It is a sticky mess with no resolution to the pay problem.
Posted By: sm on 2007-07-22
In Reply to: Davis Transcription new owners? - Me
If anyone at this point thinks things have gotten better or different, just let it be known that you were warned!
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New Year's Resolution
This MT's New Year's resolution is to interview with many companies, do enough research and work really really hard to find a company or companies which will give me and my family a full paycheck. I have several accounts where I am now, and they are all 0 work for quite a while now. The work straggles in but they have overhired so much lately that it is unfair to all of the new people and all of the existing people that there is just enough work to fight over.
Tis not the season to be vultures to pick at bare bones, tis the season to resolve to not let this happen again to ourselves, that is I won't let this happen to me and the others on my team in which the overhiring has taken place should do the same... any suggestions of multiple companies to work for which can provide all checks combined 1 good paycheck would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to know about Encompass, Transcription Relief Services, and any other place which may be an honest and up-front place to work. Thank you in advance for helping me to fulfill this New Year's Resolution.
Its great you posted the resolution
And it was good that they let you keep the first check as well.
offshore sticky ad on your site
The advertisement you have for Quality Med Transcription that links to Talisman has offices in India and they offshore work?
I understand the importance of advertising on the site - but should be mandatory to note that offshore is done by company as part of their description in the ad. Just my opinion.
We may not have had to type on sticky paper
but MTs breaking into this business have their own set of challenges. I am a little tired being looked down on as a new MT, only 5 years, because it is so much easier. I beg to differ.
I went to school to be an MT. I have under my belt a 2-year Associates degree in Medical Transcription and a CareerStep class. I was hired by a national company who promised me a constant account with 2 backups, and I did not lie about my experience. I was at goal my first day of traning and have always had QA scores above the required average.
In return, I went to work and printed sample after sample after sample as we had over 100 doctors in my primary account alone. I learned new voices, new ways of pronouncing medications, and that some people still use kilograms as a unit of measurement. I faithfully made note of every blank I left and its correction so it would not be a blank again. I studied not only transcription but the other doctors names, specialties, area hospitals, local physicians, nursing homes, lakes and recreational facilities, highway and route numbers, and pretty much every possible place a person could work in the area.
My secondary account did not get as much attention initially, but 6 months after I started, my account was yanked and sent to India (where they no doubt know more about US geography than I do), so I repeated the process over again. So far I had made it a year and learned clinic notes, routine procedures (sometimes called OP notes), consultations, and ER transcription.
I had not lied about my experience, but it really didn't matter because one day I woke up, went to work, and was getting discharge summaries from a teaching hospital that I have never heard of. I was told that since I am doing so well that it was time to move on. LOL...it was more like no other team in the company could type that account so we got it. I typed it, cried, and typed it some more. Pretty soon, I was literally not making enough money to pay my bills after I paid my health insurance. I was not making my quota, which I had always regularly exceeded, and I was worried that I was going to lose my job for not producing. By the way, I am at a whopping 6.5 cents a line at this point.
I went looking for a job. I was recruited by a smaller MTSO by their president. He said that they were very supportive, like one big happy family, and they jump on a conference every month just to hash out any issues they have. I even got a 1 cpl raise. WOW...but, I am 3 months short of your 2-year minimum exeperience requirement. (I didn't lie).
I got the job anyway, and after 3-1/2 years, I have never jumped on a big ole conference call or had the opportunity to hash out any issues. Since being there, I have learned 10 accounts (repeat above learning process times 10), and I am still one of the highest producing MTs they have.
Again, I was handed a gift by my MTSO. I was given the opportunity to work on their self-described second hardest account because I was doing so well. Again, the message was sent by waking up one day and seeing it in my queue. I decided to be a team player because the company line is if you can do this, you can do anything. You will make bank.
Eventually, I was given another opportunity to help out on an account. This soon became my primary account because no one they trained on it could do it, and the account I was hired to do (and loved) was given to someone else. I figured if I was doing harder work (and the hardest they had),after 3 years I should get a raise.
No, I couldn't have a raise because they still had my primary account related to my pay scale. It didn't matter that even if I begged, I couldn't get that work. I was still what they considered a Level 1 MT. Shame on me, I went looking for another job.
