I am an IC, and I basically type from a pool.
Posted By: SM on 2007-05-28
In Reply to: Independent Contractor - Kim
The work is available for me to get and return in 24 hours from the time of dictation. I have come to learn when the work is there. I do all clinic though. Some companies require ICs to have set hours, but I don't think that is right.
Of course some companies will ask when you're available, but most that know the true meaning of IC do not care what hours you work as long as you get the work back in a timely manner.
I have my own accounts as well, so that would not apply as far as getting lines because I charge all different amounts. One is subcontracted, I pick-up and deliver. IC offers flexibility at least in my eyes.
I don't know anything about Tera Nova - sorry!
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did she say in a pool or in a pool to be CONTACTED?
Are you talking about MxSecure?
Could be that you are in a work pool and...sm
...work filters through chronologically in order of TAT.
It's common for companies to put 2, 3 or 4 hospitals in one work pool. Sometimes these are under the same corporate umbrella. You might have 4 hospitals run by corporation ABC - they are in different locations geographically, but in the same pool.
Typing pool
Has anybody out there been in a typing pool and always running out of work? I find it very frustrating when there is work in the pool and all of a sudden every MT is on line. By the time you finish a report almost all of the work is gone and you are screwed and not making hardly anything. Has anybody experienced this? This month has been so slow it's ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hospital, no pool, just take what's there. nm
nm
no, usually you are in a pool; if they have many specialites....
you can end up on an account where you as the new guy get the ones nobody else wants to do; that happens; I've been there.
IC, 12 or 24 TAT, work from pool when I am available?
Is this actually offered anywhere? Some days I have plenty of spare time, some days I have none. I would like something to fill the gaps. Any suggestions?
OSi. How's the work pool s/m
The recruiter assured me plenty of work, but I have heard that is not the case. Wanting to leave my current company, but can't if the $$$ isn't there.
exactly. That's why I also mentioned POOL
/
That pool thing ?
Definitely not you. Probably just the pool of We don't know what we are doing here, we need help but we can't get it through our skulls that we need to hire good MTs which would take the burden off every entity of our organization and then treat them well and pay them fairly so they will stay with us and never create this situation over and over again and time and time again of losing clients, getting new clients, hiring, overhiring, laying off or running out of work. We simply have not figured out that stopping this repetitive cycle and treating our MTs well would only cause us to be more profitable. Amazes me that I have never found a company that has figured this out. I am really surprised with all the mismanagement anyone of them stays in business. Somehow they do because we all need to work and just put up with it, I guess. Good luck to you though, its kinda crappy in this profession most days.
We don't have the pool any longer- we moved
A Mexican family. So, I'm not paying for anything. The pool installers were American and lazy, broke the filter, and took all day and night and brought theird kids to play on my swing set and requested soda. The Mexican landscapers required no water, did not ask to use my toilet, and were done in one-half day with a lot of digging and a lot of stone work that would have taken a lot longer if they didn't work as hard as they did in the blazing sun. The American installers did nothing but cuss, moan, and complain about the heat.
As far as healthcare, we'll be paying more anyway once Hillary gives everyone who can't afford healthcare, free healthcare. Too bad, Americans are too lazy to work harder and smarter. I'm all American, born and raised, and I work very hard, but hey if the foreign entity comes along (like it did on my hospital job) and says they can do it cheaper, then what can I do?
Right now, they seem to be pulling VR editors from their MT pool nm
nm
SoftScripts work pool?
Is it fairly steady? Plenty of work to go around.?
As an IC, I prefer pool work.
I have done pool work and been assigned docs and I prefer working a pool. When I was assigned docs, my lines varied so much. I never knew how much I was going to get each day. Some days I would get over 1500 lines, some days only 500. It made it very hard to plan my day as I never knew how long I was going to have to work. I never made enough money, yet I found it hard to work a second job as some weeks I would be loaded down with work from company 1 and not have time to work my commited lines for company 2, yet the following week I would get very few lines. Working a pool, I know I can get in at least 1000 lines a day every day (rarely have issues on my account with not enough work and usually do anywhere from 1500-2200). I don't have to guess how much I am going to make that day as I am in control of how many lines I take versus someone else sending the work.
Also, as soon as I get up, I can start working (like to start my day around 4 a.m. and be done around noon). I don't have to sit around wondering when my reports are going to be sent to me and waste half the day waiting when the company decides to send them at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 9 a.m.
