you don't want to read the posts, just skip them, but don't tell people they are acting like children fighting for candy. This is FAR, far more serious an issue!
Facts
Once again, you do NOT have your facts straight. I never said the doctors were not providing wonderful healthcare to their patients, just not wonderful dictation to MTs. I'm a damn good MT and I do more than my share of ESLs, but if any MT gets those dictators for 8 hours a day, 98% of the reports, we all know their line count is going to suffer, just of sheer frustration. Of course, you get any ESLs with any company, but there are better accounts, and any good MT knows they can get better line counts with better dictators. My point, once again, is if any MT has the skills and experience to get a job where you have better accounts w/better dictators (notice I said dictators this time, not doctors since you seem to be so picky about my wording), then why should anyone have to put up with terrible dictation all the time when you can make a better line rate and get more lines with a different company. And just so you know, these dictators can't even fill in their own blanks. I personally played back one particular ESL dictator's report to him and asked him what the blank was. His reponse was, "I don't have a clue. Just do the best you can with it." So, how can they expect us to be able to figure it out without compromising quality? I sent the report with a blank and let him fill it in with whatever he felt should go there. My attitude is the attitude of any MT out there who is trying to make a decent check, especially if they're single and trying to support a family. My atttitude is what landed me the job I have now where I make 2 cents more per line than TransHealth, get better benefits, have plenty of opportunity for advancement if I so choose, and have much more flexibility than the job I had with TransHealth. If you like transcribe ESLs so much, why don't you just move your ESL-loving butt to India? You will have no problem getting plenty of ESLs there.
Facts
FACT: There was ONE pay cut, not two, and it was temporary.
FACT: Karen was not let go, she quit. I know that there was a lot of confusion when she left and she still has a lot of files (or did last I heard).
FACT: Although the situation was not discussed with all of us, I asked Lee (when she answered the phone one day) about a discussion I had previously had with Karen and she was not insulting about Karen. She said that the "fit was not right" and that she was sorry that things did not work out as Karen is a wonderful person. I think that all was good when she was a transcriber for the company and that things changed after she did hiring.
FACT: There are over 100 of us (I do not know an exact number) so obviously there is a lot of good at Keystrokes. Their customers are happy or they would not be around for so long.
FACT: You cannot please all the people all the time.
no facts
No, they don't outsource to anyone else.
FACTS?
It seems that we live in an age where each person feels that his/her opinions represent true facts. There are facts and there are opinions. Most value judgements (such as whether a company is good or bad) are just opinion. Why can't MTs figure it out that what is good for one may be awful for another? Seems simple to me. Now, don't get me wrong. When a company has some really terrible attributes, such as not paying or paying with bad checks in a setting of doing it over and over and not just making an honest mistake, we are then talking about facts when we call this a bad company. It is no longer just an opinion.
You don't have the facts
Interesting. I got the facts from the recruiter. So, maybe you don't know what's going on there.
Your facts just don't add up!
Actually, I just returned from a nice long walk on the beach, thank you! The Pacific Ocean is my backyard, and I spend a lot of time walking, biking, skating, swimming, and playing Volleyball at the beach!
By the way, we do have a short pier that you can take a long walk off when you are done wasting time testing and interviewing with other companies for whom you have no intention of working.
How can you possibly know whether a company is better or worse than Medquist until you actually work for them? You make absolutely no sense whatsoever, which makes you the perfect MedQuist employee!
OSI plain and simple
Speech recognition, outsourcing, massive turnover, only the beginning. The only way to offset this was to offer more benefits but they also upped requirements to receive them. You can't make more lines if more and more companies are outsourced, and two new ones have been added to that, Mayo and Sarasota--Ochsner already was. They aren't being that generous with benefits in the long haul and as someone said the other day nobody will stick around long enough to actually receive the benefits.
Simple solution
As long as Cymed can continue to find MTs who will put up with this crap and accept their positions that don't pay for spaces, they will continue to do what they're doing.
Why would a quality MT accept a job that doesn't pay for spaces. Why would a quality MT stay there?
SE versus IC. I know there is s simple
but I'm a math retard. If an SE made 10 cpl and an IC also made 10 cpl, and everything else were equal, then the SE is actually making more because half of the 15% social security tax is paid by the employer. So the SE makes 7.5% more than the IC, correct?
Now here's where I'm a math retard. If you take that 7.5% into account, what is the SE's *real* line rate? Sure, it's still cpl but when you figure the employer is paying 7.5% of the taxes then does that make the line rate actually more like 10.75 cpl? Or am I off on my math?