I held that job for 1-1/2 weeks. I spent 3 days in training after waiting 2-1/2 months for my computer to arrive. It then took me another week to track down my production supervisor to be able to start working and get samples for my account. In our phone call, she apologized for taking so long (insert baby crying), but she was very busy as they had taken away her assistant and not replaced her (insert long pause as she IMs someone else). She was very hard to get a hold of now (insert baby crying again) but she would do what she could to get me started. I typed for 5 days and had 3 unanswered questions that were critical to me doing my work. I came back after a 2-day break to an e-mail that she was going to be gone for a week at a production supervisor meeting. Yes, I quit and without notice.
I was wise enough now to have not given up my current contract, and I decided to accept that they were going to pay me when they felt like it, but I was not going to take Level 1 pay for doing Level 3 work. I assumed that account full-time in June. I was off almost $800 that month even with the increased line rate (so much for making bank). By September I was back up to the production that was normal for me and raised my contract to 14,000 lines. Then last week, my boss tells me that we are backed up in OPs in this account.
I said that I would take them on as I had been practicing on them for quite some time. As I expected, my production dipped again. I knew I was not going to make 7000 lines, and I IM'd my supervisor that if I was going to be set for all OPs, I would need to readjust my contract back down.
The tizzy fit that she threw defies description, and I am back wishing for a new job. I told her simply that either we are in trouble for not meeting production or we are in trouble for not being a team player. I cannot produce 7000 lines of OP notes in a week, and I am not being terminated for not meeting my contract goals.
Is it fair that you have a single priority report that needs to be typed, and all I have to do is read the account notes (all xxx pages) and type it, BUT you are going to bash me if my production is off.
It is really easy for the MTSO
or management or whoever does it to complain that the quality isn't there or line counts aren't being met but wouldn't consider paying an ounce of training time to compensate you.
My husband is also self-employed. If I said to him, I know you regularly make xxx dollars an hour, but this is an emergency, and you are the only one who could do it, so would you mind spending 20 or 30 minutes learning how to do this. I know you may never have to do it again, and I won't pay you any more than what I normally would no matter how long it takes you, but would you do it to be a team player? I would STILL be taking that flying leap.
When you were back typing on sticky paper, did you regularly worry that you were going to have to stay an extra hour in the evening because the report you were on was taking too long? Did you spend your evenings researching doctors in Bullhead City, Arizona, and Columbus, Ohio, and in some little known town in Louisiana that has a clinic but barely even a zip code? Did you have to use Mapquest as one of your transcription tools so you could figure out where this guy on this account is from? Did your boss come to you and say there is a clinic 300 miles away that is behind, and I volunteered you to do their work? Don't leave, now, until you have 1000 lines in. And don't WHINE.
PS...how do you know they don't whine in India.
read sticky message "embracing..." on
x
I DID type on sticky paper and an IBM Selectric
Yes, I did stay an extra hour because a report was too long. The difference was I got paid for it and appreciated for it.
I agree with you. The cheap exploitation of the third world has driven a high percentage of this field into filthy trash and many of those managing it into slumlords. It went from MTs working from home to fill a need to just dirty bloodsucking middlemen looking for a place to weasel into and make a buck off the backs of others.
What do you mean that you have Thanksgiving with your family? What do you mean that your arms or back hurt after no time off for months? What do you mean that you need time off for a mammogram? Geeze. It's sick. It's just disgusting. I'm in it only because I've done it so long I'm not quite sure what else to do. I'm back at a hospital so I can be a PERSON again. The difference is night and day. I'm finding the hospitals are grossing-out on it, too, and outsourced MTs are thought of as those poor things and somewhat pitiful. Like a necessary evil they are trying to figure a way around.
The sticky says "Don't make decisions SM
based on someone's recommendation. and that about covers it. For every single person, it's a trial and error process. What works for me won't work for you, someone recommends a company and you agree, I may not.
Read the Sticky post at at the top of the Main board that I posted and that will explain it.
/
MDI is a mess
Work kept running out, system went down when there was work, have to make lines when you can (which is whenever you can), and they tell you nothing. Bottom line - no way to make a living. No, nothing good to say. Look elsewhere.
mess
I began working for Cymed in October last year and was loving it until SPI took over. Now there are staffing changes all the time. I can't get anyone in HR to call me back and when I do actually get someone on teh phone, I am told they no longer work here. Phone numbers are disconnected, e-mail are retruned as undeliverable, etc. The icing on the cake was when the contact for the account I have been working on was not renewed and now I am out of a job. NO WARNING WHATSOEVER!!!!!!! I signed on to work this morning and checked my e-mail and low and behold, the account will no longer be with SPI. SPI is saying they will try to place me on another account and I can apply to the company who has taken over my old account, but other than that, it's a good luck sort of thing. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Do they not realize people need to know these things in advance? I have a 7 month old baby and no help. I cannot afford this crap. A fellow employee has told me this is not the only account they have done this on. My advice is stay away from SPI at least until they have stabilized a bit.
