I can't paint worth a you-know-what but I'm in on that Caribbean crap selling gig ... let's

• Note about the MTs making lots of money - sm - Jill
  • I agree! - JenniMT
  • Not everyone can get in the "zone" - sm
    • Are you still ill? - MTHeaded
    • Yes, everyone can get in the zone. - JustMe
      • KMA - nm
      • I respectfully disagree s/m - Gourd Painter
        • Jill put nail on head - Captain anesthesia
        • Gourdpainter - JustMe
          • Singing - Gourd Painter
            • Painter of Gourds... - I'm not trying to be mean, but...
              • I'm not trying to be mean either - Gourd Painter
                • I don't think Gourdpainter is mean at all - JustMe
            • Retirement - JustMe
    • I'm very sorry for you - sm - Jill
      • I have been an MT for a very long time - see message
    • My goodness - HappyMT
      • HappyMT - JustMe
  • Naysaying - Gourd Painter
    • I have been doing this for over 30 years .. I made more in 1983 than I do now . sm - ltmt
      • Hello to my Twin MT - SO
      • I can't paint worth a you-know-what but I'm in on that Caribbean crap selling gig ... let's - midwestMT
        • I'm a midwest MT too (Kansas) ... but my gourd painting skills are definitely lacking too. :( n - ltmt
      • Hey, now there's an idea!!!! s/m - Gourd Painter
        • Ugh .. sorry to hear about the migraine. Hope you feel better soon. sm - ltmt
          • Crabbing - Gourd Painter
            • Maybe we should open a margarita stand too .... sm - ltmt
              • Marguaritas - Gourd Painter
                • Are you familar with War Eagle? sm - ltmt
                  • YES! s/m - Gourd Painter
  • I couldn't agree more!! Bravo! - TS MT
    • Me too. You work, you make money. SM - MissIndigo

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

Or just about anything else.  Too poor to retire and can't think of another field to get into.  But best wishes to all of y'all who DO get to leave MT and move on to something else! 

I don't paint everything with the same brush either.  Just as there are good people and bad people, I'm sure there are good MTSOs and bad MTSOs.  I think part of the problem has come about with the greed (or survival) if you want to call it that.  Let's say back maybe 20-30 years ago when MTSOs first gave medical facilities an option to deal with the fact that it was almost impossible to recruit qualified MTs.  Up until maybe 10 years ago one couldn't pick up a newspaper in any town big enough to support a hospital where the classified ads weren't begging for MTs. I travel a fair amount and always look at the classifieds and I haven't seen an ad for MTs in several years in ANY newspaper classified. 

The MTSOs were able to fill a gap.  They would pay whatever bonuses were necessary, often 2-3x usual pay rates to get the work out and MTs would crank it out.  The TAT as I recall was 24 hours for H&Ps unless they were stat.  DS, if I remember anywhere close to accurately, the TAT was something like 4 days.  Then more MTSOs came on board and in order for them to get in the action they offered shorter TAT with the argument that faster TAT meant faster $$$.  It got to the point it was and IS ridiculous.  Would a hospital go bankrupt if they didn't get their DSs within 3 minutes?  I doubt it. 

Next, we had the biiiiig MTSOs swallowing up the smaller ones until there are hardly any mom and pop MTSOs left.  Either they could sell out or be put out of business because there was no way they could compete.  Just like the big box stores, the big MTSOs can probably be profitable on maybe a 2% profit margin (volume), something that is totally impossible for a small MTSO.  I know this because I have been on both sides of the fence.  During my career I have worked for many hospitals and many MTSOs, some good, some not.  I never worked in a hospital where the facility and the medical staff did not appreciate and have great respect for their MTs and treat them with respect and dignity.

Then we have the MT training programs.  Again, probably good and bad.  We've all seen the ads that promise people they can take a short course and make $30,000 annually right out of the chute.  We all know better.  We all spent our blood, sweat and tears learning to be professional, COMPETENT MTs.  We all know that it takes a person generally in the neighborhood of 5 years to become proficient.  It takes a physician much longer yet we are expected to speak the language of medicine fluently in a relatively short period of time.  I cannot count the number of calls I have received and still receive from people who have taken this or that MT course and have never been able to find employment.  I tell them that the best I can do is give them a place where they can get an extensive list of MT companies who if they beg and plead MIGHT allow them to test and if they test and pass they MIGHT be offered a job.  I don't have the heart to tell them after spending their money to educate themselves, they would likely make more flippin' burgers.    I also have people asking me all the time how they can get into the MT business.  I have one word for them......DON'T.

Maybe MTs shouldn't go back so far as to be primma donnas as they were in the past but good grief!  MTs and medical records have always been non-revenue producing departments in medical facilities but for MTSOs MTs ARE the revenue producers.  It's kinda like killing the geese that lay the golden eggs.