Also, when only assigned 1 or 2 docs, if they take vacation, you are typically out of work for a week or two with little to no notice (at least in my experience). With a pool, you don't have that problem. If a doc goes on vacation, you have plenty of others to transcribe for. I also tend to get bored easily, so I prefer transcribing for multiple docs. I transcribe for about 15 docs now and I am very familiar with each of them and can transcribe over 250 lph. This would be different though if I was transcribing acute care and had 100+ docs though. But in that instance, pool work is better as it makes TAT faster.
Guess it is good that each company does it different so we can each find what works for us.
Throw a VR back into the pool?
My company has stated if this were the case, you could be terminated. I do not like to straight type anymore so definitely would not want to throw away a VR report.
so..basically
what I've gathered..
- MT, like most other professions, is unpredictable.
- It is possible to make 25k, but not common.
- Formal training with a program such as Career Step is not a requirement, but it would be an asset.
- There are other ways for me to become educated in the field besides a formal program.
- And, finally, you get out of it what you put into it.
I appreciate the advice and insight from all of you. I will take into consideration when making my decision. Thanks again.
Basically the same goes for me
The local physicians I work for require me to keep all the notes I transcribe. They're all stored by date. If I didn't keep them, they'd have a lot of missing files. Don't ask me what they do with them, but I print the reports directly to their printers and it never fails (twice today in fact) they're looking for the notes. Sometimes they're looking for notes that I typed 6 months ago.
Basically I'm saying
that if you don't get anywhere with your supervisor, if it bugs you that much and you are suffering for it, go to their supervisor.
quarterly bonus from company pool?
Anyone here work for a company that offers a quarterly bonus that comes from a pool set aside by the company and the transcribers who qualify for the bonus, split it at the end of the quarter? Just wondering, if any, are you bonus checks worth the hassle? Are they decent checks? Thanks for all replies.
I know the MTs that work this acct. load them from a pool. However, sm
I think that is a very good idea - batching docs and/or specialties together. I wonder why they don't do that, and I am going to ask! Thanks! If you saw my post above, there are a total of 37 specialties on my list, made up of approx. 4-5 docs in each specialty, so I'm looking at learning well over 100 doctors in only 40 hrs. of training? That's a joke.
Have 3 primaries and then go into the pool rarely, but always have work sm
You get 20 different accounts every day? I feel for you. In the beginning of last year, I was doing as many as 15 accounts. Since at least November, I rarely go into the pool. Maybe you can switch accounts?
Ha! This is what dropped into my pool of its own accord. It was a "pocket" and that happens s
I am NO ONE'S PET.
Fair? Just curious, why does all the work in a pool go to
the same people and some don't get anything except what they can scrap up? Just curious about this
My guess is someone messed up the pool scripts sm
which determines how the work is routed. I had work until about 1 on my primary and then moved over to my secondary and scraped together the last 200 lines. For the last 3 weeks I have been running out on my primary at 9:30 in the morning.
Years ago I worked for PHNS and it was a pool - sm
which I don't know if that is what you do, or if it is assigned doctors who you do the same ones day in and day out. But when I first started I only had PT in my pool, then I ASKED for more work to expand my horizons and obviously to make more money as PT would run out from time to time. I ended up probably with 300+ doctors in my work pool, more than enough work to go around then. As CB says above, you need to go and ask for more, it is the only way you are going to get enough work.
I am in a pool... see inside for the boring details :)
When I started with TRS I was a 36-year clinical-only MT, and the reason I took the job with TRS was, among other things, the fact that they offered to up-train me into acute care. (In fact I applied at Transcend just before I applied at TRS and they said no thanks, don't call us and we won't call you, and they wouldn't even let me TRY the freakin' TEST, so I find it mildly amusing that now they've got me anyway.)
But I digress. Anyway... at first I was assigned to a somewhat-limited pool on a large hospital account (an account that was brand-new to TRS and in fact I think we stole it from 'the Q') and all I was doing to start with was discharge summaries and letters. Well, once I got used to all the different voices, I started begging for at least some consults and H & Ps because even though I had only done 'clinical' before, I had done literally thousands of excruciatingly-detailed consults and H & Ps for internal medicine, hematology-oncology, orthopedics, and a few others I can't think of right now, over the years.
