MTSOs have no control over the factors that would make this
Posted By: possible. nm on 2006-02-18
In Reply to: Ok then - MTSOs need to get intelligent enough to figure out how to - PREPARE for the work flow, and plan and hire
:+
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
They do it to control how much you make.
Once you start making decent money they will put you on some other WT or hospital. It's the way FN operates and has done that for years. The comment below by the MT that does 4 jobs then E-mails for more work is delusional. I'll like to see what she has to say in about 6 months (if she's still there). They also have posted for another new client starting next week. I didn't like the fact that they control my work - I have never come across that except at FN. Glad I'm not there anymore.
Control freaks and think up everything they can to make things difficult. They must be very unhappy
women up there.
Hell will freeze over before YOU can make your job *work* with TransTech. Out of your control !!!
I don't know who has ruined this wonderful company, but E is one of them !!! Of course, D is in control of everything, so just amazed at the condition of TT now.
First, you should make this to "some" MTSOs, not all act like
I was once MTSO, but I'm back with a national now. I got tired of the headaches. As far as hiring, my side was the opposite with MTs who claimed to have experience they didn't, wanted lots of work but when there WAS lots of work, balked or even walked, never to be heard from again, or turned in shoddy reports to get it done. Either way, I was left as the cleaner on top of the work I did too. So there are some MTs with poor work ethic as well BUT I also had MTs working with me that were reliable and great, so I don't clump all together. The trouble is, some MTSOs DO (as evidenced by posts below), so you may be a victim of that.
You sound like a good candidate for a job, so don't get discouraged. I don't think it's anything you are doing or not doing at all. Timing is key. It took me a few bad experiences, but I finally found a good MTSO to work for that pays well and treats MTs well. Not too many MTs leave this MTSO though so you're not going to see a ton of ads for the better places all the time. You have to be patient or have lucky timing, but they are out there and you'll find one eventually so don't give up.
As for the work issue, summer months are slow for a LOT. Many doctors have kids and take vacation in summer while their kids are off school (same with Christmas, Easter break, etc.) In fall, work picks up again Could be MTSOs hire more to prepare for that or some MTs might be hired on an as-needed basis. Some just plain overhire. With this work, some weeks you might be searching for work and the next have so much you can't see straight, so I welcome the slow times and save for them since I kinda know when they'll come now. I also work for 2 places, one fulltime and one parttime, so if I run out of work at one, other usually has work. I'm IC though. Even as employee you could maybe take on a parttime or PRN side job to pick up extra when your fulltime one is slow. Works for some and some hate it. I like having the safety net.
Hang in there. I'm sure you'll find something but I know it's easy to get discouraged. It took me several tries with different places before I found the one that worked best for me, so you might go through that too.
But how do MTSOs make sure that clients will pay those wages we sm
demand? We have to keep in mind that hospitals are under a lot of pressure to reduce costs too.
You make a lot of good points. Listen up, MTSOs.
nm
other factors . . .
I think besides the server being busy, my slower processor contributes to the slow word appearance on my screen from time to time. My computer is on my long list of things to replace around here!
too many factors here
are people giving net, take home? How much are they contributing towards taxes, 401K, health ins., equipment rental, on and on....how many hours are you working, what are you paid per line, employee or IC (big one), etc. You can't just ask someone how much they make.  And it's just causing a big feather-raising ruckus.
There are a lot of factors...
But I think also if you can get up to $15/hr, that would be okay because it will be dependable. You also need to consider how much driving is involved each day, will you have to pay for extra daycare, how much the benefits cost, etc. If you can get $15 and all of the other factors are good, I would probably take it. You can always get an IC MT job on the side to make extra money.
Pay plan factors
Those factors include monthly QA score, production (lines/hour), and how much you send to proofing for help. Also if you have the CMT there is a differential. It really does put us in control of what we can make and the potential for increases is there as you get more familiar with what you are doing. It's been a great plan for me to work on! Insurance is with Blue Cross, rates would depend on whether it's just you or a family plan.
It depends on a lot of factors for both.
How big is the page? In other words, how many lines define a page, and how many characters in the line? Or, if paid by line, how many characters in the line? Are spaces included? For both, are headers and things included. I assume you're referring to Silent Type. I have always heard they paid archaic wages per page. There are posts on Company Board about them - I would search back a few pages. I know they make you travel to their offices for 2 or 3 days, and even though I live in NJ, I would never stoop to that in this day and age - not very high tech.
