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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Pretty soon they'll have us pay them to work

Posted By: Mari on 2006-09-07
In Reply to: Is anyone completely satisfied with their job? - ugh

It's the same with most companies anymore. Here's how to tell a lot about the company before you aggravate yourself with training, etc.

Who has the most job offers posted? How frequently do they post them? If you see a company trying to hire all day, every day of the week they have a problem, because those they do hire do not stay.

A position that has to be posted so frequently is not a job worth having. Someone left that job for a reason, and it's probably the same reason you won't want that job either.

Tell me, does this sound like a job you would want?

IC at 6 cents a line - You have to give them a schedule when you work, and if you aren't working they call and beat you over the head?

Pretty soon, as I said, they will have us working for free, or worse we will owe them money to sit and type all day. LOL.


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That's going to be nuts...I do ASR work too, plus work split shifts. We'll NEED a spread shee
NT
Pretty sure they do have some clinic work (nm)
ss
I know the owner pretty well and having seen her work, I'd....SM
... definitely give it a shot if I were looking. Go for it!
OSi, pretty good to work for (sm)
But the insurance is expensive at least for family coverage. Work flow goes up and down, it just depends on the account. They give secondary accounts if primary account runs low.  Everyone there is really helpful and nice for the most part.
I'm pretty sure we work for the same company
Does the company name start with a V?  Does this QA power-monger's name start with a V?  I started with them about 15 months ago, also.  After 1 week of QA, I felt very comfortable with the quality of work I was sending them, so I stopped sending blank-free reports to QA.  It was that simple.  No one stated I did anything wrong.  Now, only reports with blanks go to QA.  (E-mail me).....
They used to do subcontract work for MQ. Pretty sure that
DSG is nothing like MQ.
I'll love to know who you work for. I also work every weekend with no extra pay.
It'd be nice to get paid for all the nights and weekends I work.
I edit Indian work and it's pretty bad
it is still cheaper for the company to pay me an american person.... to edit i suppose...but let me tell you, if i did not, they would not be able to print any of the stuff i edit

The work is pretty darned heavy now!

Seems a pretty good place to work. SM
I do sometimes run out of work. So far, I only have 2 accts, but it seems when my primary is out, so is my secondary, so I'll be trying to pick up more accts. Compared to my past work, I do not find that they have high ESL, pretty normal. I am a level 4. I think they may have 5 levels. Pay seems okay, even better than most. Good luck.
Oracle is a pretty good company to work for but,
their home-grown software makes it difficult to get a good line count.
Which account do you work on? Neurology seems pretty much like normal

The work flow is pretty good. It gets low around the end of the pay period. sm
I work on the DSG-2 side and the sound is pretty good.  Rumor has it we will be getting a new account soon but I don't know that for sure.
Again, we make pretty big concessions to be in our line of work ...
First of all, I'd like to see this 'lucky enough to work out of the comfort of our own homes' stuff abolished. Many, many professions now work at home, and they do NOT accept a substandard quality of treatment because of that.

I know dozens upon dozens of coders, graphic designers, and support staff who work at home - BY THE HOUR - and get paid for the time in which they are working (or the time in which they are scheduled to be working, but have no work to do).

Let's say I make 9 cpl doing clinic notes (which is a really good gig, if I did that, but that's definitely NOT standard), and I make $19 an hour.

However, the first half hour that I work is answering work emails, starting my day, gathering the info I need, etc. Then, there's another half hour throughout my day that I spend answering emails or instant messages. Then, there's an hour or two during my day where I'm out of work because the company has over hired. Then, at the end of my day, I spend another half hour tallying my line counts, finishing up emails, and filling out a time sheet.

How much am I actually making per hour now?

Now, as a true fact, back when I started in transcription 12 years ago, I did start at 9 cpl. And I had an IC job that paid 13 cpl.

Earlier this year, I had to look for a new company to work for, and I was blatantly told several times by several 'reputable' companies that they would absolutely not start anyone, regardless of experience, over 8 cpl.

In no other profession would you find this, except maybe (MAYBE) fast food or waitressing.

The bitterness many MTs feel makes sense. We are asked to do many things outside of our work time that brings our actual hourly wages down. We are asked to sit for hours and scrounge for work, all without pay. We are consistently stripped of benefits like holiday pay and vacation pay. We are never rewarded for the years we have put into our careers or the knowledge we've gained because of that. We are very, very occasionally thanked (in mass emails) for the hard work we put in, and then immediately asked to flex our time regardless of the lives we have planned in order to suit the needs of our company. Our only hope for more money is to work more hours, or to somehow make our fingers faster and the dictators more audible. We are never, ever able to be dependent on our paychecks, because our line counts vary paycheck to paycheck due to fluctuating work. And, more than anything, we're treated as numbers (by many, but not all), and expendable because we're faceless, personality-less drones.