She seems a mess to me
nm
Just a mess - sm
See this page, below, on further info regarding SeaScript. I am staying far away.
VR a hot mess
I can type faster than editing the hot mess that VR puts out. And it does not learn at least not the way they portray it. Yes, there are those out there who claim they love VR but those are people who had worked for the same facility before it went VR and they were accustomed to the docs, demographics, etc before they even started. And don't get me started on that! Bottom line, most of us can type faster than edit because of the mess it makes and the time it takes to clean it up and don't tell me differently and expect me to buy it. 
I have been here for the whole hot mess...
you specifically said you would hate to see how she and her house look in response to a comment saying you need to represent yourself at your best at all times. You even somehow equated that to decency. As I read it, this all stemmed from the fact that, in your words, she used MT's incorrectly 10 times.
Meanwhile, in your perfect posts, you have misplaced a comma, confused a hyphen and an apostrophe, misspelled catastrophe, and you have been superior, mean-spirited, and rude. If a decent person is decent even when no one else is watching, where does that leave you?
you are a complete mess!!
ewwwwwww!
Focus mess
Amen brother Ben!! My situation exactly, never could get started, the trainer worked in India, well his time and my time of course never coincided. Told them times to call to get started and he would call 4 or 5 hours later, and it was night my time, so never could get started, and glad I found JLG!!!
No, I am NOT an MTSO. in the mess just like you are
In 2006 I grossed 55,000.
In 2007 I grossed 42,000.
In 2008 I grossed 35,000.
And each year I worked MORE hours to make less money.. go figure..
It is just that you cannot get paid more than the clients are willing to pay the MTSO.... SIMPLE ARITHMETIC
I had a mess with them, wouldn't do there if they
before I was supposed to start, they hit me with all this crap about needing a 3rd phone line, a fax machine, all kinds of crazy junk they didn't bother to tell me in advance. I had dialup at the time and that day, after 2 months of reassuring me that dialup would work, they said dialup was being phased out within 6 months, which meant I'd be without a job? Don't think so!
Their 9 cpl accounts are a mess, and should pay
*
Front end VR is a mess
A radiology group went that way and they had to hire more IT people and one more MT to fix it. Not as successful as one would think. EMR point and click takes 20 minutes versus a few seconds to dictate. Plus more IT people.
I do not agree -- they can struggle through the mess just like everyone else. sm
Someone will never learn to do the difficult dictators if they don't tackle it and send it in to QA with a gazillion blanks, if necessary. Only way to get experience. At TransTech, you can look up sample dictations of any dictator and obtain other reports on the same patient and sometimes get a better clue as to what the doc is saying. Unfortunately, many people nowadays seem not to want to take the time to learn and grow. It's easier to just slough it off on someone else. S
Sorry for the bit of a rant. I guess it is just one of my pet peeves. I started as an MT over 30 years ago, learning on the job at a teaching hospital with hundreds of ESLs/residents/etc, and I would go at home at night and CRY because I thought I was going to get fired because I couldn't understand what they said, but my supervisor worked with me and gradually I was able to make my quota. There are still horrible dictators that make me cringe when I hear their voices come on the line, but it is unthinkable to skip over it and just take the easy stuff so my coworkers can do the dirty work. That's not teamwork.
And now, she steps down from her podium ........ (smile).
I was incorrect. ETC did not mess my friend over.
Her money was wired into her account since the deposit was done nicorrectly. They are very reliable. I'm glad to say that only TRX has messed with my money or that of a good friend. M
I apologize for the mess, I actually was stupid
Yes. It is the most unorganized and chaotic mess I have ever seen. nm
nm
Don't waste your time - they're a mess
.