Lots of factors..
Overtime laws are federal/state. Federal law is 40 hr/week. States can supercede that to an 8 hr/day, etc. Company policy doesn't matter. Classification of employees is key. Some employee classifications do not quality for OT pay and can be required to work 60 hours a week with no additional pay. Company policies/collective bargaining agreements can grant benefits not required by the law (sometimes including, but not always the ability to grant comp time in lieu of OT), but cannot offer less than the minimum required by law. Example: If you are in a state that requires OT after 8 hr/day, then you cannot be offered comp time in lieu of OT. If you are in a state that required OT after 40 hr/week, you can be offered comp time SO LONG AS it is taken in the same week. Some employee classifications have different requirements, which may allow the comp time in the same pay period (2-week, month, etc), but for the classification that MT (not supervisory, just plain MT/QA classified as employee - not IC, SE is gray area) fall into, pay period doesn't matter. For those, comp time must be taken in the legal period, whether it be day or week in order to be in compiance with the law, which we all know not all companies are.
Here are the factors in my opinion...$1.10 is okay if...sm
... they pay for links meaning if the CT chest, abdomen and pelvis are dictated together which most radiologists do it gets counted as three reports.
Some companied including Medquist counts this as one report now.
Also if the account is not a teaching institution - no residents only attendings dictating then that means better usage of macros/word expanders.
If the account is a teaching institution with lots of residents and ESL attendings and does not pay for links then it is definitely way too low.
Hope this helps.
JMO
Could be any number of factors
It could be any number of factors. For someone to be on actual QA hold for 15 months sounds a little odd. How do you know the account requirements do not specifically call for 100% review from the service. I think you answered your own question. If someone needs actual QA hold for that long they'd be released. I think there is more to this behind the scenes that you are unaware of. If you're making your lines and an income, who cares how anyway? I can assure you the QA person is not making any extra money and enjoying the power by having to review each and every document. I suspect it's more of a client requirement for it to be going on this long.
All of these factors depend on the
x
Some other factors to ponder Maggie...sm
I've been in the MT field for 16+ years now, produce quality work that I have always taken pride in, and my work ethic, well let's just say I do not think that there has been one weekend, Christmas day, etc. that I have not worked in 16 year iin this profession, and those times being mainly at night.
I agree with some of what you state, however with that said, you may want to ponder a few other things. I have met many, many hard working, highly experienced MT's who likewise produce quality documents, take great pride in their work, and even have a stronger work ethic than I. I hear the same story, over and over from MT's such as they, the lack of respect in general for this profession declining over the years, along with declining wages, outsourcing, etc.
Another thought that you may want to ponder is regarding outsourcing. There are subskilled and substandard MT's in the US, however they are in a minority. By far most are intelligent, hard working and dedicated individuals. The reason that this industry is being outsourced has little to do with the quality of the US MT. The industry is being outsourced strictly due to the ability to procure cheaper labor elsewhere. Period. Yes, the Indian MT, etc., works hard and does not whine as you state. They are paid 3 or 4 cents per line for their work. I don't know if you are aware of the cost of living in India, however it is far below that in the US; for example monthly cable television is $5.00 per month, etc., so the rate that is being paid there furnishes that MT with a nice lifestyle, thus nothing to whine about, as this industry used to provide to the equally hard working US MT.
It is often convenient to point one's finger at a small handful of people in a given profession and state that to be the cause of an industry that is declining in the US. Even if that were the case in the MT profession one also then needs to take a look at other professions such as engineering, the IT industry, support centers, etc. that are being outsourced, and likewise in those fields the jobs are not being outsourced due to the incompetance or lack of work ethic of the American worker.
You're omitting some very important factors.
1. The cost of living has increased drastically since 1992. That $15 an hour was worth far more than it is today.
2. TIME, which to many is the most important factor. You really can't put a value on what you're losing with your family when you have to work *that couple more hours* to make what you made 15 years ago. In fact, if we had worked that *couple more hours* 15 years ago, we would have been paid time and a half as overtime. Also, 15 years ago when I worked in house I was paid hourly. If it took me a little extra time to find the address for a copy the doctor wanted sent, I was still paid the same. Have you figured the percentage of lost work now working production and trying to find the addresses, first names, correct spelling of referring physicians, etc., for the hundreds of different doctors from multiple accounts for multiple national MTSOs over the 15 years? Our job requires the same, if not more, amount of unpaid time...yet we're not paid hourly anymore.