But it's our fault as much as it's the companies' faults. We've allowed ourselves to be treated this way. We've told ourselves things like, 'Oh well. At least I can do this in my pajamas.'

Can you imagine a coder in a hospital being asked to leave for three hours a day on random days of the week, only to be asked to come back and work those three hours at some time after 7 p.m.? Can you imagine an accountant being told that they are not to conduct company business like responding to or sending emails during their work hours, and that they have to do it on their own time without pay?

I don't condone whining, and I don't think dwelling in negativity is the answer to our problems. I also agree that the complaining can be easily misconstrued as selfish.

But I DO congratulate those who are constructively doing something to elevate our profession to a new level. Even if it backfires, even if it's all for naught, and even if it's misguided, at least it's not just sitting around and complaining anymore.

This is pretty common. From what I have seen, a lot of recruiters work from home not from the offic
The company that I work for has just pulled recruiting in to the office. Our recruiter was wonderful, and we had many compliments about her. The problem is that the office is where everything is in terms of paperwork, schedules, etc. The need for additional transcriptionists on an account often goes through the office first, the need to replace someone due to termination or resignation goes through the office first, etc. Our recruiter did great with what she was given (and was very, very organized) but we made the decision to pull it in house for control over paperwork, schedules, etc.

We have had a few complaints that she conveyed information to them that was not correct or a little too rigid, but that was because she was 1500 miles away and if something happened in the office to affect that, the information was not always conveyed real time. With everyone in one place, it is easier to hold discussions, compare resumes and have everyone on the same page.

Our recruiter was salary, not paid commission on hires. That might make the difference. Either way, I doubt that a recruiter would purposely mislead someone as that would cause rapid MT turnover which would then send up red flags.

Believe it or not, companies want to KEEP their transcriptionists, not have revolving door!


Webmedx work pretty low. Typical for this time of year? sm
I'm fairly new, so just wondering. Having come from the evil Q, it makes me nervous. While at the Q and a couple other companies, this is not the time of year I typically ran out of work--Christmas, T-giving, 4th of July, yes, now, no. Thanks.
It's been pretty consistent for me, but I work for two companies and type several doctors
and even with that, sometimes it gets slow, and then when it picks up, it is really hectic.  It's so hard with this type of work to get it just right :)
Is the work flow pretty steady on the evening shift
n
I'll never work for another co. that isn't 100% U.S.!!! NEVER! nm
x
That's what happens with me, too; it'll work at the beginning of the day but then not.
My tech guy said he'd look into it but I'm thinking it's just a glitchy program. 
I'll bet this one's a real joy to work for.....
;p
Go to work for them and you'll find out
LOLOLOLOL
If you ask for more lines, they'll work with you (NM)
:D
Believe me, you'll work weekends so don't
go bragging just yet. Chances are M-F will find you running out of work.
I'll tell you how its taking work

Say you, and others like you, come on (or remain on) at the beginning of my shift.  The work volumes drop dramatically as YOU make up your hours - TAT issues or not.  By the time you've made up your time, there's maybe an hour's worth of work left.  That runs out rapidly as my shift was already FULLY staffed, and I get stuck sitting there the whole 12 hour window - and if I'm lucky enough work will trickle in during those extra 4 hours that ALL of us scheduled to work my shift that are fighting for it can get their time in and call it a night.


Night after night I run out of work an hour or 2 before my 8 hours are in.  Sometimes I only have 20 minutes left to type - but I am forced to sit there 4 extra hours in order to get that stupid 20 minutes - knowing I'll be short EVERY night, so if I don't make my 8 tonight, the chances of me making it up another day are very slim, because everyone is flexing all over the place.  Sure it gives us perfect TAT - it also gives us 4 hours of our lives a day, wasted and unpaid!


No I do NOT want to make it up on my days off.  I am already spending 12+ hours a day chained to my workstation.  My days off are sacred for my sanity.  Maybe it doesn't bother you, but it certainly bothers me, and I quit the last job I had where flexing 24/7 was expected.


