The sticky says "Don't make decisions SM
Posted By: read above on 2009-02-06
In Reply to: Question on Ethics on this Company - Forum re: MTSOs. This is a true
based on someone's recommendation. and that about covers it. For every single person, it's a trial and error process. What works for me won't work for you, someone recommends a company and you agree, I may not.
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I make my own decisions
I am an independent contractor, and yes I will tell them what I can and will do and when and how I will do it. If they don't like it, they can choose another contractor.
Don't be jealous because you've allowed someone to take advantage of you!
Show some love! 
Make informed decisions
I had worked for TransHealth and they did pay for the spaces/headers but I would advise to seek other opportunities. They kept changing mgmt staff and you did not know who was coming or going. A lot of ESL dictation; no incentive whatsoever working wknds or shift differential. They will pay you 10 cpl if you are willing to sacrifice every weekend. Also you might get condescending emails from couple of the QA staff and when there is a huge backlog they send their "panic" emails but when there is no work, you don't hear a peep out of them.
No, I "don't got work to do" anyway
it's none of your business what my schedule is.
Didn't say "don't apply here." SM.
I have been an MT for many years and unfortunately run out of work much more often than I should at Webmedx. Much more often. I think it is a great company. Love it. That said, they clearly overhire. It is a fact.
Some just "don't get it" See the operative word sm
It is what it is and until it changes there is nothing you can do. (from earlier post)
This is WHY the complaints, this is WHY, they feel helpless to see improvement in the impossible situation. Don't ya get it!!!
wonder why you'd interview with a company you "don't know much about."
x
offshore sticky ad on your site
The advertisement you have for Quality Med Transcription that links to Talisman has offices in India and they offshore work?
I understand the importance of advertising on the site - but should be mandatory to note that offshore is done by company as part of their description in the ad. Just my opinion.
We may not have had to type on sticky paper
but MTs breaking into this business have their own set of challenges. I am a little tired being looked down on as a new MT, only 5 years, because it is so much easier. I beg to differ.
I went to school to be an MT. I have under my belt a 2-year Associates degree in Medical Transcription and a CareerStep class. I was hired by a national company who promised me a constant account with 2 backups, and I did not lie about my experience. I was at goal my first day of traning and have always had QA scores above the required average.
In return, I went to work and printed sample after sample after sample as we had over 100 doctors in my primary account alone. I learned new voices, new ways of pronouncing medications, and that some people still use kilograms as a unit of measurement. I faithfully made note of every blank I left and its correction so it would not be a blank again. I studied not only transcription but the other doctors names, specialties, area hospitals, local physicians, nursing homes, lakes and recreational facilities, highway and route numbers, and pretty much every possible place a person could work in the area.
My secondary account did not get as much attention initially, but 6 months after I started, my account was yanked and sent to India (where they no doubt know more about US geography than I do), so I repeated the process over again. So far I had made it a year and learned clinic notes, routine procedures (sometimes called OP notes), consultations, and ER transcription.
I had not lied about my experience, but it really didn't matter because one day I woke up, went to work, and was getting discharge summaries from a teaching hospital that I have never heard of. I was told that since I am doing so well that it was time to move on. LOL...it was more like no other team in the company could type that account so we got it. I typed it, cried, and typed it some more. Pretty soon, I was literally not making enough money to pay my bills after I paid my health insurance. I was not making my quota, which I had always regularly exceeded, and I was worried that I was going to lose my job for not producing. By the way, I am at a whopping 6.5 cents a line at this point.
I went looking for a job. I was recruited by a smaller MTSO by their president. He said that they were very supportive, like one big happy family, and they jump on a conference every month just to hash out any issues they have. I even got a 1 cpl raise. WOW...but, I am 3 months short of your 2-year minimum exeperience requirement. (I didn't lie).
I got the job anyway, and after 3-1/2 years, I have never jumped on a big ole conference call or had the opportunity to hash out any issues. Since being there, I have learned 10 accounts (repeat above learning process times 10), and I am still one of the highest producing MTs they have.
