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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I would immediately eliminate Focus.

Posted By: me on 2009-04-14
In Reply to: Need info on these companies please! - JB

It is Indian run, low pay, and constant turnover.   I haven't heard much good about Diskriter either, though certainly better than Focus.  KS is good for some, not for others.  It wasn't a good fit for me.  Axolotol pays better than any of them, better benefits.   The account they are hiring for has a high percentage of very challenging ESL dictators.  The company itself is great though. 




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Focus Infomatics - Experienced MT's Needed Immediately!
I work for Focus and Bobbi is the HR lady not a manager. I spoke to her when I applied and she is very nice. Also, editing is 4 cents a line, not 3.

I've been with Focus for several months now and enjoy it. I always have lots of work and get paid on time.
VR won't eliminate the MT
As long as MTs continue to do the editing. I mean, why pay 12+ cpl for the MT to do it all, when you can pay less than that for one person do the typing (jab at overseas) and the US MT can handle the editing.

>>>In time, though, I believe it is totally possible that the software will become so efficient that even the VR jobs will be few.

As I said before, only if it is trained correctly. And I decide to log times and production this morning to show people what I'm talking about. I dictated and proofed between 4:15 and 5:45 a.m. I'm getting paid for 636 lines.

And that's with straight dictation. I never went beyond that point, although there is WAY MORE you can do with the product. There's nothing that can be done on the keyboard that I can't do with this product.



The more the system tries to eliminate MTs I think the more they (sm)

the more the system finds they really need the human touch in order to have a document worth the money for doctors to walk into court with.


 


However, I will say this.  As we go into this depression -- and trust me we are there -- businesses have learned they don't have to CARE.  They don't have to care about the health or well being of their employees -- and they are showing them the door rather than being decent about a work place.


 


So, they may find they need us humans in the chain of medicine - I think the courts will more and more not see law suits because nobody can afford to bring the charges.  We will all be out here just struggling to keep body and soul together.  Sad what has happened.


Are they going to eliminate the 12-hour
and going to a straight 8-hour shift or are they just requesting that you clock in and out as needed during the 12-hour window?


I think what they are doing is trying to eliminate QA jobs
I have been here for years and we have always had tons of work in QA. Lately, since they have become so hot and heavy with ISR (Intelligent? speech recognition - HARDLY!) that they are trying to get the MTs to stop using QA, there has been virtually no work in IQA. They want to make us all MT editors and pay us all peanuts.

I have seen the work that goes back to the clients and believe me, Webmedx is nowhere near good enough to send less than 7% of its work to IQA.

The clients are already complaining about quality. What do they think that bypassing IQA is going to accomplish? It just might get them a lawsuit because of some patient care error going through because an MT guessed at a medication or a dosage so that she didn't get dinged for sending the report to IQA.

I hope all companies who are trying this tactic get bit in the behind by this. Just one more way they are trying to take a penny out of our pockets to put in theirs!
Assign doctors and eliminate cp. I know, I know, it definitely would take some
additional managerial involvement but IMHO it would be a w/w situation. Happy transcriptionists, more dollars, happy happy happy
Stated Goal: Eliminate MTs this decade

Most are already aware (it is pretty obvious), but because some still refuse to open their eyes, I am posting the below from the Nuance website.  It is actually a timeline of the Dictaphone Corporation's history, which is pretty interesting and goes back to Alexander Graham Bell.


Still, I find it noteworthy that they state in no uncertain terms that they want to "eliminate most manual transcription for healthcare in North America this decade."


"A major development took place in February 2006 when Burlington-Massachusetts-based Nuance Communications announced that it would acquire Dictaphone in a cash deal worth $357 million. In a news release Nuance Chairman and CEO Paul Ricci commented on the acquisition, which was completed by the end of March, stating: 'The combined resources, experience and talents of Nuance and Dictaphone will help accelerate the adoption of speech recognition to eliminate most manual transcription for healthcare in North America this decade, delivering over $5 billion in savings to care facilities and transcription service organizations.'


Under new parentage, Dictaphone was named a division of Nuance--the Dictaphone Healthcare Solutions division--and Schwager was named its president.


I think you are right. Eliminate cost. Be more competitive. Save profit margin.
x
Focus, focus, focus on your work. It's amazing what you can do! nm
x
Are you saying that you are immediately
no message
You will get set up immediately with
no problems and they are the best company I have worked for as far as helping solve problems immediately.
The one immediately above us. nm
 
I would be looking for another job immediately...sm
Good luck on the matter.
Sure, we will all email you immediately. Are you really
ewwwwww!!
If it was me, I would have told them no way immediately. nm
You showed great restraint.
I quit immediately.
You got paid for the straight typing, no templates.