Simple -- 5 steps
1) Do NOT answer the phone if it is not about your child or your husband, period. Get an ans machine and check it on your breaks. It is your responsibility to treat your job with respect and spending your time on personal calls is not respecting your job, your pay, your finances. You're an adult; you can do this.
2) Try to arrange your appts during nonworking hours.
3) Make an alternate schedule for yourself that you can commit to when appts or emergencies call you away.
4) MAKE everyone aware that you are working during ## hours and that you are not to be interrupted, then do not ALLOW them to interrupt you. If you answer - you are allowing it.
5) Define what really constitutes an emergency to TAKE YOU AWAY FROM WORK and stick by it.
It sounds as though the phone is your biggest problem. Simply stop answering. Let everyone handle their own problems...they are adults, too.
If you take control of your phone calls and have an alternate schedule for true emergencies (I mean - child/hubby sick, etc.), then you'll be able to handle unexpected/unplanned pressing needs such as your cousin (going to Iraq) dropping by!
Make YOUR time the most important time in the world. Because it is!!!
Some simple feedback for you..
Just wanted to say I think it was your tone with your suggestions that angered a few. It sounded bitter, angry, and downright nasty the way you spoke/typed it. We have all had our run ins with recruiters who make promises and do not follow through irregardless of the resume itself. I think you just hit a sore spot. :)
radical yet simple
Pay based on knowledge and difficulty NOT production. This will raise the howls from those on the board who want all ops -- but you reward knowledge not limber tendons. Higher line rates for those willing to slog through ESL Discharge summaries and medium line rates for flying through ops and ERs.
Simple solution -
email me.
The rationalization is simple...(sm)
I'm laughing here because it's so simple you're gonna laugh at yourself for asking! Of course they're now trying to sub-contract to other companies, no one wants to work for them. So, if they hide behind another American MTSO, they can get American transcriptionists that way!
Anyway, thanks for the warning. I hope everyone who is contacted by or contacts another National company does what you did and ask where the work is coming from.
I use ChartScript and it is very simple. The only
demographics I fill in are ptient's name and doctor's ID # if there are any CC.
A simple solution...
get a fake email address. go to hotmail or yahoo and just make something up. i will never know who you are. :) I do understand your hesitation. I wouldn't email me either. LOL I'm safe, I don't work there anymore.
Line counts?! Um, yeah. Encouraged to be dishonest to the MTs regarding that also went against my grain.
Simple answers
Okay, simply put, I work for SoftScript, the workload is steady, the supervisors, etc., are great communicators; they pay within a few days of the end of the pay period by DD.
Now I'm off to work. :o)
PS .. the reason you don't get a lot of response is because we're all happy with our job and not having to hang out in here with all the negativity.
Simple solution:
Don't work for them.
Simple solution:
Don't work for them. I don't.
How about a simple - Let the supervisor
they can bypass the supervisor and just let other workers know? Unfortunatley by accepting their IMs and working based off that you pretty much made your bed.
a simple solution
Next time it happens ... just invite the person over to your home and give them a shot at actual transcription. Try to give them a dictator who is midway between fantastic and a nightmare. Don't leave any medical books around for reference. Tell them they have 15 minutes to do as much as they can.
And then post the results here. Should be good for a laugh.
In simple lay terms...
If the post in question is the post that culminated in this lawsuit, the OP went into great detai about how TT received work only through what Dictaphone chose to essentially spoon-feed them and this was resulting in the lack of work for many posters at TT.
This was not prefaced, to my recollection, as an 'in my opinion' type of format. It was done as OP had 'inside information' or was somehow privvy to the internal workings of TT. HER POSTS WERE PRESENTED AS FACT AND NEVER INDICATED IT WAS SUPPOSITION OR HEARSAY. THE POST WAS WRITTEN AS HARD, SOLID, IRREFUTABLE FACT.
Presenting something as factual that is in fact NOT based on fact is the entire premise of a libel suit.
I'm not here to argue with you or anyone else. Everyone has their panties in a bunch about the OPs freedom of speech, with which I agree 100%. However, there is a vast difference between saying, 'I THINK TT GETS THEIR WORK ASSIGNED TO THEM FROM DICTAPHONE BECAUSE...' and I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THERE IS NO WORK AT TT BECAUSE DICTAPHONE IS NOT GIVING THEM WORK.'
Do you see the difference now? This was a VERY lengthy series of posts between 4-6 weeks ago perhaps a bit longer.
Apparently, the powers-that-be at TT take exception to this poster's assertion of their internal operations, and what the OP led us all to believe must not have been factual or no lawsuit would be in progress because there would be no grounds on which to sue.
I do not know why, with a group of professional, educated woman such as at this forum, people cannot seem to comprehend this has NOTHING TO DO WITH HER FREEDOM OF SPEECH; IT HAS TO DO WITH MISREPREENTATION OF FACTS.