Then, apparently because I could actually do the work (plus I got kicked off the usual 1-month mentoring full-QA program after only 10 days, because it was mostly a waste of their time to full-QA me), they started trying me on another account, which I was later told was the VERY HARDEST account TRS had in its inventory, and before long I was in the 'all-work pool.'
So now the 'hard' account is my primary, the original account (still with only discharge summaries and letters) is my secondary, and I also have a tertiary (which fortunately I don't get hit with very often because it has REALLY CRAPPY sound 'quality', scratchy phone lines or something) on which I seem to be on just consults, progress notes, discharge summaries, and H & Ps.
I am told that the 'goal' at Transcend is to have everyone working something like 80% on their primary account, with the other 20% on secondary and tertiary, with no more than 3 accounts (except perhaps in extraordinary circumstances), mostly so there would be fewer account instructions to keep track of.
I can't find out how many physicians practice at the hospital that is my primary account (short of manually counting them) but it is a 350-bed hospital where they do pretty much everything. Just on a rough guess, there might be around 100 dictators I run into. A certain number of RNs and PAs dictate in addition to the doctors.
They keep me on that 'hardest' account because I am actually pretty good at deciphering most of it. Of course there are a couple of real 'problem children' still, and they usually have as many blanks after QA gets done with them as they did when I gave up on them, so that makes me feel better.
Not only that... our people are very proactive about actually talking to the clients to try to resolve problems. One of the worst dictators was just recently talked to and she has gotten a whole lot better. I e-mailed the liaison to report that, and asked them to please pass the word along that this doctor's dictation had indeed gotten a lot better and we, the poor saps at the other end of that phone line, really and truly appreciate her efforts....
Anyway. I had better get back to the work that is actually available this morning....
Anything else anybody wants to know, just ask, and I'll try to answer as best I can. :)
Basically happy with MQ.
Line counts okay, too.
It basically means that
you will qualify to submit your finished documents directly to the facility (hospital, doctor's office, etc.) that the account is for instead of having all of your documents go through QA first. I honestly cannot remember what the initials stand for...it's Direct Submission...something...lol.
Where I am it goes basically by what you are paid - sm
The more you make the harder the dictators, though my manager does try to give an equal balance to it all and not nail you will all bad dictators in one day. She assigns out the work (no pool here) and certain awful ones get rotated between a few of us, some I get to avoid completely as others are very proficient at those particular doctors, and ditto for them. I do some docs others hate, but I like to do, and they like some of the docs I hate. On rare occasion I ask her to not give me anyone too awful as I am sick or very tired and she tried to do so, but only if she can. I don't make a habit out of doing that. But absolutely no one except the newbies get easy stuff on a consistant basis. Kind of stinks in a way, but as I said I usually get a 50/50 mix so it is not too bad. That is what your manager should do, and not play blatent favorites, that totally stinks.
That is basically the same conversation i had with them...
Said they would send me info..i got 2 wacked out samples and i asked about acct specifics and they are confused as to what exactly i want. Seems pretty disorganized to me as well!! Thanks for letting me know...much appreciated
You and me both. I basically just clean up
for brand spanking new MTs at one-third of their line rate. Depressing. But am making a little money while looking for other jobs.
I think all of these companies are basically the
when someone replies? No one is anywhere for charity anymore. Everyone has their hand in the pot these days. That is just part of life. If you think for one minute you are going to ask about a company and only receive positives, you're in for a big disappointment. Why not try the company out for yourself if you are just going to defend them anyway? It does not hurt to try, but from what I read here, there are MTs who have tried and they were not impressed. SoftScript has an advertisement almost every week, so what does that tell you? Rapid expansion? That is a big MAYBE in my opinion. Different strokes for different folks. Good luck on whatever you decide including posting here or other boards. LOL 
Right. That's what the article said, basically.
That all correct English is the same, wherever the country:
English in India may have a British hangover but by no means is it vastly different from American English or any other correct English for that matter.
She expects Indians working for American countries to have excellent English ... like hers. If only our visitor could write like that, we wouldn't be appalled.
Its odd, but they are basically a middle man, which
I personally didn't like. It was frustrating at times. Also, in my experience, we got the bottom of the barrel work from the hospital, even more than usual for a national. The pay was low at 8 cpl, which I understand is still the current pay, so I'm sure DiskR gets a big hunk of what the hospital is really paying. Obviously, I know, its business, but it seemed odder than the usual set up of working for a national. I found it would have been more pleasant just working for the hospital, because you are 100% an employee of the hospital and not Diskriter. I just did not care for the whole atmosphere, lots of cherry picking and more than usual politics, but nobody really to turn to, as the hospital didn't want to know from beans, and DR had its own issues. Very much a stuck in the middle feeling...but not a good one.