3. I really liked your phrase *the benefit of working from home.* LOL Sure, we don't have to buy business clothes or pay for gas, but what is the employer saving by having us work at home? We buy the computer, buy the printers to print out the hundreds of pages of account specs, the ink, the electric, the internet access, our research materials, and in some cases even the software. In fact, this brings me to the next point you never considered.
4. IC status. More and more MTSOs are asking for IC status. When I started working at home about 14 years ago, I was an employee making 12 cpl WITH the best health insurance I ever had, weekends off, all holidays except 2 off with pay, AND 2 weeks paid vacation. Here it is 15 years later and the MTSOs not only want us to work for less than we did then, but they don't even want to pay benefits, taxes, disability insurance, or unemployment insurance. They want us to pay all that for less than what they paid us 15 years ago...AND THEN, they want to tell us what hours to work, what days to work, and how much work we have to do in a day. In other words, they want to treat us as employees, but put the price of all the employee *extras* on our backs.
And you're content with all this?? Maybe I shouldn't use the word content. You're used to all this and accept it? Now I see why posters have made the correlation between battered spouse syndrome and our profession. The more you become used to the abuse, the more you accept it.
I would go back. The factors that made it difficult to work there before are no longer there
Clear expectations, documented style guide, friendly and helpful staff from the top down, consistent QA. They put in writing what they expect and if you do your thing within those expectations, you will thrive!
(I'm only a lowly MT, not anyone in a position to profit from these statements!)
I agree. Big factors- ease of dictators, length of reports, platform. NM
.
Control I
I agree with you regarding ulterior motive. The simple answer is to DEMAND to know up front when working with Ex-Text whether Ctrl I will be used and if not, WHY NOT. If no answer to this or if given some vague answer, DON'T work for them.
Control I
Not being able to use Control I sounds suspicious to me. Dictaphone can set up any line count in Control I. One woman in Florida is paid and charges by every 37 characters and dictaphone has that set up. So anyone stopping you from using Control I has their own motives.
They have control over it
.
Of course they have control, you don't think they are going to gyp themselves do you.
nm
To the OP, this is just a classic example of KS PR control
My facts cannot be wrong, as this is what happened specifically to me. I do not have to stretch the truth whatsoever. The true version is colorful enough. Imagine being hired and thinking you are going to have an unlimited amount of work, quitting your old job, only to find out a week later that not only you, but the other girls on the same account no longer have any work. Sorry, the deal fell through. Certainly not MY fault, but KS's. The thing turned out to be that the account was just an overflow account. Go figure.
As far as the bounced check goes, I don't know what "one of the 8 means", but my checked bounced and I received NO letter from KS's bank. As a matter of fact, I had to email again and again and, yes, again the office to get my money and fees paid. It took quite a while. I have the paperwork right here in my desk. I have proof.
To the KS MT who says I need to get my facts straight, I believe this is once again Lee pretending to be an MT or one of her management team trying to deflect the truth. It is the usual way of KS.
If you do take a job with them, I wish you good luck and I sincerely hope that you do not have the same problems as many of us have had.
I use Control F or find
I go to top of each page and do Control F and type in name of company or whatever I am searching. Seems to work pretty well and quicker than reading through all the posts!
Also Control T (indent),
Control X (cut) and Control A (select all).
I need these functions to do my other job. I got around the problem by changing the Control X, T and A commands to function keys on my keyboard. This way, I can do both.
Control and quality
You know, MTs can't have it both ways. On one hand, we seem to want recognition that what we does can impact patient care and thus is very important. On the other hand, we don't want to be held accountable for the errors we make. When a patient's chart has a major error in it, that can impact patient care. And unfortunately sometimes the only way to get people to wake up and pay attention is by penalizing them for those errors and for going so fast they simply are not paying attention. I've never had a deduction for those kind of things so perhaps can't really speak to it, but the way I understand that policy it seems to be quite fair to me.
Question about using Control I. sm
I'm in a similar situation and feel my I Chart line counts are pretty low. Do you mean to use Control I while in the I Chart program or use it while in the ExText program? At least I can verify how many reports and what my line count is in I Chart but the fact remains that I Chart is slow to give results and usually I receive my totals after hours.
Control-I in EXText
is what I use. However, if the MTSO will not allow you to use it, then it will not help you. Control-I in EXText counts the lines immediately. I don't use I-Chart for line counts for that reason right there...too slow!