They advertise quite a lot and that's probably the reason why!
Need ananswer immediately, please!!
On Friday of last week,  I drove almost 100 miles to an interview that was supposed to be a subcontractor position.  I was asked to come in for the day and type some reports to get familiar with the account and to see if I wanted to do it.  I drove the 100 miles, typed for the company.  Keeping in mind that I was a subcontractor and could work and quit when I wanted, I decided to give it a try.  As soon as I got home, she called and wanted me to work on Saturday to get the hospital caught it. So, I transcribed on Saturday.  Then, I received a call on Sunday requesting that I type.  So, I typed on Sunday.   I got phone calls all day yesterday, Monday, pleading that I work and the hospital is seeing that I am logged on, but no work is coming in.  The work was not coming in because I received Japanese/Chinese discent dictators and it literally took me an hour a report.  I received calls all day long.  To work, change things,  work more, and I was told now that I was their go-to girl and needed me to work, work, work.  I could not log off because I would get calls.  So, today, which is Tuesday,  their system broke down and when they finally fixed it, guess what, they needed me to work an additional 8 hours.  This was after I got up early to work, but due to their system break down, I was hours behind.  After listening to 3 messages on my answering machine, I sent an email telling her I have accepted another position.    Four hours after I sent her the email, she called me up and asked why I was not working for her and that she is going to lose her account.  I asked her if she got my email.  SHE SAID SHE GOT MY EMAIL, BUT DID NOT REALIZE I WAS NOT WORKING FOR HER ANYMORE.  How ridiculous is this?  She said she needed me to log on now because I was her go-to girl and she was going to lose her account.  I am exhaused, but she needs me until Friday or she will lose her account.  I am a subcontractor.  Also, I signed no papers and she could shaft me for my money if I stay. WHAT SHOULD I DO?  SHOULD I LOG IN AND WORK UNTIL FRIDAY AND HOPE SHE PAYS ME OR JUST MOVE ON?  She sounded desperate, but she has worked me out all ready.
I quit immediately, too.
It won't be a blip on the radar of D's sell-out, unfortunately, but at least I know I did the right thing for myself and my belief system/ethics.

Congratulations to us, and anyone else who is in a position to do the same!
I'd see a red flag immediately if a company sm
waited a year to test me. From everything you said, it sounds like this company is desperately trying to fill a quota of US MTs to land/keep this account. Anyone born in the USA would do. If you were sincere in not wanting to work for companies that offshore, you should say so clearly right at the start and not go through all the traveling, testing, and ironing! I'm sorry this turned out to be such a negative for you. Best to do research beforehand.


I heard back immediately

 I got a one sentence email saying I didn't have enough experience. Must be pretty difficult work. I have been typing all work types for 19 years, especially psych and radiology..the two on the list. I have also done ESL in every job I have ever been employed. Oh well, asked her to keep my name in the barrell!


 


 


start immediately to think about ESLs........
nm
I too made quota immediately
!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was immediately offered a position with

Webmedx after the interview.   I didn't have to test based on my experience and score on the verbal testing. 


If you applied through TransHealth they still seem to be operating as two separate companies and dealing with a different group of people.  I applied to them before the merge and I never heard from them after submitting my resume. 


Stop typing immediately....and see what happens.
They'll be blowing your phone up. Tell them, when they put your check in the bank, you'll start back typing, because you don't type for free. They gave you a date you will get paid and they should honor that. In the meantime, be looking for something else.
You are right. I am going to implement this title immediately. Thank you very much! nm
nm
All of you should stop working immediately so that they can see how valuable
you are. Let them work it out then.
docking $10 per report for mistakes. I immediately sent in
p
This discussion will cease immediately. You are WAY off base. We do not

cater to any company in the manner you describe just because a company may be a sponsor.  The reason that we remove content about ANY company is when posters use this site as a sounding board of their complaints posting to the point where the thread flames.  At that point, I will remove the thread and tell posters to take discussion to email until things settle down. 


If you have problems with a company, you need to take it up with them. Sounding off on this forum about the inner workings of any company is innapropriate.  Posters need to use tact when posting.


Many of you know me well enough by now that I would not remove posts just because some MTSO tells me to.