This is basically the reason that we have never....sm
been able to attain professional status as language specialists. I did try QA for a while after many years as an MT but could not believe the poor quality of the work I was seeing. It made me ill! This never would have been tolerated back in the day. No one would have even dared to apply for a position as an MT if they, at a minimum, couldn't pass a simple grammar test. Even the simple things as in this case,there vs their, tense errors, just no basic English (American) language skills. I do not see it getting better unless people are required to show they know the basics before they are hired.
Which basically reads is
that the sorority sisters at AAMT don't care about you, never did.
Basically, same experience...
I worked there for a while as an employee doing ER reports. I basically had the same experience as you regarding management pressure and unexplained line count deficiencies.
Regarding Karen, there was an MT on my account with this name. The manager that we had for ER accounts was a new manager who came over from Medware (I think that was the name) and Karen was a pet who followed her over from there. There were a lot of people who followed that manager, and, of course, they were the ones who always had work when work ran low. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of those pets. I ended up leaving and I'm very happy that I did. 
But basically you are only speaking for yourself
I read your posting above and wondered if you dislike it so much, why do it? Is there not another job you can do besides this because the way it looks most companies are headed towards VR. I will make almost $190 today on the VR I work on and I am totally loving it. I would not be unhappy if I did not, would find another business.
Basically, does she owe anyone else money? nm
nm
We worked out of a pool, and when a report came up from a cruddy dictator (sm)
they would hit "1" and send it back to the pool so the next Transcriptionist would get it. It was so obvious, as soon as you went on in the morning the first few reports you got would be from the most God-awful ESLs and you can see that they were dictated the previous day, but then all of a sudden you start getting jobs that were dictated just an hour before.
Friend of mine cleared out pool for incentive - never got it
and now theyve bounced her fourth or fifth check. She's been gone for months and they're STILL messing with her
Do any companies let you specialize rather than work out of a huge pool? nm
nm
Not to be referred to as a "scribe" or "typist" or "typing pool." nm
x
WEBMEDX- Assigned acct or pool and how is the platform?
ds
I talked to a Transolutions MT and basically
she was happy with the company. I try to find out as much as I can about a company when I interview, just to file away for future reference. She was looking for part-time work, and actually said she would recommend them. So.......who knows?
I was basically just looking at the ads that are posted. Maybe it is better to place my own ad to
get a response other than the companies that are always posting.
so basically no platform. thanks that helps a lot.
nm
you just basically gave the same answer .sm
which is not good enough. Someone's credit could be shot BECAUSE OF SOMEONE ELSE. Then what?
Ignore it. If they are just basically e-mailing
do not feel compelled to answer an e-mail that has other MT names in it. If it is directed right at you, then answer when you get the chance. Don't feel nailed to the computer.
Now if they are using IM, that is a different story. Instant messenger is control in my honest opinion and as an IC should not be part of the deal.
If you know your accounts in and out you may want to stay and just ignore some of the e-mails that get you hot and bothered.
I also am an IC for an online company that does mass e-mails when there is work to be done, but it is not directed right at me but to all MTs on that particular account. I do not feel the need to answer each and every e-mail unless I am the only addressee. Of course, you may not know if they are blind copying, but just my opinion.
Company basically run out of India.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ummmm...all your complaints are basically
While I understand your beefs with the industry, including dictators' quality, its been this way forever and ever. I've been MTing professionally for 25 years now, and my elders before me said things were always this way, back to when the doctors actually dictated in person with the MT taking notes on a steno pad. Every item is the same, including our pay rate! LOL. I find it a challenging career, but would never stay if I made anything near 15K. Despite all the challenges, shaky companies, etc., I still always minimum hit $35K. Not trying to brag, but have no idea how or why you would stick around for that poverty level income. Surely something else would better suit you, even for a short while til retirement? Here's wishing you a Happier New Year.
It's basically a crap shoot, IMO
It sounds like you have a good impression of both companies, but the one seems to be more organized than the other. Go with your gut. I find that's a tactic that usually works well for me.
Good luck. Hope whichever one you choose you end up liking it there.
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