Second thoughts re KS

This week I was offered a job with KS on a new hem/onc account starting soon, which will use the Allscripts platform.  I actually did accept their offer, but after doing so, I am having second thoughts.  The company I am working for now has been very nice to me, but the hem/onc account I am on is a very difficult one with a lot of different dictators.  The new account for KS would not have half as many dictators.  The cpl rates are very close, but I am not sure I want to go through all that new stuff of learning a new platform, new dictators, etc. Has anyone else out there ever decided to stay with the company they are with even though the new account being offered would be much easier.

Would like to get some opinions regarding this.  Has anyone else decided to stay with their present national and not take the new job offer?  TIA

• Second thoughts re KS - Daphne
  • Yes, I have decided to stay put myself. sm - Me
  • I went through this last year. I was offered - BTDT
    • Thanks for your input - Daphne
      • You would be pleasantly surprised. They can be understanding. sm - BTDT

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Okay, I am a newbie and I have taken a leap of faith to go with TRS, I have been on and off this board and see that there are some wonderful AND experienced MTs on here.  Any info you can give me on what you know about this company would be great!  I am a military spouse and we have recently gone from a two income house to a one, we just spent 5 years in Germany and we bring back a 2 yr old, a 1 year old and one on the way :)  Because of this I decided to go down the MT road for a second income to be able to stay at home.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!!  I am really just wanting to know I am going in the right direction.  I know there are plenty of 'better' companies out there, but I need to get my feet wet before they will touch me.

All comments are welcome!!!  Thank you for your time!!

V/r

Michelle

I posted a message on 11/17 regarding having second thoughts about going to work for KS.  If you did not see that message, would you please read it and tell me what your thoughts might be.  I need more feedback before making my decision.

Your opinion is appreciated.  Thanks.

I have accepted a position at TT.  Now I am having second thoughts about leaving MQ.  I was so impressed by all the wonderful TT talk a few weeks ago, plus at the time being miserable at MQ so I applied.  Now my MQ work is getting better and now reading this post, I am getting nervous.  Worried about working 8 hours a day on the weekend, plus what if the work is worse than at MQ??? I am just getting nervous about the change, I hate change.   Just needing to vent, thanks.

Don't listen to the bipolar people on this board.  I swear ... one day everyone is praising TT ... next day bashing them.  These people are on a constant hormonal pendulum or something.  I have been at TT for 2 months now.  Aside from the insurance going up (and I'm willing to wait this out), I have been thrilled with TT and love the account I am on. 

Is TT having a few communication issues the moment ... perhaps.  They are growing very, very fast (sometimes you have to take the big accounts when you can get 'em).  They are great people to work for.  This will all even out ... they just need a little time and patience. 

People are crazy on this board.  One bad day and they want to throw it all away.  That is just not how life works.  It is like they are looking for an excuse to walk out the door ... anything.  Like the MT who totally misread an e-mail about when to page after hours.  She didn't even read it thoroughly (or correctly) and she is on here blasting TT left and right saying she is quitting. 

People act like they will just leave a job, start another tomorrow, and life will be dandy.  Changing jobs is stressful, and there is always somewhat of a loss initially whether it is PTO, waiting for insurance, or just taking time to learn a new account, creating normals, learning the names of the referring docs in the area, learning city names, etc.  This all takes time (which means money for us). 

These people who have a few e-mails that go unanswered or don't get answered as quickly as they should need to realize the GROWTH TT is experiencing, which is a good thing.  Have a little patience or bring your concerns to your supervisor. 

TT is an excellent choice.  I hope you enjoy your new position.  I certainly have. 

Say I'm happy at my job.  I come across someone asking questions about my company in general, so I take a quick minute to answer.  That person emails me privately, asking a zillion questions.  I try to answer their questions to the best of my knowledge, rooting through my manuals for answers, looking up my production figures, etc.  This takes me a good long while to answer all their questions thoroughly, and throw in a few extra facts that I think of in the process, trying to present an accurate view of the company, pros and cons.  I know my company is offering a $500 bonus for me AND anyone I recruit - so we both get a bonus if they mention my name.

You're saying I should not mention that bonus?  I should take time out of my busy schedule to help a stranger, and then I'll get accused of greed if I mention we can both profit from our correspondence?  Wow, that's gratitude! I guess I'll just ignore any private emails from now on and refuse to help anyone.

I've been in this industry for 20+ years.  What I have seen is a lot of fudging around from other companies about how they interpreted AHDI's old guidelines on what constituted a line. This has led to tremendous disservice to the MTs who are working on production. It's also made it hard for ethical companies to compete with the big guys who have looked for loopholes in the previous line definition (read up on the class action lawsuits against one of the largest MT employers if you aren't aware of this). So I think Jay is on the right path in doing this to keep the company competitive with the others that aren't as ethical and to get ALL of the MT companies on the same page with regard to what a line is. There needs to be one standard. This needs to be absolutely clear in contracts among MTs, hospitals, and the MTSOs out there, or the MTs and the good companies will suffer.