The point of the entire mess is that a person, any
then spend about 30 years in that occupation, which, according to the person, was responsible for nothing but misery and failure and losses and misery and failure and losses. Yet, and this is the key point, this person stayed in this occupation of which she obviously was NOT successful, i.e. a failure at this career. If she were not a failure, she would have been successful. She herself blamed MTing on every item she listed - she blamed being an MT for losing her marriage, her health, her son, everything. And then after she became so physically disabled and crippled from MTing and the lack of time to take care of herself, she RETURNS to MTing, only to come here and rehash the horror of her life, blaming it all on MTing. Oh, for Pete's sake, where is the sanity behind this?? And now you're here blaming me for pointing out the obvious, that this woman is not a success as an MT. As Dr. Phil would say, It ain't working for her. Move ON!! She was able to fully reflect every incident in her life and that it was the fault of MTing- she should have gotten another JOB 30 years ago. Where are you not seeing the common sense in this? After 30 years of her own personal failure in an industry where most of us ARE successful, she's blaming the industry and you are backing her. Talk about enabling someone. Bet somewhere along the line her husband wanted her to quit. Anybody care to take bets on that? I'll bet somewhere along the line her son asked her to quit MTing if she never got to spend time with him, or missed 8 out of 10 Christmases. She herself states she was holed up in a closet typing her fingers off. Well, she should have QUIT and done something else and maybe she'd still be married with a close son/mom relationship. Something is wrong with HER career choice, and that does not reflect the average human being - no matter if you're a lawyer, doctor, MT, McDonald's clerk or a garbage man. If it doesn't work for you, and its killing your life in every single area, do SOMETHING ELSE. I ask again, what's wrong with you all who are sticking to this and making poverty wages?? Do something else!! I just don't get it and thankfully never will. I'm the nicest person in the world in real life. I'm a wimp. I'd give the shirt off my back to help someone. I've spent many a night crying over coworkers who got a bad deal with one big MTSO, but I would never sit and listen to a coworker who had ruined her life because she was not making it as an MT. I would help him/her find a career that was right for them. Never just give praise to such a catastrophe. Obviously this person needs prayers, and direction, and guidance in life, but I think its way past pity after reading her post. Its way past that.
that my dear is what you call an unorganized MESS.sm
she did the same thing with a friend of mine....
Yet, second company thinks it should work and not mess up other platform (sm)
I will feel better when the actual technician sees about loading it. Not that the recruiters don't know their job, just nervous.
I had others report they are using 1 computer for 2 different companies and maybe having to use a second pedal. Let's hope we are lucky.
do you understand? It's the well versed US MT editor who cleans their mess up. SM
It's called business sense. They hire many Indian MTs and a few good U.S. MT editors to clean up their mess. Hence, a good profit for the company. I've been there and lived through it. There are many top notch U.S. MTs out there. Trust me, they are not working for these large nationals who are out for the ultimate buck. We've been around the corner. Not bragging, but I lost a long time local client (15 years) and sent resumes to some large nationals, and smaller MTSO's. I was contacted for testing and offered 4 jobs in one day. If you have the experience and skills that it takes in this profession, you would not even have to mess with the companies who are outsourcing and settle for this bologna. MTs with years of experience and knowlege, stay the heck away from any company who outsources work out of the country. You are selling yourself short if you do so.
I'm sure because the work is coming back a real mess..sm
These companies think they can breeze by with their overseas MTs, and sure they can if they have enough back up by seasoned US MTs and editors. Once the proportion becomes unbalanced, and they have more overseas MTs and less US MTs, the mess will start to pile up. It really does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out. In time, it will come back to kick these companies in the rear. That's why I always say an experienced MT makes a much better transcription service owner because they would never put themselves in this situation; clearly able to decipher fantasy from reality and not just the big $ signs. I am not referring to this company, but any MT company in general.
Just curious -- did getting paid from Canada mess up your taxes in any way? sm
I have a friend in Toronto, and we were talking about me trying to do some work for them (they pay 18 cents per line!) but wasn't sure how complicated it would be taxwise.
Thanks.
Paid 50% of already deflated MT wage to clean up somebody else's mess...nm
nm
Yes, PS HAD a good rep in the past, but they're a mess now. Stay away. nm
nm
I agree. Transcriptionists have turned into a big whiny mess who have inflated egos. sm
Look at the economy. There are very few jobs out there that have not seen wages go down. Costs are up, wages are down, jobs are not as plentiful as in the early 80's. IT people have seen their salaries cut to less than half of what they were 15 years ago and they need more knowledge than back then. Nurses, physician assistants and CNA's fight to have jobs because everyone thinks they can do away with them. Teachers are at the poverty level in many states.
Get over yourselves. I personally chose to send work offshore because it is less expense and guess what? The people WANT to work. I don't have to pay for insurance or take out taxes. I don't worry that deadlines will be missed because they know that I will replace them and they need their jobs.
When all U.S. jobs are gone, you will all wonder why and the reason is that YOU let it happen.
I am not making excuses, simply stating facts. Greedy MT's who want the world force MTSO's to look for alternative solutions.
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