Again, I was handed a gift by my MTSO. I was given the opportunity to work on their self-described second hardest account because I was doing so well. Again, the message was sent by waking up one day and seeing it in my queue. I decided to be a team player because the company line is if you can do this, you can do anything. You will make bank.
Eventually, I was given another opportunity to help out on an account. This soon became my primary account because no one they trained on it could do it, and the account I was hired to do (and loved) was given to someone else. I figured if I was doing harder work (and the hardest they had),after 3 years I should get a raise.
No, I couldn't have a raise because they still had my primary account related to my pay scale. It didn't matter that even if I begged, I couldn't get that work. I was still what they considered a Level 1 MT. Shame on me, I went looking for another job.
I held that job for 1-1/2 weeks. I spent 3 days in training after waiting 2-1/2 months for my computer to arrive. It then took me another week to track down my production supervisor to be able to start working and get samples for my account. In our phone call, she apologized for taking so long (insert baby crying), but she was very busy as they had taken away her assistant and not replaced her (insert long pause as she IMs someone else). She was very hard to get a hold of now (insert baby crying again) but she would do what she could to get me started. I typed for 5 days and had 3 unanswered questions that were critical to me doing my work. I came back after a 2-day break to an e-mail that she was going to be gone for a week at a production supervisor meeting. Yes, I quit and without notice.
I was wise enough now to have not given up my current contract, and I decided to accept that they were going to pay me when they felt like it, but I was not going to take Level 1 pay for doing Level 3 work. I assumed that account full-time in June. I was off almost $800 that month even with the increased line rate (so much for making bank). By September I was back up to the production that was normal for me and raised my contract to 14,000 lines. Then last week, my boss tells me that we are backed up in OPs in this account.
I said that I would take them on as I had been practicing on them for quite some time. As I expected, my production dipped again. I knew I was not going to make 7000 lines, and I IM'd my supervisor that if I was going to be set for all OPs, I would need to readjust my contract back down.
The tizzy fit that she threw defies description, and I am back wishing for a new job. I told her simply that either we are in trouble for not meeting production or we are in trouble for not being a team player. I cannot produce 7000 lines of OP notes in a week, and I am not being terminated for not meeting my contract goals.
Is it fair that you have a single priority report that needs to be typed, and all I have to do is read the account notes (all xxx pages) and type it, BUT you are going to bash me if my production is off.
It is really easy for the MTSO
or management or whoever does it to complain that the quality isn't there or line counts aren't being met but wouldn't consider paying an ounce of training time to compensate you.
My husband is also self-employed. If I said to him, I know you regularly make xxx dollars an hour, but this is an emergency, and you are the only one who could do it, so would you mind spending 20 or 30 minutes learning how to do this. I know you may never have to do it again, and I won't pay you any more than what I normally would no matter how long it takes you, but would you do it to be a team player? I would STILL be taking that flying leap.
When you were back typing on sticky paper, did you regularly worry that you were going to have to stay an extra hour in the evening because the report you were on was taking too long? Did you spend your evenings researching doctors in Bullhead City, Arizona, and Columbus, Ohio, and in some little known town in Louisiana that has a clinic but barely even a zip code? Did you have to use Mapquest as one of your transcription tools so you could figure out where this guy on this account is from? Did your boss come to you and say there is a clinic 300 miles away that is behind, and I volunteered you to do their work? Don't leave, now, until you have 1000 lines in. And don't WHINE.
PS...how do you know they don't whine in India.
read sticky message "embracing..." on
x
It is a sticky mess with no resolution to the pay problem.
If anyone at this point thinks things have gotten better or different, just let it be known that you were warned!
I DID type on sticky paper and an IBM Selectric
Yes, I did stay an extra hour because a report was too long. The difference was I got paid for it and appreciated for it.