M-TEC is a great school. Their graduates have been awesome. A partnership with them will be a good thing, I think. I can't think of any way in which it won't. Current employees don't lose their jobs. Now the best students don't have to start with some of the sweatshop mentality companies out there like some of us old timers did just to get a foot in the door. Remember those times?

No, I'm not in management. I'm in QA with Webmedx. There is no perfect company, but this has come as close as I've ever seen any MT company. This one has gotten better over the years as they've hired new management and replaced some old. I have been in admin with other companies, and I have seen a whole lot of dirty dealings. I'm not seeing that at Webmedx. I don't get to see everything admin does, of course, being in QA, but I do see some things. What I can say is they're functioning much differently and more ethically and honestly than any other MT company I've ever worked for. The culture is different. There's no feeling from management that they're out to take advantage of the MT.

There are things they can improve on, of course, but I truly think this is as good as it gets in the MT field, and you don't even want to know how many MT jobs (IC and employee) I've had to compare it with (too many!). Too many of us can relate to having the long list of employers. We had to do it because we had to keep rooves over our heads, and we only barely did that with the way they took advantage of us.

I think this company is doing the right things and heading in the right direction.

I'm retired now partly because of all the changes that are taking place in the industry.  I did MT for a very long time and I still care about the MTs who are working.  My feeling is that it isn't so much the off-shoring anymore.  My  understanding is that some of the better schools have an apprentice program for their graduates.  I think that they are using the new grads who will work for less money.  Same thing as nurses being replaced by new grads who will work for less.  I know one MT company  has actually bought one of the schools.  Experience is no longer an asset.  Most likely it's going to get worse.  One thing is certain, there is no longer a shortage of medical transcriptionists.

Gourdpainter (so glad to see you here; missed you)!

I absolutely agree with your post.  I have been a MT since 1981, beginning in an orthopedic clinic and in 1984 working as a Pathology MT since then.  I currently work for one of the largest HMO's in the US (starts with a K); and the MT's here are being phased out by voice recognition.  The union who is supposed to represent us has been sleeping with management who decided that 'we make too much money' - our contract is up in 2009.  To show how much they care, as far as severence pay; for example for an employee who has worked over 20 years they would get 30 days severance; less than that (i have been at this particular company since 1999), I would get 2 weeks severance.  Crappy. This industry is so crooked and would no more care about our experience, quality of work or dedication than they would a stranger on the street.  You are absolutely right that many of these hospitals/clinics are hiring new grads because they know they can pay them less.  At times I feel as if I work in a sweat shop and it's a sad state of affairs.  I still have a job (and I am thankful) but at any time the other shoe is going to drop and we will be out the door.  The union has 'promised' to find us other positions but I am not holding my breath.  That is why I have decided, at the age of 51, to become an x-ray tech.  It is a two year program but it will be two years that I have invested to have a better chance at staying employed as opposed to the way us MT's have been treated.  It's sad because I love what I do yet I know that I gotta get a move on and bolster my education some more.  I truly pray for all of us, not just us MT's but all of us in this country because we have to help one another if we are going to survive not only this deprecession all else that comes with. 

I have had very negative experiences with unions also. All of what you say is true and I beleive a union would push all our jobs offshore for sure.

You would be exactly right BUT (big but), a lot depends on the number of accounts you have, number of doctors on those accounts, and the number of MTs.  The pooling happens because of vacations, illnesses, unreliable MTs, etc., etc.  So the company wants to guarantee full coverage, always meet TAT, and that all MTs can type on ALL accounts and be switched around as needed. 

I am on 1 single account, and we still assign doctors to certain MTs on the account.  This works so good, production goes up, $$ goes up, and TAT is better, but when that MT is out who does Dr. Jones and Dr. Smith exclusively, it is sent out to the rest of us.  This is only occasional and does not cause too many problems.  In the perfect world we should all do this, but it is what it is and I really do think you would be shocked at how many unreliable MTs there really are out there.

I agree to an extent, but I don't necessarily agree with exclusive doctors and being assigned a certain amount of work, meaning the service assigns a certain amount of work exclusively to you.  I think the ideal situation would be MTs sticking with just 1 account and possibly being routed only specific report types that they transcribe.  In other words, working from a very limited pool. 

I know some may think, but who is going to do the discharge summaries or the ESLs?  Well, there are, believe it or not, MTs who love discharge summaries and don't mind ESLs (I've met some) - that is where pay becomes a big factor.  Regarding the ESLs, they are not bad if you consistently transcribe their reports.  I think that is the key, consistency.  The problem is that many MTs are forced to bounce around several accounts and so they don't get that consistency and end up doing the same ESL maybe once month.  Not only is that bad for production, it is also bad in terms of quality. 