I know you need to make your hours.  We all do.  The MTs are just doing what they have to do.  The only real solution is to STOP OVERHIRING.  Otherwise flexing eventually gets forced on every employee on every shift, whether they mind it or not!


I guess you'll find out when you go to work there....sm
Just be sure to not resign from Transcend until you see if this other company is truly all they told you they would be.
Not much. They offshore, too. You'll get all the crap work.

Great idea. I'll work on this in
Thanks.
I don't think you'll find any work here..unless you have a C-phone...
Not much work here to keep me busy or even make my line requirements.
We must work for the same place.. I'll email you (nm)
x
I'll work for them again if they get another eScription account.
The one I was on was lost. Not too heart broken as it was a pain in the butt account.
You'll have work today, but not tomorrow.
nm
You'll work twice as hard to get half as much, it seems
z
2 Months There--ENOUGH! Only work you'll get plenty of there..sm
 Was there less than 2 months.  The only work you'll get plenty of there is unpaid work, demographics, looking up names the dictator won't spell... if you complaint about the above, they'll terminate your contract.  Thus, hard to get line count...there is little of that!
They'll work with the report being created in front of them...sm

With all the times I've had residents, PAs, or NPs dictate sentences, erase them, start again, erase them, and then end up saying go back to where I said [fill in the blank] and put [such and such] instead, I can't see a machine being able to correctly interpret all that.  If they work with the document being created in front of them, they can fix all this stuff as they go along. Just highlight the old stuff they want out and replace it with the new stuff they really wanted.


I can't see the computers picking up medication errors, dosage errors, incorrect dates, new operative equipment, being able to correctly flag right/left, or correct spelling of cc'd physicians' names. Most likely there is another program running with it that would do a pop screen for amoxicillin 5000 mg tid to question it. Physician names are probably in a pop up screen too. Of course, it's not going to correct everything but when the COX-2 inhibitors were taken off the market do you think a human could go through all 5,785 charts to find the people who had been prescribed Celebrex to call them to tell them to stop taking it? Of course not.  It's not a matter of IF MT's will be replaced, it's already happening.


 


 


Even if you're FT, you'll be lucky to have enough work to get your lines,
x
lol You'll be hard pressed to find work with
nm
First rule, never work for a company who says "I'll pay you when I get paid." sm
This is unacceptable. Any company with a decent client base gets paid at least net 30 days. I previously operated a small service and paid my subcontractors twice monthly despite being paid net 30 days by my physician groups. Yes, it was a hardship for me, but I brought those who worked hard to help me maintain my service first. Any company who pays their workers when they get paid, does not deserve to employ others. Plain and simple there is no excuse for this. Please, please find a company who values your work instead of using you.
Worst company to work for. Read the archives and you'll
be hard pressed to find anything good about this company. 
If you'll read through past posts you'll find lots of
recent info.  Why do you need menitoring if you already work as an MT.  Unless you do clinic work most companies will require you to work at least one weekend day, at least initially. 
You'll work as an employee, not IC. Need your own C-phone and pay for your own long distance line
s
Workin, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that one of the suggestions will work for you too. nm
nm
If you'll read the archives you'll find out everything
you want to know, none of it good.
Does anyone recommend a pretty good company that is good to work for, pay always on time and plenty
of work.  I know that is asking a lot, but just curious?
Probably figure you'll want Way more than they'll offer, whatever it might be. :) nm
s
If you'll read more carefully you'll see
I was referring to AFTER she's missed out on a job, having a friend do sort of an audit to tell her what what was wrong with her test she submitted -- not cheating.
Must be pretty far SM
I've worked for them for 2 years and never a problem.
Pretty Bad
I have no interest in working for Keystrokes, but had to check out their new and improved benefit package. It is pretty bad unless you are unlucky enough to have a couple of deaths in the family.
You could say that about pretty much every co.
You know what they say about opinions...I have seen just about every major national company being asked about on these boards at one time or another and there are always people who will have negative things to say about them.  On the other hand, there are always people who will say positive things as well.  The only thing you can do is educate yourself about each company by going to their website and contacting the company directly to get answers.  Otherwise, it's all a lot of hearsay. JMO
I appreciate that!! I am pretty used to getting
flamed for not-so-positive comments so you are a breath of fresh air!! I hope they work out for you, I really do. I was one who loved Spheris until, well, I guess I should not say, but I hated MQ, so I guess we have both BTDT. Good luck to you, too:) I really think I have found mine with this company that just hired me. Sure hope so:)
That's pretty bad...
most editors I know make way more than that.