Some other factors to ponder Maggie...sm
Posted By: Whorn on 2007-11-02
In Reply to: Long, but just had to say it ..sm - Maggie M
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.
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Another point to ponder........
A large percentage of MTs work at home. We are not anywhere near the company's office to be aware of what is going on, what polices are being introduced or abandoned, etc. Sometimes we tend to be caught up in our own space and just assume that the company is taking care of business and looking out for us. (I really think these big corporations have used this to their advantage.) From what I have seen over the years, this is NOT the case. Maybe it's time for us to get involved again. Feedback welcome.
Question to ponder.....
I am an instructor at a local community college teaching transcription as well as medical records and coding....my question is this. This new stimulus package that Obama is proposing talks about funding $20 billion to computerize medical records and make them more efficient.....how do you see this affecting our jobs as MT, or any part of the medical records portion. I would love to discuss this with my students and would appreciate any feedback all of ya'll out there might have.
Thanks in advance
Bravo!!! Hey Maggie......
Can I come work for you??
Not all of us are as fortunate as Maggie
Agree with you 100%.
Maggie, your rant was one of the
whiniest I've ever seen on the board...
Full of generalizations and generalizations...
You epitomize the worst type of MTSO: Judgmental and hard and ready to call the kettle 'black' without first noticing that 'pots' are pretty 'dark' themselves... (in case this is too obscure, you accuse MTs of being whiny/complainers without apparently noting your own contribution in that department).
Try, just try, being a little more fair, less stereotypical, before you post volume II of Long but I had to say it...
To all my fellow MDI'ers: Things to ponder...
Hi all
I have been with MDI for over a year now (part time) and really like it! Most times my accounts have work. I am going through some changes at home and am really trying to make some serious life changing decisions so would like to get a few opinions:
My husband and I separated in April. I have been home for 6 years with my youngest child, and he is in first grade this year and absolutely love being home for him. Summers of course are the most difficult, I do not send him to day care and we do more things together in the summer, love it! However, as of last year I have been trying to get into a local LPN nursing school here and have succeeded and am scheduled to begin September 8, but here is my dilemna, I am having second thoughts! I now don't know if this is something I really want to do and why I am having these thoughts. I do like being a medical transcriptonist, but feel a little burned out at times. Plus, I am not sure if I can afford to go to school, my first loan installment (cost of living) will not come until November. I have a little money set aside, but it is going quickly. I am trying to determine if I can support me and my son on just an income from MDI or if I should really change gears and go to school. I love the flexibility of working at home and am sure I will miss this, but nursing school is very demanding and the job itself once I am out there. Like I said, I love being a mom and able to have the freedom of doing this from home. So, how many of you support yourselves or your families on the income from MDI and is this something I can reasonably expect to be able to do? I have been doing this for 15+ years so I am definitely experienced. Plus, I do not like the idea of worrying about taxes, but if I go to work as an employee I will lose more of my freedom. I like being an IC. I did work for Medquist for almost 7 years and left them to come here and there is a world of difference between the 2 companies.
What would all of you do? Stay with MDI or go to school? And if I do go to school, I would keep MDI very part time at least until I was through with school. But, do you think with all the changes going on in the transcription world we will eventually have no jobs or our jobs will change drastically? How can I decide what is best for me and my son?
Please any and all suggestions welcome! Thanks!
Oops, that wasn't to Maggie M
I meant to say, call it sharing your experiences.
Are you Maggie from the union initiative?
nm
A couple of things to ponder and solicit opinions
This is not the only odd thing occurring at MDI-MD. Let me give you my opinion of what's happening with YOUR situation, and perhaps you can venture an explanation to my oddity.
First of all, I often read the threads on the MQ board and from what I gather, once an account is shuttled over to VR, the only dictators left for straight transcription are either new dictators or the ones who are so horrible that VR can't translate them.
If I had to venture a guess, I'd say you are being left with the dregs that cannot be converted to VR. It might very well be this is an example of what you will be stuck with from here on out.
Oddly, on my MDI account, there was no work on one of my clinics for 2 days. I found it strange but thought perhaps the clinic had not been seeing patients for a couple of days.
Imagine my shock when reports dictated on SEPTEMBER 4th did not show up to be transcribed until SEPTEMBER 8th.
Where where those reports for 4 days? Perhaps over in India and the ILPs fell out of TAT and so MDI begrudgingly had to bring them back for the American MTs to catch up? I have worked on this particular account for over a year, and NEVER have reports not been in the cue ready to type immediately after they are dictated.
This same scenario occurred again 3 days later; dictation that was 2 days old suddenly appeared (a different specialty within the same clinic).
Yep, strange things are definitely going down at MDI-MD and I expect it's going to become even stranger the closer to January we get.
What's that linen from All About Eve? 'Fasten your seatbelts, folks...It's going to be a bumpy night!'
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
MTSOs have no control over the factors that would make this
:+
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
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