Now, how is this all kept in TAT?  It may take a short period of time to figure out how many MTs are needed to keep the working flowing correctly, but it is not an impossible task.  I think the key here is having the MTs commit to either an approximate number of minutes per day/week/month or a certain number of lines.  Minutes would be ideal based on the fact that many services can see how many minutes of dictation are available for transcription at any given time.  As far as I know, it is within legal rights to require an IC to commit to a certain 'project.'  It would simply give the service an approximate amount to work with.  So, in other words, instead of the service telling you how many minutes you will transcribe, you tell them how many minutes.  They will compare that against how many minutes of dictation they have available and hire accordingly.

Anyway, I think a single account with a small pool is great, maybe specific work types, committing to minutes or possibly lines, and paying a higher-than-average rate because QA costs will be reduced is the ideal situation.  This could also work for an employee-type situation, just adjust for committed lines per hour or minutes per hour.

I feel this all comes down to personal responsibility.  Regardless of whether an MT is paid per line or hourly, there will still be a requirement as far as how many lines need to be produced per hour or per day.  It is the MT's choice whether they want to produce a quality document or not.  If they are paid by line, they need to understand that just because you can go faster and can make more money, does not mean that you should.  What must be understood is that there is a person behind each one of these reports.  This report will be used to provide care for a human being. 

It would help if all MTs had access to hospital EMR (I think this should be mandatory) and if dictators did their part (and that is a whole different topic).  Right now, we are responsible for ourselves... and MTs need to do just that, be responsible, not greedy.  And if you feel you cannot make the absolute necessary basic amount to survive on, then you need to find a different job.  But it is never okay to rip through reports and put patient care at risk.

Regarding other production-based jobs, some truck drivers work on a production basis, and they have regulations regarding how many hours they can work for safety reasons.  Some medical coders also work in a production environment. 

On the surface I see nothing wrong with this ad provided they are willing to pay a living wage as it applies in the U.S.  I notice they want 1 year experience TRAINING MTs.  This says something...like maybe they aren't really importing MTs but people who can train their own people.

What I do find wrong is Americans traveling to foreign countries are expected to respect THEIR culture (perfectly reasonable) but foreigners come to OUR country and we are expected to respect THEIR culture (perfectly UNreasonable) here in our own country.  They are even allowed to fly their own flags.  I seriously considered taking a job in Saudi back in the early 90s when there were plenty of jobs here in the U.S.  I don't recall all the details but I do know it was for an American run hospital.  I think that company may have been called Raytheon or something like that but I don't remember for sure.   Things have changed so since the early 90s that I would not even consider TRAVELING to a foreign country in this day and age, let alone living there.

I agree with most of what has been said.  I have not worked on DocQScribe, but have worked on several platforms.  I like my current platform, very easy to use.  I have worked in Word for years as well. I am willing to learn any platform as long as it is user/MT friendly.

My wants/needs list would be:

-Flexible schedule - as in x lines during a 24-hour period, no set hours.  This is very important for me.

-Pay rate.  I haven't  made less than .10-.12 in 10 years, but would consider going to .095 or .09 to help start up a company.

-Working via the internet.  I have not had to use a Lanier or long distance for several years and the freedom working via the net has afforded me has been wonderful.  I can pack up  my laptop and work anywhere there is DSL, so I would not want to go back if I could at all avoid it.  And this is good for my MTSO, as I can work whereas being tied to the phone, Lanier, etc., I would have to take the time I'm away from home completely off.

-I prefer SE or IC so I can claim all my home deductions, but would consider PT employee status if I could still have my tax deductions, which I think may be allowed now by the IRS with so many telecommuters, not sure.

-Communication!  Being treated with common courtesy and respect, not being ignored.

I am always willing to learn new accounts and new work types to keep myself valuable.  I would not hesitate to take on new things.  But it would be nice to have a steady account with work types that I have experience in while learning those new things to balance out the ability to make money.  I prefer acute care and psychiatry, but have done clinic, Workers' Comp., and nearly every specialty.  I prefer some specialties/work types over others same as most, so would be happier if I could work the types I'm best at, but always wiling to learn more.

Bottom line, work with me on flexible scheduling, decent pay rate, and hopefully via the internet on a decent platform, and I will learn whatever you need me to, flex my hours to help your coverage when asked, work some weekends when needed and even some holidays when needed.  It's a give and take and I'm willing to give a lot if the MTSO is as well.  I think it all comes down to communication and respect for each other's needs and wants as coworkers and human beings. 

If you get this endeavor up and running, please contact me!

Just curious as to thoughts on Transcend at present. Thanks.:)

Has anyone worked for this company? What are their strengths and or weakness? I have been offered a position with them. I need an honest answer please!