The reason the seasoned MTs won't
Posted By: work - sm on 2006-02-04
In Reply to: Spheris and new MTs - Jennifer
for them is because the line rate is offensive.
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Don't you think, though, that one reason seasoned -
MT's are making more mistakes and not caring about it, is that we're expected to produce more and more, and yet we're getting paid less and less. 'Back in the day', when I was getting paid hourly, my production was higher, and my quality was better, but that's because I received a good wage, so I actually CARED. Now, it's a race against the clock all day long. The industry is getting what it's paying for, which is 'NOT MUCH'.
Precyse MT's: Can a seasoned MT do 250+ LPH
nm
How many lines per hour should a seasoned MT
I know it depends on work types and such but I just need a generalized idea. This is my first time being paid by line. The job offers a good mix of exams. TIA
Questions for any seasoned transcriptionists....
I am supposed to do a typist and word processing test tomorrow for a place called KCS Psych Type in Illinois. The reason I replied to the job was because it advertised work-from-home, which I desperately need right now due to family matters. Anyway, I am debating on whether this is worth the trip right now because its a 2 hr drive each way, and I have to get a rental car, and for some reason the lady isn't answering my questions about the rate of pay. She also said in her last email for me to keep in mind that if I am hired, I would need to commute to Bartlett until I am trained; when I emailed back immediately to ask her how long training would usually take, I have received no reply. Should I do this? I really can't decide!! Help!!
Seasoned, we were told from the very start we could not
retype the entire report, better not zap it off and start over because it was a no-no and your pay would still be for the lesser amount per line even if you were allowed to retype. It is not VR that I am steaming, enraged at, nah, it is mostly the ESLs we have now. I love VR myself even with its quirks.
Resume Tips & Tricks for Seasoned MTs!!!
We should all add these qualities to our resumes. It's what they expect anymore anyway:
- An outstanding ability to take muddy, garbled jibber-jabber and severely fractured English in 155,000 dilects and turn it into unbelievably beautiful transcription, with no blanks!
- Oh, and don't worry, Mexican, Cuban, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Indian, or even rabid auctioneer doctors who speak so fast they could not understand them self on a play back . . . no problemo! It doesn't matter, because I am so good if it sounds remotely close with even one syllable barely audible or intelligible I will struggle until I get it. I do this eagerly because I know you are selling me pride in my work, not a decent wage and because I dread your miserable QA autopsy of my work.
- Will work as hard as a slave for $3 an hour average with a college degree on the most gut-wrenching work you have, and all this without an occasional can of salve for the whip marks on my back.
- Will also fill in hundreds of entries for free on patient information, courtesy copies and researching things like how to spell Waccamaw even if I don't live in South Carolina. Things doctors could spell, or dictate clearly but won't because they are too lazy.
- I will also run those dates of service through my magic crystal ball formula to know when the doctor says The patient was seen today, I should look back on the ADT screen and see when he dictated it to know what he means by when it was dictated. I will do it because you will bonk me on the head and tell me, It's your job to do this for free!
While I am at it, I will run a medical quality assessment through my head to see if it sounds logical and reasonable for all medical sciences and diagnoses. I will happily verify those medication dosages are correctly dictated because even if the doctor has been to medical school and I haven't . . . I should identify that 325 mg of Coreg will kill someone and correct it! Again because, It's my job, to run around behind doctors and wipe their butt for free!!! I'm happy to do that, even if I haven't had the benefit of medical school because . . . . yes, I'm that good baby!!
- And at the end of two or three years of struggling to make a wage above the poverty level learning all this garbage, if you find some foreigner will do my job cheaper to make you more money, don't sweat it! Just fire me . . . in a conference call with 101 of my coworkers in mass humiliation. No problem!
For seasoned, fast transcriptionists, hourly would be a step down ...
I agree with your post. I've given a lot of thought lately to whether hourly would be more fair (given the extras that we have to do), and I've come to the conclusion that it is not. In the spirit of honesty, if I were to take an hourly position, my production would suffer for it.
As an experienced and fast transcriptionist, the amount of time I spend looking up unfamiliar terms is negligible, and I've reached a point of knowing what mush-mouthed blanks I won't get, after listening six or seven times.
The only thing I ask for is pay commensurate to my experience and knowledge. With a decent line rate, I could accept that there are other things that go into my job and that my line rate doesn't just pay for my production - it pays for the emails, and the instant messages, and figuring out line counts, and spending ten minutes every so often looking for a doctor's address.
As it is, at 8 cpl, those things are not worth the amount of money that I'm making. They seem superfluous and cut into my real life.