If they allowed use to use Control-I,
they wouldn't be able to manipulate the line count!!!
They disable Control-I
to be able to control the line count...could be good, could be bad. Depends.
they've got control and it's not going to get any better....
until they get tired of the game or nobody plays anymore.
Why do you think you will be OK with this if you cannot have the self control to diet now? sm
It is failing because the underlying reasons are still there. The basic one is -you will be fat if you eat too much and exercise too little.
No, I am not skinny or naturally thin but I am average weight and have self control to not eat junk food and fast food and triple portions and I exercise. Every day whether I feel like it or not. It is a commitment and having surgery is both a dangerous thing but also a cop out. You want to be there for your children? Great, but what are you showing them? That you can do whatever you want and wave a magic surgery wand and poof! no more need to have self control. That is not a good thing to teach your kids. They need to see good eating habits, good exercise habits and no excuses. Kids are heavier now than ever and if they think that there is a magic surgery at the end, like many parents are teaching by example, why should they try to eat healthy and exercise?
The scariest thing I ever heard is that the children now are the first generation ever that have an estimated life span SHORTER than their parents because of obesity.
What are you showing them by taking the easy way out? Do you make them do homework or make excuses for that? Do they do chores and know what work is or do they get everything handed to them? IT IS THE SAME MESSAGE BUT IN A DIFFERENT MANNER!
That's why they pay 9 cpl they control your work
Sounds like pretty good money but you end up making just as much as 7 cpl because they dish out the work.
Do you not think we have quality control
just because we are on VR? Where are these people getting their ideas from? Are you just assuming that there is not quality there? If you have a good platform and MTers to teach, your job can be a breeze.
And there are some that can't control their mouths. How's the
nm
Control I tells me I have no right to access (sm)
Isn't it that way for all? I'm new at this.
MS in FL has owners who are control freaks and whatever happens
There is one person there (still after 4 years) who would sell you down the river if he thought it would make him look better to the owners but tell you to your face how wonderful you are, unless you have the putzvah to politely debate the issue. Then his boxing gloves come out and the verbal abuse begins. It really is slave labor there. I've been in the office, I've talked with the owners. I know things will never change there unless they start losing clients, but the clients they currently have are so grateful ANYONE will transcribe their reports, they STAY with MS!
And that, my dear, is why nothing changes at MS in FL.
How do you control speed of voice?
I work with editscript also and have the footpedal nightmare. I can get the files over to the express scribe no problem, but cannot control speed. I can fix manually, but the second I touch foot pedal, speed goes back to mouse voice speed. Any suggestions? Would be very helpful. I actually went through the foot pedal nightmare and got the 9pin and even the co. couldn't make it work!!
Not many people have control over their clients!
If you are in an overflow situation, where you have people who work for the hospital and who work for a service - the people in the hospital get the work first.
The options that a company has is to only take full outsource contracts, but sometimes that is not feasible.
It is frustrating for all concerned.
Check under Control R and see if there is a list.
On the accounts I do, there are some, some by dictator name, some are generic. I've only had one MD say, use my normal for the physical exam. Otherwise if I get to use one it's just because I looked for it.
What would the control I show you that you can't see on website? (sm)
And do all companies who use Ex-Text block this function? What does it accomplish?
it sounds to me like control the end result
would mean the way you format things, insisting you use spell check and that type of thing. I had asked for clarification earlier this week, too, as to whether they in fact could place any type of line count on IC. The info on the IRS web site looks like not.
Is Futurnet out of control with their new accounts
nm
Of course managers can control workflow.
That is their job. The alternative would be to toss everything into one giant pool, and you would get whatever comes next regardless of account or work type. As far as deleting jobs, wouldn't a job deleted from Escription be deleted entirely thus not reaching the client and no being able to charge them for the job? That doesn't make sense at all.
It's called damage control
They are reading this board and they know they are going to lose a significant number of MTs. Now how is Dorothy going to look to Transcend. She probably promised we were the most faithful robots ever and would follow whereever she leads. Now Transcend is going to have to hire more MTs to cover the accounts.
I think you are damage control posting all over this board lately.
//
I agree. I think it is a control issue that I found
.
what are you offering, you offshore, have no control over your client?
nn
what are you offering, you offshore, have no control over your client? Duh?!
meant to add that.
Posts about TransTech are getting way out of control. Take discussion regarding
/
|
