Not only bringing suit, but our profession's tendency - sm

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Many years ago, when I worked in house for a local clinic, we had a Transcriptionist who had just graduated from a medical transcription course (I believe it was through the local community college since this was back in the early 1990s), and everytime this gal came across something she didn't know, she would ask the other transcriptionist or I how to spell it.  I truly think sometimes one of the BIGGEST problems is the fact that nowadays, people are not taught the proper way to spell or even how to research for that matter; for example not realizing that a spelling with an f sound could be spelled with a ph or Pf et cetra.

One classic example was a few years ago, and I was doing QA for a company and this company hired a friend of mine an older lady, who had decided to go into medical transcription and had completed a course.  Well, the company hired her on my recommendation and she called me one day, very upset and saying that she had received another email from a QA person, whom she felt was picking on her.  I asked her what the error was about and she stated that it was over the word chem as in chem-7 (which as an aside, I have NEVER abbreviated; always spelled it out as chemistry-7)  -- well anyway, my friend had typed it as Kem-7, so while I was on the phone with her I made her do a search, and what she came upon with the first hit was some rock band in a foreign country!!!!  This, is what I and older, more experienced transcriptionists get angry about is the fact that many people if they use the internet to do a search will use the first thing that comes to mind, rather than tryng to spell it several different ways to see if it fits in the PROPER context.  Sorry for this being too long.

I worked for MDI.  I loved MDI.  I have always known D to be someone of yes, integrity.  I don't believe her integrity flew out the window.  There is surely a lot we don't know.  And of course, D would not have been at liberty to discuss the coming merger before it happened.

D is a businesswoman.  The purpose of a business is to generate income.  She ran her company with honesty and integrity.  I can't say I wasn't suprised, shocked even, at what has happened.  But I have known D since the early 90s and I know she is a good person and truly cares about people.  I don't know how to reconcile that with what has happened other than to think there is more to the story than we know and that it is the decision that D needed to make at this time for whatever reason, whether it be to ensure a secure retirement, whether it was because she was no longer able to compete with offshoring and VR (I think this may be part of it because she had told me at one time they were having to cut line rates to compete with VR and offshoring) or whether she was just tired and ready to not be the one at the helm any longer.  Maybe it's her health, or her husband's health.  We just don't know. 

This whole thing does make me afraid for the future of medical transcription, because another thought I had was that D saw the writing on the wall and knew it was either make the leap now and profit from all her years of hard work, or end up losing it all when transcription becomes obsolete for the most part, or at least for those who don't use VR or offshoring.

Whatever the reasons, I choose to believe that D is still the person of integrity I have always known her to be.  I just choose to accept that there must be more to the story than I know.

I wish the best to D and to all MDIers.  I feel like an era has come to a close and it will never be the same again.  But I feel lucky to have been a part of Signal and MDI and to have known D.

I feel like we are on the Titanic and we just saw D either jump to safety or jump into shark-infested waters, we don't know which, and we don't know whether we should jump or cling to the boat - because MDI was the last lifeboat and now it's gone.

I just got off the phone with someone from Precyse and they have terrible communication and no flexibility.  She kept IMing another lady to ask questions.  Had to check with another person to see if I could do Monday through Friday.  Made it sound like she would really have to do some fancy talking to get that.  I had put in my info that I wanted to work from 6 am to 12 pm and she just read that as she was talking to me and said there was no way.  Told her that I am capable of doing full time line requirement in those hours and she said there had to be the hourly coverage there.

I was just not impressed at all.  She really did not seem like she knew what was going on, could have been a little more prepared for an interview.  I just wasted 10 minutes of my time! 

Sugestion - when MTs complain their account is too hard. Instead of giving them something easier and pushing hard work on more experience Mts, assign the complainer exclusively to hard account until they are competent. Only way to be fair to distribute. Everyplace I work the complainers get the easy accounts.

First, flamers, never mind, I'm not talking to you.

So we are all spread out but all of us know other MTs whether we work for the same company or not.  If everyone communicates with those they know and asks them to do the same, word will spread like wildfire and something really CAN be done.  Sitting around complaining and doing nothing accomplishes NOTHING.  As near as I can figure one MTSO is as good (or bad) as the next so they could all use an attitude adjustment.

Is it productive at all?  I think it is a VR and transcription mixture and may actually belong to MDI-FL.  Thanks! 