So, in answer to the first question, with 12 years of experience, an ingrained attention to detail, and all the knowledge of this profession that 12 years can bring, I believe my worth is 13-14 cpl. That's roughly $47,000 a year at 1500 lines a day. I think, given the intensity of our work hours (and the fact that, unlike other jobs, we don't get to spend an hour talking to coworkers or daydreaming or resting for any reason), that's a very, very fair wage in this day and age.
You can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.
No one HAS to employ you. No one MUST keep you in employment.
As an IC, your unemployment isn't coming from the account of your contracts! It comes from YOUR tax payments!
Maybe there's a reason for that.
I find it hard to believe that it's just a coincidence that so many people are having so many problems with so many different companies for it to be just the fault of the ones you call complainers. A lot of people really do something about, but it's still a big upheaval in their lives and I don't hold it against them just for looking for someone to share it with.
The reason they are doing this
like the other person said is to be more competitive with the market but what they are actually doing is lining the pockets of the big shots they just hired with the savings they don't have to pay their employees. Goodbye!
The reason I'm asking sm
I just wondered what it would take to make that kind of money per line.
I have close to 20 years experience in acute care and I was not offered even close to that, with only a half cent raise after the 2 week period, which still does not get me to what you are getting. How many years have you been with them?
Reason for U
Here is a reason, the owner of Omniscribe goes back on her word. She will tell you one thing, then do another when the mood suites her with no thought to you as an MT whatsoever. Is that a good reason for ya? BTW do u work for her? Why do you need a reason when someone tells you to beware of a company? Isn't that reason enough?
Exactly!! And that is the reason
work is being offshored!! People crazy enough to accept something ridiculous as 4 cpl!!
Some MTs will try to think of any reason why they just are
not hired. They totally overlook the actual problem, that being themselves! I guess they need an excuse so why not make up something called a black list? That's as good a reason as any to deny that you just lack the qualifications of some companies or just are not a good MT.
Any reason...
Yes, I believe you're right there. It is always easier to blame the other guy than to be accountable for our own shortcomings. The reality is that there ARE some good companies out there, not all are bad, and yet it seems they all take the heat with things like this. I find that unfortunate and would hope that any recruiter of those good companies would weed those folks out in the interview process.
For what reason?
Have you not returned equipment? Do you still have a foot pedal, computer, etc.? What else in the world would there be to bother you about?
This is the reason why (m)
it's impossible to get any real info here. You can't be honest unless you have only good things to say. I also would not be shocked to learn that people from the companies themselves post some of these questions just to see what kind of responses they get, then axe the people who respond in a way they don't like.
Because there's no reason..sm
..for the OP to want/need to know anything personal about us, let alone our SO. And it doesn't matter why WE decided to get into the field. Everybody has their own reasons, the way I see it, and why I went into it or why you went into it may be different than why he/she goes into it, so what difference does it make really. That was the way I took it. Seems very personal, just in terms of the asking about your SO part and the benefits. I tend to think it's MTSOs trying to find out info on us and why maybe they don't need to offer us benefits. Just being paranoid maybe, but you never can be too cautious these days.
Yup....that's the reason I went with them! (nm)
The reason I am an MT- sm
I have done this for 25+ years. If I was choosing a career at this point, I don't know if I would choose MT - it has changed drastically in my lifetime. However, I would like to tell you why it is chosen and why we do continue.
When I first started doing this, I had no clue regarding the enormous amount of information I would be required to learn. I did not know that it would be an ongoing and never-ending process of learning. I just thought it would be cool to type medical reports and wondered how hard it could be to listen to someone talk and type what they said! When I started getting a clue it became a challenge. I was already hooked, learning new things every day, feeling important because I had doctors talking into my ears, and knowing things about health/medicine that I had not known before. After a few years of striving to learn medical terminolog and hours and of hours of research in books and online trying to make sense of what I was hearing, I decided I had invested too much time/effort to do anything else.
For every medical report that is typed, someone behind the keys has had to learn terminology, lab values, physiology, anatomy, medications, proper style/grammar, and do it all quickly.
It is not the companies or the nickel/dime antics they play that keep us doing this. It is a geniune love for what we do - at least for me. I don't feel superior because of the knowlege I have gained over 25 years; however, I have worked hard to learn the things that make me a good medical transcriptionist. I am happy with my job/life because I choose to be. I could complain about the companies, MTSOs, etc., but I have worked at other jobs and had complaints. If it was not a job, I would not get a paycheck.
I love the field. I enjoy typing medical reports. I enjoy the research. I am good at what I do. By the way, if you ever find yourself on the receiving end of our work (in a hospital bed), think of your chart as the medical transcriptionist's gift to you - hopefully it will be typed by an experienced MT who stayed in the profession and knows how to do it right. 