I agree with you. The cheap exploitation of the third world has driven a high percentage of this field into filthy trash and many of those managing it into slumlords. It went from MTs working from home to fill a need to just dirty bloodsucking middlemen looking for a place to weasel into and make a buck off the backs of others.
What do you mean that you have Thanksgiving with your family? What do you mean that your arms or back hurt after no time off for months? What do you mean that you need time off for a mammogram? Geeze. It's sick. It's just disgusting. I'm in it only because I've done it so long I'm not quite sure what else to do. I'm back at a hospital so I can be a PERSON again. The difference is night and day. I'm finding the hospitals are grossing-out on it, too, and outsourced MTs are thought of as those poor things and somewhat pitiful. Like a necessary evil they are trying to figure a way around.
decisions decisions...
Wow I faced this very same decision just last month, & thankfully chose Med-Scribe. I am doing OK with them. Since then I have heard so much negative about Soft Script that I am happy with my choice. The pay is not bad, the people are very nice to work with, & the work is not hard.
decisions
I've been going through the same thing on decisions. A lady told me something that made a lot of sense. She had worked different places and told me it depends most on the platform and she had been on enough of them that she could tell right off if she could make money or not. I last began with a really good to work for company that everybody loves. However, it's the docs that make or break you. They have been holding the mike open a lot as they look through the charts on HP, Consult and DS. That really hurts my line count. Also, there's too big a difference in my line count between 1 company and another. Either 1 company's system is giving me too many lines or the other is giving me too few lines. 1200/day at 1 company and 600/day at the other is too big a difference. You'll just have to ask questions and job hop until you find something you can live with.
Informed decisions
You're looking before you even get your info clear? Interesting.
The changes take place Jan 1. Your paperwork has to be submitted by 12/1.
The "firm" schedule is actually MUCH more flexible than any I've ever seen with MQ as you're looking at choosing from 24 hours in 7 days.
Career decisions
I've done nursing and I am here to tell you all that it is not as easy as it looks. The money might be great, but it is so frustrating and exhausting, especially when you are right there on the front lines, so to speak, dealing with life and death right up close working in a somewhat dysfunctional medical system.
If you are young and energetic or just energetic at any age, it might be a viable solution to study nursing. For me, like some others, working from home, at home, is my top priority.
Through the years, I have noticed that many of the really happy MTs are those who do not have to depend on their MT jobs to pay their main bills, but may do medical transcription work part time to supplement their income. No, I am not discounting those who do it full-time and are very successful and really love it; I'm sure they do exist.
However, the suggestions made in this thread make total sense to me, kind of like having the best of both worlds. Now, the challenge is to find that perfect part-time MT job, as well as a really good career with a promising future, doing something else.
Apparently, HR has made their decisions sm
Wanted to thank each and every one of you who responded to me. We will be adding accounts (mainly ortho) by the end of the month and will need more editors at that time. I will be holding each resume and email I received and will be contacting some of you to see if you are still interested.
THANK YOU AGAIN for writing.
Can't base any decisions on what you see on MQ board sm
People come and go all the time. Some leave and then decide to come back. There have been changes but that happens anywhere. Personally, I really like it. Decent benefits, wages and I like the platform. I never run out of work and get paid on time.
After reading some of the posts of other companies, I don't see how anyone can say MQ is that bad.
Read the Sticky post at at the top of the Main board that I posted and that will explain it.
/
I'll play - EZ lunch decisions
I don't have to make the decision the night before or in the morning whether to pack a lunch or buy. Can decide to make rice in the cooker, microwave a meal or just eat a sandwich, or even not eat till I'm famished, all up to me and not a clock.
I doubt you will make enough money in 5 hours a week to make
nm
I make 4 cents a line, work part and make
over $500 a week on part.
Great post! I make 0.085 at Keystrokes and make more than at any sm
other company in the last 5 years. Why? Because there is always work for me. I love starting work each day, knowing that the company I work for appreciates me and has plenty of work. Transtech and Keystrokes sound very similar; those of us that work for either can count our blessings that we are not part of the cesspool or huge corporate mess that makes up the biggest few companies. We do not have to worry about our jobs getting sent overseas and we see a future in this business!!!