I know there's that law that protects us from discrimination when we are between 40 and 70.  However, it would be difficult to prove that this was their reason for not hiring me.  I'm sure they would come up with some other excuse.  And, I doubt if the Labor Board would fight with them.  As a matter of fact, I am past the time limit on reporting that, as it happened more than 6 months ago (I think 6 months is the time limit for filing the complaint).  As for a separate civil suit, that would probably be more trouble than it's worth.  But, in the future, I will keep better notes and will create a paper trail just in case.

IMO, they'll tell you one thing when interviewed, but the numbers just don't add up and definitely show in your pay.  They love to send reminder emails regarding working holidays unless scheduled off, and when you do there is no work.  Then, as you sit isolated from your family on the holidays, you get the peppy little emails saying check with your team leader to see if you can take off an hour here and there, and work them later in the day as you are not allowed to take ANY time off without pay (even if there is no work).  Their TAT is more important that your time with your family, also IMO.  If you don't/can't meet your required line count for full-time, they put you on part-time status.  If you're already part-time and don't/can't meet your line count, they put you on IC status (and expect you to work their schedule with minimum line count requirement of 600 lines per day).

Management is demeaning, curt, and unprofessional, and human resources person is worse, also IMO.  Check archives about email resignation that may or may not  have been initiated by human resources...and be very cautious about what they (management) tell you.  The term snakes comes to mind...but, of course, that is just my opinion.  They used to be a nice place to work years ago when G ran it.

can be a rewarding profession, but definitely not an easy one.  There are waves of workflow, waves of pay, waves of anger, waves of joy, waves of guilt, waves of happiness, waves of sadness, waves with a shark lurking (like an ocean).  hehe

So what do we do in the ocean?  Go with the waves!  Surf's Up!!! 

in this year 2009, should automatically be a CMT; no test; no money; just grandmothered into a CMT.  I am only 38, but I've been transcribing for almost 20 years now and used to have to look every word up in a dictionary and didn't have Google or electronic spell checks to help me do my job.  I feel like I should already be a CMT and not have to take the test.

I also think the line rates are very low here lately especially for acute care work that requires evenings and weekends.  I know this profession is 24/7, but all MTs deserve more than 7 cpl to work nights and weekends as in any other profession, there is a shift diff that pays.

As far as the ist at the end of my title, I don't mind.  A transcriber, in my opinion, sounds more like the name of a machine or office equipment.  The ist I feel is derived from the term specialist, so add what you like before the ist and that's what you get; it is not belittling and definitely not feminine when you consider how many male physicians there are in society today.  Furthermore, I'd take a male dictator over a female any day of the week. 

Okay, I'm done...  for whoever cares... 

is..... it is very ill defined.  nothing is measured, nothing is objective, at least consistently.  7 cpl is equal to 10 cpl somewhere else.  a few examples.  people don't say they are acute care MTs to annoy you, there are a million different scenarios and a whole lot of jargon being thrown around, and i guess i'd be wondering what a person is called that does acute care but no ops.  a whole half a company where i work are like that.  so.. uh...see.  every scenario is different... which is a major part of the problem.

but, in response to your note, i disagree with a whole lot of it, and it's due mainly to what i say above.  i chose to work at home because i dont want to work at an office so i am sure as heck not interested in turning this environment into the very thing i left.

any, may i submit to you, and many others speaking in these forums.... it's fine to express opinions; it's not heard with much regard when it is touted as fact.  you see divas.  i see an industry of people who have been taken advantage of like no other.  there is no accountability from the doctor, the hospital, or the MTSO... it all runs down hill to the MT.  laws are blatantly ignored and policies rarely written with any definition.  if you want to compare the way we work to traditional offices, when was the last time you worked at an office where you worked 10 hours to get in 8, and you only got paid for some of the work, but not all.  it's come to be the norm here.

some heavy duty revamping needs to take place... and i'm working on it.  everyone put their thinking caps on about what's really at the root of these problems, and stop arguing for crying out loud. never seen so many arguers in my life.  it's apples and oranges that everyone is arguing over.... little bites of fact taken out of context.  no big picture.

i will be back over the next few months to hear them.  let's get down and serious and fix this chaos. look underneath what got you ramped up.. the ramping isn't valuable, but figuring out what is driving it is.  i say we start a revolution.