ITA and my #2 reason I'm looking for another job. nm
I know the reason...
It used to be that the only abbreviation anything you could use with Lotus was what you could enter in MS-Word...no abbreviation Expander was compatible (for a lot of reasons I'm not going into just now). In any event, there was a compatibility problem with Lotus not counting all the characters expanded by abbreviation programs and the transcription manager was having to go in and manually count the characters to give the MT the proper pay. You can imagine that was a nightmare!
They have finally found a compatible abbreviation program that is fully compatible with Lotus...it is the only one compatible. Good company, honest people...They WANT you to succeed.
The reason for that
is because OSi has a difficult time staffing and then the workload gets way behind. That's also why they offer such a big hiring bonus. Unfortunately most MT's don't stay there long enough to collect it.
I have no reason to lie.
I make copies of my report prior to uploading when they must go to QA. I have been an MT for many years. There have been times when I have left a blank in a sentence and after seeing what QA has done..they deleted the entire sentence. I had no problems whatsoever hearing the other parts of the sentence.
DSG sucks in so many ways it is not even funny. There are no checks and balances in terms of the QA staff. I have no idea what their requirements are but I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THEY HAVE ENTERED RUBBISH IN THE BLANKS!!! Terms that could not be referenced ANYWHERE!
SOOOOOOOO....while you are wasting time reading this board...why don't YOU go work on a plan to do audits of the QA staff. And, since you want to be so informative...what happened to the QA manager who was recently hired and now is gone???????? Huh????
she will want to know the reason
I think your liason will probably be willing to move you to a new primary, but I would guess that they would want to know the reason why you want to move. Just explain it in basic terms in a professional way.
Is this the only reason you
are thinking you might not stay? I am thinking about applying, but I would like some input. It seems like it could be worth waiting for pay if it is stable and on time. It might be a wait for the first check, but after that pay would be twice a month, so it seems like there is something else that you don't like. Is the line rate good? Since you have had a week or so, maybe you could tell me what their dictators are like and if you get put on a bunch of accounts or just one. How about the platform, easy to use or not? Any information would be helpful.
There is no reason to take this job...
There are lots of other jobs out there - apply to those. Check the company board and you'll find reputable companies. I've even applied in the past to companies that weren't advertising but actually did have positions available (just no need for 100's of applicants). There's just no reason to torture yourself with this company.
This is the very reason
that companies overhire to keep their word with their clients regarding TAT. They give the client their word the work will be kept in TAT and then the MTs do not work if they do not feel like it and what is the end result. Same old story of how a few bad apples make everyone pay the price one way or another.
I think the reason
that they had to change it to the 7th and 22nd because we were needing a certain pay date. I know when I first started it was there like the next day, and then it went to two or three days. The more people they added plus the manual counting plus us always worrying is probably what prompted them to saying hey, it's just going to be the 7th and 22nd now.
Plus it does say in our contract they have up to 7 days after the cut off date.
(Maybe our banks should quit screwing around and just let the money go in there as soon as there is a DD, I know that would make things A LOT better! :) )
One reason
My experience with AllType was one of serious email communication problems. Then, when the paperwork was finally sent, it did not reflect the information discussed during the interview. Seemed like it would be a hostile working environment. Just my opinion, but was enough to cause me to call a halt to the process.
One reason
Focus is not the same company that they were 2 years ago. They were sold to Nuance in 2007. They used to be nicer to their current employees, too, but that changed.
Here's one reason why :
In a word: * QA *.
You do a good job. You research. You proofread. You turn out a correctly transcribed medical document.
Then some Editor who is paid a low, per-correction production rate gets hold of your work for *random QA*, and since there's nothing wrong with your work, takes it upon themselves to make changes, so they'll get paid more.
And voila. Now you have a report that's a piece of crap, and you never know it until it goes to the doc, and the doc complains to the MTSO. Then you get called for the *mistake* and docked for it.
There is no reason to tell them you
are working PT for someone else.
There is really no reason to tell your
FT job you work PT for another company. The only conflict would be if your FT company supplied your computer and you used it to work PT for the other company.
another reason would be
that they should not to reduce your pay rate if you are more productive in order to save the MTSO money--your gains in productivity are their gains. An MTSO would have to hire fewer employees (less costs of doing business for things like benefits to employees) to get more work done. You are saving them money by doing VR at the same rate as straight transcription, so why should you have to take a pay rate cut as well? Doesn't seem like it should be necessary.
for whatever reason we tried for sm
a month and they could not get the software set up. They said it was on their end, nothing to do with my computer etc etc. Everytime things didn't work, then they would say it would be 3-4 days before they could try again. I was disappointed but couldn't keep fooling with all that. A month is long enough. Plus they got into my computer and messed it up and I had to get it straightened out. The account was going to be a good one though is the only thing positive I can say for my own experience.