Administrator
MTStars


mine post immediately as soon as I end the document.
x
Find another job immediately - Not a good situation. Been there, done that. nm
nm
I corrected it immediately in my lower post....nm
nm
and was emailed immediately that the position had been filled, ad is now gone..hmm (nm)
asdf
Do the MQ firm scheduled start immediately or in January? nm
nm
Depends. If you're hourly, you acrue immediately!
x
I was told hourly start to accrue PTO immediately...
production employees after 1 year. BUT - that doesn't mean you can't take a vacation, just that you don't get paid. When I worked a factory job some years ago, you didn't get any vacation the first year - paid or unpaid!
I heard Back Immediately - Posted by Blossom
I am not at all surprised to hear this, as this has also happened to me. I was given some insight into this by an HR representative for one of the major companies...Many of the experienced MT/QA's do not view the AAMT-BOS as an absolute bible. This was meant as a guideline, but many companies embrace as if it is written gospel. Apparently, the most of experienced QA/MT's remember the times when we were actually paid, and if the lack of work was due to their fault, we were paid for downtime. I guess us old-timers have to just lay down and die because we are too old to retrain in another field.
Contact your state labor board immediately!
x
I just Googled SmartMed and immediately got info on Summit..(sm)
Good luck!
When you leave a company, is your insurance canceled immediately?

I'm assuming I'll still be getting my premium taken out of my check up to the end, so does the insurance go til the end of the month?  Want to make sure my daughter's dentist visit in Oct is covered, and 2 weeks notice would put me into October but I wonder if I should wait until after her appt for my last day.  Does anyone know? 


Oh yeah.... I got a new job!!!  I got a new job!!!


        


Mine posts immediately, but the count is wrong. nm
nm
We shred all resumes with typos immediately w/o responding. sm
You would be surprised how many resumes that we receive have errors in them, both spelling and grammar. I am not a transcriptionist, so I am not overly picky about grammar, but at least spellcheck your resume. At least half of the resumes that we receive have spelling errors.

The emails count too. If you do not proof your email when I applying for a job, how do we know you will be more careful when transcribing?

At least 10% of the emails I receive have either no capitalization or no punctuation. I disgard those too. Someone who is too lazy to capitalize the first word of a sentence or use punctuation in an email applying for a position probably is too lazy to proof their work when transcribing.

This is not meant to be cruel, but it is the truth. The image you project when applying for a job is very important, even if not face-to-face.
One word for them..UNPROFESSIONAL. I applied and immediately tested
as they were in a big hurry to have someone hired so I dropped everything, tested, and then NOTHING.. I emailed numerous times asking if they had received my test but they could not even respond to that. The testing was easy and so I just could never figure out why they could not at least say they hired someone else or whatever the reason. I just find them extremely unprofessional (initials KB) if I remember right. I would never work for someone so unorganized anyway.
I e-mailed them and responded back almost immediately, offered low pay. 45 minute interview. nm
nm
Thought TX was "at will" employment?? or fire/quit immediately w/o reason
x
Hopefully, you will hear back. Unfortunately, I immediately heard back from MD-IT
but somehow with over 16 years of experience, I blew the test.  I was soooo disappoionted and yet pretty stunned.  I am by no means perfect but I haven't flunked a test in years.  I expected it in my early years but not this far down the road. I was so confident and they will not tell you which part you did not pass and why so it really just blew my mind.  I must have been in shock for like two hours after I got the email. Oh well, someone will want me....hopefully.  I was thinking about OSi but I don't think I could take another rejection if I never heard back. 
Focus. sm
I worked for Focus doing editing and was not happy with the company. I applied for a transcription postion and was hired on the spot for an editing position.  Little did I know that I was editing work from India, which did not sit well with me.  I was using the Netcare platform and hated it.  I could not work for this company knowing that they were sending their work overseas and taking away our US jobs - but I had many good laughs while editing of what was actually dicated from the doctors and what was transcribed by the people in India. 
Focus

No, I did not until I was hired. I live in Mass and their offices are also in Mass. I applied through an ad in the local paper.  When I met with them at their offices, I was told I would be transcribing for a local hospital account and also doing some editing, which was not the case when all was said and done.  I never did do any transcribing and lasted only a short time doing editing.  I agree that the line counts differ from your own and is something to be careful with when working for this company. 


Focus
I have worked in transcription for 8 years at local offices and just have started working with Focus.  I have trouble not having jobs available during the hours that I agreed to work.  I was given the impression I was taking an editing position but so far have only done transcription. Please give me names of good companies to work for.
Focus
If you visit their website, it says they are based in Mass with offices all over the US. I could not find anything about India anywhere on their website. They may be Indian, but I was hard pressed to find that info. Also, if you Google them you will get negative posts about them being an Indian company (all from this site), but I have yet to see anyone actually back that up with concrete evidence. I guess you'll just have to decide for yourself. They wouldn't be the only company that is Indian anyway. There are companies that advertise on this site that outsource.
FOCUS, RUN AWAY
I worked for them and most of the office staff is Indian and they treat their employees horribly. They cut the all the editors pay. Most of the accounts are have horrible dictators. You can't make any money. They don't respect the MTs/editors.
RUN AWAY FROM FOCUS
They treat their employees terribly. The office staff is mostly Indian and they have no respect for their employees. I would not recommend working there. I know, I USED to work for them.