If TT was running around suing every one of the MTs that trashes them on this site, EVERYONE would have a summons. But, no, that is not the case. The only one who has a subpoena is the OP, the one who professed to know exactly why there was no work at TT.
And obviously her facts were not facts at all; hence, the lawsuit.
C'mon, people, research is part of our job. Does it make any sense to you that TT or any company would randomly select a poster to arbitrarily sue?
No, it doesn't.
What DOES make sense if the OP apparently overstepped her bounds of knowledge, posted erroneous information as fact, made TT look terrible with that information, and TT has decided the misinformation and malignment were sufficient to warrant legal action.
Search the archives, find the original posts about Dictaphone and TT. NOWHERE in those posts will you see any disclaimer that is is the OPs opinion or theory or anything remotely similar. It is all presented as FACT. Presenting misinformation as FACT is illegal and punishable by law.
This is my last post on this subject. If the pack mentality would rather prevail and defend someone for spreading misinformation as fact, so be it. No amount of common sense will change your minds.
I'm a staunch support of our freedom of speech; however, I am not a supporter of libelous/defamatory information towards ANY entity.
Flame away; I couldn't possibly care less. I've done my homework. I've done my research; and I've seen with my own eyes the posts I believe spurred the lawsuit.
And you'll all really hate this. TT is on firm ground and will likely prevaill.
simple terms
Transcend bought MDI. MDI employees unhappy because they have not been given many details about their pay scale or flexibility of schedule. Also, many MDI empoloyees are angry that MDI sold to a company that oursources to India. In a nutshell, that is what is happening.
Get your facts straight.
Do you know how many times I went to my company and sent letters, and emails? I mean I went all the way to the TOP.. you know how many responses i got...or offers to call and discuss with the supervisors.. ZIP--NADA...and by the way, these companies should value their MTs... who do you think is doing the bulk of the work... QA and MTs while the others travel around, buy new cars, boast how they have a 6-million dollar business. YES MA'AM. An owner told he has a 6-million dollar business. Hows does that grab ya?
Get your facts straight. sm
The pay cuts were a business decision not financial problems. I make more here than I ever made anywhere else. Checks bounce? I was one of the 8 and received the letter from the bank, my fees paid, etc. Then they changed banks and there have been no problems. Lack of work? Never. Lack of pay? Never. Maybe you weren't good enough.
She said they were doing away with all ICs - I have no facts for you. You should ask your team
x
Yes, these are facts. No doubt about it.
:
Better brush up on your facts
They no longer let new hires use their own computers.
As for your opinion, to each his own. One has to simply search recent posts of these boards to find many views from those who are very unhappy at Webmedx and who state the company has declined in several ways over the last year.
My facts certainly are straight!
Be advised, Transtech certainly isn't the BEST COMPANY OUT THERE either.
Been there, done that, ain't working for me.
I don't take to kindly to companies who screw with the line counting system so that they make money and we suffer, and believe me, my facts are STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW
Maybe you should check your facts...
The last I heard there were accounts that are approximately 50% ESL and approximately 75% ESL. I seriously doubt you are on a 99.9% ESL account. If so, you must be in a world by yourself. Sorry, but I doubt it.
get your facts straight
Acusis did NOT send our work to India. The layoff was due to the loss of a major account. Acusis US work stays in the US.
and I'm saying get facts before jumping, so what?
slow down, be smart, line something up in case and research the issue.
crap happends sometimes, sometimes not. make and educated decision.
and I'm saying get facts before jumping, so what?
slow down, be smart, line something up in case and research the issue. Things happends sometimes, sometimes not. make and educated decision. That is what I would do. you would up and quit. No problem.
get your facts straight
the work is not being sent overseas....every company is going through cost cutting measures to tighten their belts...maybe if you SWATs werent gouging the company for so much hourly pay, us lowly MTs could have had a chance to get promoted??
ever think of that?
State the Facts
This is in reply to all the negative feedback regarding FutureNet. I usually do not get on these boards because of all the negative feedback, but this requires a reply. I worked for YOG for 12 years as did most of our employees here at FutureNet. I believe a lot of you know me from there and know I am honest and have a good reputation. This negative feedback being posted here is just pure junk. FutureNet values their MTs very much. That is why, if someone has not worked in 3 or 4 pay periods we give them a call to see if there is anything we can do to help. We NEVER ask them to leave a full time job to work for us. That is simply NOT TRUE. Yes, we do get low on work from time-to-time, so does every other service, but we find work for our MTs, especially those who are W2. We have been around since 1993 and have a good reputation with all our clients (abour 70) and MTs as well. Please do not listen to these negative remarks. I invite any of you who wish to do so, to email me or call me and I will be happy to discuss anything you would like to know. Again, we do appreciate our MTs and do whatever we can to keep them happy. Rita Smith
Get your facts straight, please!
