Thank you, Carlotta, for your eloquent dissertation regarding MDI, D, and its liaisons. - VLM

• Message from MDI-MD Liaisons - Carlotta from MDI
  • Thank you, Carlotta, for your eloquent dissertation regarding MDI, D, and its liaisons. - VLM - Indy-MT
  • I had the pleasure of meeting D several years ago - sm
    • I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her or any of the liaisons, sm - LTMT
    • Thanks! - Dorothy Fitzgerald
      • What a lovely thing to say. - Much appreciated. Seymour Butts
      • You're welcome, D! : ) - nm

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“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

                                                            ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the credo to which the owner of MDI-MD adheres. The success of every MT, however they measure it, is important, great or small.  As a company we value everybody’s contribution and respect the work that everyone does.  That being said, our success is through open communication, flexibility, integrity, and commitment to excellence. 

I am coming to this chat board today on behalf of MDI’s account liaisons and management team to address some comments that were made on this board over the past few days with regard to MDI-MD and it’s management structure. 

A team is only successful if everyone keeps moving in the same direction together.  It is working together as a team, the MTs, QA department, operations, and client support services, that has made MDI-MD a success in a rapidly changing industry.  As our leader, Dorothy carries heavily the weight on her shoulders of the 300 families who depend on MDI for financial support.  This overwhelming sense of responsibility for the welfare of MDI’s employees and MTs is what pushes her forward every day…servicing our clients to ensure their satisfaction, as well as responding to hundreds of emails and phone calls daily.  Indeed, she is more than willing to give her cell phone number to both clients and MTs…many of whom do not hesitate to call her at all hours of the day or night. 

As account liaisons, we work closely with Dorothy and each other on a daily basis to maintain the balance of MT resources and backlogs.  Our goal is to always maintain our accounts within TAT while ensuring that our MTs have enough work.  Traditionally, the holidays are a slow period for the industry; MDI was fortunate over the past 3 or 4 years to have not experienced this annual slow down.  This is probably the reason why some may be alarmed this year that our backlogs have been lighter over the past few weeks.  You only have to go back a few weeks, though, to remember the HOURS of backlog on all our accounts.  We have several major accounts expecting JCAHO visits over the next  few weeks and months, so it is imperative that we maintain this level of TAT. 

Flexibility is one of the best things about being an acute care or clinic MT with MDI…we each choose our line commitment and the days that we will be working.  It is then completely up to us what hours we choose to work in order to complete our commitment.  If we have meetings or appointments on any given day/evening, we can choose to work around those hours.  If we have trouble sleeping, we can choose to get up and work for a while until we again become sleepy.  This flexibility, though, must work both ways.  We have a responsibility to our accounts to provide stat coverage 24/7…including weekends and holidays.  We have a responsibility to our clients to keep the backlogs within TAT at all times…day/night, 365 days a year.  It is with this in mind that we must all remember that flexibility is a 2-way street, even though most of the year the flexibility is in the MT’s favor. 

Addressing any and all concerns is important to all of us at MDI.  However, if concerns are not voiced to your account liaison and/or to Dorothy, then we cannot possibly work to resolve any issues.  If your account experiences a temporary slow-down, we ask for your flexibility…if the problem is persistent, we typically have many accounts that could use extra MTs.  If you have voiced your concern about lack of work and not been assigned to a secondary account, there could be one of several reasons for this…level of commitment, breadth of experience for additional accounts, account accessibility issues (Lanier versus DVI/C-phone versus WAV), requirement for DQA on a new account, to name a few.  While it may seem an easy answer to pick up a new account, the training and learning curve may outweigh waiting a few days for the work on your primary account to pick back up.  If you are unable to be flexible with your work hours, then notifying your liaison that you may not meet your commitment on any specific day due to lack of work is all that we ask.  There is always the option of playing “Let’s Make a Deal” and asking to switch days off. 

Difficult times face our industry and challenges are mounting.  We continue to look for new opportunities while trying to maintain our current obligation, but this balance is never easy.  Because of our commitment to excellence we are always looking for high-caliber quality MTs to join the MDI family.  While we receive hundreds of resumes, fewer than 50% are considered potential candidates, and of that  number only about 10% are offered a position and perhaps only 7-8% of those are successful at completing our intense 2-week directed QA training period and becoming MDI MTs.

MDI’s commitment to MT satisfaction is equally important to all of us.  This is why each account has a liaison who is available to every MT via email or phone call.  It is important to us to hear from you if you are having a problem of any sort, be it transcription-related or technical.  While we’re not as savvy about computers as our tech support team is, we will do our best to assist you with any basic computer or BayScribe question, and if we are unable to do so we will refer your problem to our tech support team. 

We recently unveiled our new discussion forum/chat board at www.mditrans.net.  As this forum continues to grow you will be able to discuss with other MDI MTs account-specific or platform issues, as well as any other topics you choose to discuss.  We are formulating a weekly live-online forum where Dorothy, as well as the liaisons, will be available to answer any questions/concerns/issues during a specific time frame.  We have resumed publication of our newsletter in an electronic format, which is also available on-line at www.mditrans.net, and invite input from all of MDI’s MTs and employees.

MDI-MD is home to many MTs, some for over 20 years, and I personally believe that it may be the last company that most of us will ever work for.  We have aligned ourselves with a quality company in MDI-MD.  We have a bright future to look forward to with new accounts, improved communication and technology, which will serve to make our jobs more satisfying. 

We look forward to another new year working together with the MDI family.

Carlotta, on behalf of MDI's liaisons and management team

but I do look forward to the part of the new forum with photos and profiles posted.  It will be interesting to see if my mental pictures match the real thing. 

I'm like you ... I do tend to fret and worry when work is slow, even though I know that ups and downs tend to be the nature of the business.  I do believe, though, that everyone at MDI does the best they can to look out for us.  It still doesn't stop me from worrying when I run out of work, but I do not feel angry or blameful ... just sometimes wonder if I can find an electric pole to plug my computer into if I become homeless (smile).

Thanks to you, C, and D for the positive posts. 

I spoke to a chapter representative today.  This is finally happening and I couldn't be more proud.

please call you at her earliest convenience.  I think she would be willing to talk to you and help you figure out what you need to do to get your lines in. 

The total work available at the top of the Bayscribe page is for all of the wave accounts combined.  If you click on your account and it says 0, that means your account is empty.  The other accounts that are not yours still have the work.  Perhaps they can give you a different account. 

Is a Lanier account (unlimited long distance) out of the question for you?  That could possibly solve your problem.

Of course I am making one rather large assumption, that you are working for MDI.  I hope you don't mind, and of course if I am wrong, maybe this info has helped somebody else.