I've seen the incompetence in medical records, including some of my family's records that have had to be corrected. We've all made mistakes because we are human but when someone transcribes pot of orange, it doesn't take much to see that person doesn't have a clue and the quality HAS sufffered because of inexperienced people trying to make a living under the most nefarious conditions.  I, for one, can't fault people for worrying about paying the rent and feeding their kids!

I know it is off topic but cool, I wish I was an artist.  I might get into making jewelry and try to sell that.  I love artsy stuff. 

Oh, by the way, I got tired too of not being paid to sit and stare at a screen and I did find something waaaay better.  Still work at home, but for a local hospital, very small, no VR at all, they don't like it.  Better benefits, better pay, better perks, better situation all the way around. 

So, anyone out there miserable, yes, look.  You would be surprised of what you can find.  There is life beyond the nationals.  

Do what I did and just send or email resumes out to every single thing you see.  The final choice is up to you, just listen to what each has to offer and if no good, go onto the next one.  Send to local places you would not even think twice about.  Local hospitals, small local transcription companies, even insurance companies who don't outsource hire transcriptionists.  Just try anything and everything.   

Seek and ye shall find.  Well, I did anyway. 

I would like to thank everyone who has responded to my posts in a nice way.    My presence here seems to stir much dissension which is not and never has been my intent.   I post on a number of forums that are of interest to me and never in all my days have I seen such HATEFUL, SPITEFUL people as some who post here.

To the friends I have met here, please stay in touch via email.

I wish all of you (even the hateful posters) the best. 

Has anyone out there heard anything about medquist selling the company??

Thanks for any info.

Can you email me your contact info?

Thanks.

The few I've seen that have been computer generated look utterly different than the way we typed 'em.  Actually its pretty infuriating that all the things that QA picked at us about have just been thrown out the window along with our jobs.  Obviously the facility never gave a hoot about consistent report format, BOS rules, etc.  Its demoralizing  that we worked so hard to make those reports perfect and now the facility gladly accepts messy garbage from a computer in order not to pay us, and the heck with patient care and accuracy.  The computer won't save their butts when they say the wrong thing in a report - the error will just stand as dictated.  I hope they enjoy presenting those documents in court for all the lawsuits they'll get down the road - and I'm sure it'll cost them more in court costs than it did to pay us.

Why is it that they'd rather pay ANYBODY - IT people, lawyers, wronged patients, etc. than to pay an MT?

take that as truth.  I know I certainly did not.  There are schools that cannot get you a foot in the door, let alone promise that you can make those amounts.

Then there are schools like Career Step who have information about grads who did/do make that amount...but they don't promise it and have never promised that their grads would make that wage. 

It is very possible, but for a lot of us, it's not. We cannot really blame that on the schools. We need to blame ourselves and the companies for the the 5-7 cents a line that we settle for because, like all families, we need to feed our children and pay our bills.

I see it with colleges. You can make this much in this field, you can make that much in that field. It all depends on where you work, how productive you are, what state you are in, tons of factors. Same is true with MT, too many factors.

Nothing is ever promised, especially in this line of work.

I am just happy to have a job that I love, that I am able to have the opportunity to stay at home with my young daughter, have deductions come tax season. 

Hey, I made more waitressing than I did doing transcription my first year, but does that mean I want to go back to waitressing? Not a chance.  I could have made more at McDonalds, in fact, but do I want to deal with that crap?  Not really. 

I am thrilled about being an MT and would not trade it for the world and certainly didn't buy into the get rich scheme that a lot of those schools throw our way. 

It's a shame that schools have to use that as a way to get people to attend, but it works..and let me tell you, I have plenty of people that have never ever done transcription that tell me what a cake job my job is, you've all heard it before.. I CAN DO THAT, ALL YOU DO IS TYPE

...and THOSE are the people that get backed into the corner by these schools thinkin that this is going to be something that they just type and can throw out lines like crazy and make that $40,000 a year....because we all know, MT is EASY... psshhh.  Those schools should have to provide proof and stats.

who says you must not be very good, are slacking, etc. when someone complains about their company.  I worked for KS and there were whole weeks where there was no work on one of my accounts.  They account was an overflow account only, which I wasn't told about when I was hired, and if things were slow then we didn't get any work. 

Just because you are overwhelmed with work on your account, doesn't mean another account isn't slow.  We have been on daily OT for months with my current company, but this week we are running out of work, most likely due to the holiday.  But prior to the OT there were accounts with very little work, with other accounts having more work than there were MTs trained for the account.   Just because someone doesn't have work doesn't mean they are a bad MT and I think even saying it when you don't know the facts reflects very badly on you.