There was not an earthquake in Oregon yesterday that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale with lots of damage and lots of injuries. There was not an earthquake in Oregon yesterday that measured 5.2 or 5.4 on the Richter scale either.
http://www.pnsn.org/recenteqs/
Here are facts from my experience.
I was confused with someone else. I had conversations with Carlotta, and she would say, We talked about this before. You said this previously. I told you... We hadn't. Some of the conversations were downright bizarre because apparently more than one of us complained about the same thing.
We were constantly asked to go above and beyond, and 110% wasn't good enough. Stretching was required every day. Do 100, 200, or 300 extra.
My liaison took work for herself. I would be asked to moved to a secondary, and then lo and behold a memo would come out asking for us to help extra.... only then there were no ports/reports available.
My liaison cherry picked.
QA was inconsistent and would say that the account specifics that were in writing weren't correct, and it should be done this way. Except no one bothered to correct them.
There was the crazy cat lady QA (you all probably know who that is) who talked third person through her cats in e-mails.
The final straw was when my contract was changed regarding the demands placed on the MTs, what was considered evening and weekend hours, what days I was supposed to work, and that's when I left.
It's sad to see that it is either still going on or getting worse. I know it used to be considered the elite of the elite, but something has changed, and it's not for the better. Hopefully the issues get straightened out before cronyism and the Peter Principle destroys the company.
Landmark facts
This company ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT have full service accounts. The accounts will each only have a couple of work types to type -- NOT full service. This includes acute care accounts.
This is why on the majority of accounts, the workload runs hit and miss. It varies by the time of day, day of the week.
Landmark lost a few accounts in the last 6 months and then gained a couple back. This is a repeat process for this company.
There are some accounts that show up on a very occasional basis, when the primary service needs Landmark's help.
Get Your Facts Straight
An email was sent out today- the layoffs are over now. 27 MTs, no corporate. Would like to know if that's really what you heard.
Let's face facts about SS...
While it is not fair to judge anything or anyone on the basis of unmonitored, anonymous blogs, created by a competing company in the industry who seeks only to destroy the competition, I can tell you FIRST HAND how a company like SS does not help itself in any way. As a former executive with the company, I can assure you that the rumors and speculation that goes on this blog is merely touching the tip of the iceberg of information,scandal and hipocrisy. Like a snake, the company is poisonous from the head on back to it's slithering, rattling tail. Regarding the MT's- most are fairly normal, hard-working folk whom do the work that is expected and get paid on time. A small percentage of the 200+ medical transcriptionists actually substantially exceed standards, and for that they are handsomely rewarded. The issues have always come from a tyrannical VP who plays serious favorites with certain MT's and supervisors, and several piss-poor field supervisors who seem to thrive on power and authority. Add to that a paranoid executive team that is convinced every employee is tealing from them, especially MT's who are not typing eight hours straight! I know some MT's who can do 1800 lines in 5-6 hours, but if you don't work eight hours a day, you're a thief! This mentality trickles down and out to the field, where these extremely under-trained supervisors take it out on their subordinates, supported wholly by their managers. I predict the company will be folded or sold/bought out in two-four years.
Please send her FACTS
not conjecture.
I and several friends work for CBAY. I'm not in India, I'm not Indian and neither are my friends.
FACTS. If you're going to lie, the whole point of adding validity is lost
GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE
YOU POST. You're always trying to cause trouble. I said it before and I'll say it again: IF YOU DON'T LIKE WORKING THERE, LEAVE. Stop your bellyaching. I'm sick of you complaining about low/no work; yet you insist on getting on this board every day and complain about it.
We, who do still like TT, are staying and hanging in there. This is really this first time low/no work has happened since I've been there, over 3 years.
Go away!
No, YOU need to get YOUR facts straight -- sm
They DON'T type while watching accounts (LOL)? Of course, watching the accounts needs their total, undivided attention, right?
We're going to believe that these overworked Leads will put in a full shift watching accounts (lest they be distracted, God forbid) and then put in another shift transcribing their lines? THEY MUST GET SOME BIG OVERTIME bucks being able to duplicate their efforts/hours like that.
And how would YOU know they don't take jobs away from the regular MT's? I suppose the jobs just pop out & disappear from our queues like a magician's trick ... now you see it, now you don't ... only to reappear 10-15 minutes later. (Her Holiness didn't like the dictator after running the job through audio, or maybe it was too difficult for her).
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