Like anything, it depends on the company. Some good, some bad. nm

• What does it take to become a recruiter?sm - amie
  • Like anything, it depends on the company. Some good, some bad. nm - depends

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What type of work do they have?  Any op reports?  Appreciate any info. 

It is like a Word-based program, but a lot of the functions from Word were not incorporated into BT.  If you have to change large blocks of text, once you highlight it either takes an extremely LONG time for the program to work or it will just freeze up altogether, in which case you have to back out and relog entirely.  Imagine doing this on every 3rd report and then you'll have a good idea of what it is like on some accounts. 

On some accounts the sound quality is so poor it is either all crackles or volume so low you can barely make out a word.  If you're a person who likes to use the keyboard more than the mouse, it has very few function keys and you can't program your keyboard for your own hotkeys.  Autocorrect does not work with it and most Expander programs do not work with it either. 

On my computer we had to reload the whole program several times because they figured it was just a bad download.  So even if you get an account that some people have no problems with, it's hard to tell what the precipitating factor is that will make it freeze up or not work well with other computers.  There is really no rhyme or reason as to why it works well for some and why it doesn't for others.  That's why tech support is having such a hard time.  They don't know the total ins and outs of the software because they didn't develop it.  It was developed by a company called M-Modal and so whenever there is a problem that tech support can't handle, they have to contact M-Modal.  The problem could be hours or days before corrected.  And there is no downtime.  The loss is YOUR loss, not the company's.  It is by far the worst program I have ever worked with in my 15+ years in MT.

With MDI-MD, you are a statutory employee, meaning they take out FICA, but not your state or federal taxes, and there are no benefits.  You do not have to adhere to a rigid schedule.  You make a commitment for x-number of lines per day and have a 24-hour window in which to do those lines.  Every 2 months you submit a calendar telling them which days you will work.  If I recall correctly 2 weekends are required per month.  There is no extra pay for holidays or weekends, but their pay scale is way above average.  Some accounts are internet accounts, and for some you need a C-phone with unlimited long distance.  They use Bayscribe as a platform, which is very easy to use and has a built-in expander.  The liaisons and QA people are quite pleasant and easy to work with, and Dorothy cares about people.

With TransTech, you are an employee, and you are required to work a scheduled shift, Sunday through Thursday or Tuesday through Sunday, I believe.  However, unlike the poster noted below, there IS flexibility -- all you have to do is email management and let them know you need to make a change that day.   You get abou 3.3-something PTO hours per pay period, which amounts to about 11 days a year, which increases the longer you are there.  They have reasonably priced insurance -- medical, dental, vision -- and have just recently added a 401k plan.  The pay scale is a bit lower, but they have a nice incentive tier that is easy to achieve.  They use ExText as the platform, which is Word-based and very easy to use.  QA and management staff are friendly and supportive, and management seems to truly care about the employees.  Again, it is a great company as well.

Hope this helps!

Good luck! 

I see posting all the time saying don't accept 7 cents a line that we are worth at least 9 cents or more.  Well it all depends how the line is calculated.  These national companies usually pay character with or without spaces and some of them have their own counting software where you just have to go with what they say and can't actually verify what is really being counted.  With that said you can be paid 7 cents a line counting Keystrokes (bolding, underline, etc - example the word paid is four characters but if you bold it then it is 8 characters and if you underline too then it is 12 characters) which would usually equal around 9-10 cents or more a line depending on the format of the document.  So it is very misleading when some transcriptionists say 7 cents is insulting when actually it is good if you are getting keystrokes with Abacus and you can actually verify it yourself to make sure the company is paying for all the headers, footers, template, shifts, tabs, spaces, returns, bolding, italic, underling, caps, etc.  You really have to investigate how the line is calculated to be able to compare.  So to all you people that keep saying don't accept it....I bet the ones that have are actually getting paid more than you in the long run!

would guess most have a number of lines that they call full time and another number they call part time. Probably lines more than minutes.

Do you have the flexibility to fit them in whatever hours you wish? Depends. Usually as an employee you would work whatever shift they told you, i.e. S-Th 7-3. IC's are not supposed to be scheduled though I would not be surprised to find some companies fudging on that. After all, what are you going to do, quit or report them? Most of the criteria to determine IC vs. emp. come from the IRS. They are the ones that it matters most if you are IC or employee. You can search on some government sites to find tax publications regarding this issue.

Some places treat ER as acute care, not clinic, but it is really up to the individual company.  Best to ask your supervisor if you were not told anything when you were hired. 

I like both platforms.  Bayscribe is easy to use, and the Expander emulates PRD+, which I was used to.  The spellchecker is kind of clumsy -- that could definitely use some tweaking.  The thing I liked the most about Bayscribe was at the end of each report, you saw the line count for that report and how much you made, plus a total of lines for all reports and the total number of lines you had made for the day.

I am currently using ExText, and it is also easy to use.  I have to go to ichart to view my line count, though, and you cannot get it on a report-to-report basis.   The CTRL+I feature is useless to me since my employer does not count headers or footers.  I quit using it because I hated to see what a big difference there was at the end of the day.  I could do 300 lines per hour on Bayscribe.  With the current setup, maybe 250.  I can do 300 if I just sit and type as fast as I can with no breaks, but that cannot last for 8 hours solid.

Either platform is okay.  I still kinda miss WP51 -- think DOS-based programs were faster -- but you can't hold on to a dinosaur.  And, obviously that is just my opinion.  Hope it helps. 

I joined JLG about 9 month ago and I am thrilled with the experience that I have had.  Although the company has been around for 20+ years, a group of good industry veterans who know how to operate fairly to both employees and clients have joined the company in the past year.  I followed my manager from another giant company. 

I have also worked on this account and it was plauged with problems from the start.  The hospital required the account to be implemented in a matter of days, there were technical issues and the hospital management staff was new and the employees were mad because transcription had been outsourced.  Personally, I won't miss this client but good luck to those that get it. 

There is plenty of work at JLG and I have already been advised on my new assignments