I don't think that is the reason we were
asked to not copy and paste. We are allowed to do that in Chartscript, just not Meditech.
But it makes sense that it can be a HIPAA issue.
Might be a different reason. (SM)
If the company is using VR (mine isn't) and is paying a wage that is lower than the minimum wage, that might be a reason to investigate. I've seen a number of complaints about VR on this board and agree with them all.
There could be a lot of reasons for an investigation. I'm very happy with my employer, and it would shock me if the company had been found to be doing business in a shady manner.
The business IS going down. Maybe they're wondering why. 
I was just curious to see if anyone else had received one of these letters.
Yet ANOTHER reason not to do VR. (nm)
nm
And you are exactly the reason
Take it for what it is. You people want opinions on companies, platforms, how long did it take to hear back from a resume submission, what the workload like, etc., etc., and I take the time to answer and you tell me to get over myself.
Screw you and the boat you road in on! You're nothing to me and never will be. I don't care who thinks it's worthless or not, it's better than nothing for all who ask again and again and again about the same companies over and over and over and over again when there are pages and pages and pages of info. You people don't know what you want. Oh you know maybe I do know - to friggin argue every friggin thing.
You get over yourself already! I really could care less who you worked for because I didn't ask for your opinion at all. This is a message board - I don't hear the sound of my voice.
I've heard people say training was horrible but I love my accounts - so who cares what you think!
What better reason is there?
I happened into this job 30 years ago just so I wouldn't have to bust my hump with manual labor. It became fortuitous that is was at home, and that's why I stayed rather than exiting years ago. Sure, it pays better than a dog walker, but the single biggest selling point for this job is the fact that it can be done at home. If it weren't for that, there would be probably be an even grander scale exodus of people leaving.
There is a reason for that. sm
I worked for Transcend. I already know how they operate, which is why I left them in the first place. Be prepared. This is a very sad day for MDI.
My reason for asking...
...is because if you just went onto the website and applied without a job being posted, I don't see what the big deal is about receiving an interested letter. They're just letting you know they're interested for future opportunities.
Relax!
Now what possible reason would I have to lie about it? nm
I simply stated what I have observed. I'm an MT. I'm not happy about the fact that the front-end VR that I've observed was impressive. I'm not cheerleading for VR. In fact, I'm worried it will eventually do away with my job.
I must say I resent your comment. It was uncalled for and unprofessional.
No, that is not the reason. SM
We want to ensure that sensitive topics, such as the claims made in the original thread are kept to email to ensure no liability.
Moderator
Good reason????
No one ever has good reason to give out personal info, especially if illegally done. You cannot justify this action. Also I am the OP of the fact or fiction post. You are WRONG. You are dead wrong. There were 2 pay cuts at KS within the last 3 years. It is in the archives. They are there publically for any one who wants to take the time to research it. You are foolhardy to call someone out when they are speaking the truth and it can be documented. Before you take a stand, take the time to make sure your information is correct! Also, as I said before, I have every email from the day I was hired to the day I left. I have every bounced check stub and I have every piece of information to back up my posts. They are public records as far as I am concerned and I can back up ALL of my statements and that is a FACT.
It would only stand to reason that they
ALWAYS on the verge of losing accounts, probably because of the cherry-picking, lazy, idiot MTs they employ.
Also, as was posted by Deb the last time this issue was brought up, it is because it is a different platform. Do they offer any of us without work the chance to train on the new platform? Of course not!
Is there a reason you cannot let this drop?
We are all tired of all the nonsense, but seems to me you are tyring to continue it!
It was the reason for the last exodus too. But
That's why I left about 5 months ago and a lot of others left before and after me for the same reason. We were saying the same thing you're saying now, but nobody believed us. Said we were the troublemakers and lying. Be prepared to hear the same thing from the cheerleaders and newbies who are still on the honeymoon.
The reason they were reported and had SM
to pay was because they did the ole trick where they demanded mandatory overtime and then specifically said in their emails that they would NOT pay for anything over 40 hours and for us not to put it on our time sheets.
I would imagine that by the time they had to pay everyone who answered the Labor Department questionnaire and whatever penalty, they were wishing they hadn't said what they said in writing. I think all of the management from that time is also gone.
Is there some reason we can't come right out and name names?
Do we have to use cryptic abbreviations for these non-paying or slow-paying companies?
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