Yeah, but we don't make what docs make. nm
nm
But we don't even make what in-house make.
It would be different if we made the same as the in-house MTs. In a lot of cases, most of the people working in-house make much more including benefits than we do at home as full-time employees. That's where I think the unfairness comes in. The in-house employees don't all work every single weekend. Most of them rotate at a much higher salary and much better benefits. The MTs at home are expected to fill in for the in-house for less money, less benefits and give more and more back in the form of weekends and holidays. Most remote MTs only receive benefits contingent on production, and even then they're not nearly as good as in-house benefits. How is that equal in the healthcare team perspective?
you might want to make sure you don't make yourself look like an IDOT before you go any further.
/
I make $1.10 per report and make much more sm
than by the line. Day by day it varies and goes back and forth, but over a long period, it is better by the report. Make sure they pay links though; this is key.
Do Shapin MTs really only make 6 cpl and QAs make 1.5 cpl?
/
Why can't you make money with all OPs? I do all OPs and make
good money. I'm not with WebMedX though.
I'm happy with what I make. I still make more than if I went anywhere else and hardly noone in th
biz gives raises so I feel blessed that I make a lot more than most, raise or no raise.
And always make sure you don't make line
counts that amount to anything. They always place you with impossible ESLs as soon as you start making decent money.
I make more than that with Spheris but never have work. I would rather make $1.25 and have work. s
My SIL works for KS, and she gets paid double for linked reports too. Where do you get $2.25? I am ready to leave Spheris.
Make sure you have some (sm)
money saved up so when they don't bother to send your paycheck or give you excuses, run out of work constantly or take a long time setting you up, you won't go bankrupt.
Okay, those using DQS, how do you do it? How do you make (sm)
your line count? How do you everything??? Is Instant Text V Pro anything like Smartype where you key in a few letters and the list comes up? I'm so stressed from trying to learn this program. Any, and I mean any, positive pointers you can share would so oh so appreciated!!! Please help!
Did you make more as an MT or are you
nm
make, not may nt
Well you would still make more if
you typed 15,000 instead of 11,000.
I make even less than that for IC . Nm : (
x
PS - I make top $$
well over 0.10/line on one a/c. Nobody does 20-25 reports/hr on this 100+ MD a/c.
Why not? Do you think they are just trying to make themselves look better on the
to all the outsourcing talk? It's okay now since they got a bonus?
None of what they make you go SM
through is really worth the job you end up with. It's a very average place, with average work, average pay. You can do the same elsewhere without the hassle.
How much do you make (FT or PT)? (sm)
and how are you paid?
see and I say take the IC, just make sure
you have a professional prepare your taxes and find a CPA who is up on at home business laws. I have been an IC for nine years. I get to write off a portion of my mortgage payment, utilities, etc. It works for me.
Me too. I make over $20 but you have to
get in with the right company. Do not let companies undermine QA by accepting positions that lessen our very purpose!
I will not say my company name because needless to say they do not get openings very often and yes they pay hourly.
I make 9.5 cpl as an IC with 27 Y sm
experience. I just started with them.
How is it you don't know what you make?
:+
I know what I make...
I'm just not posting it here.
I make more than that as an MT and am not available 24/7!
nm
MAKE myself
available to the applicants. The companies I have recruited for have told me not to do this, but sometimes you have to. I live on the East Coast and many are from the West Coast. I tell them if they have any questions to call me and I have had people call me as late as midnight with questions. Maybe that is pushing it, but to be honest, the recruiter is the image of the company. If you treat all applicants with respect and with what they say is worth listening to, tell them no question is silly, etc. I also am an MT and a QA person as well as a manager. I know how I want to be treated and I give it back to the applicants.
The job is a good job but it takes a lot of time. You really have to love the job to do it.
I make over $52,000
I love it also. This is with all benefits paid. I have many years in the industry as MT and QA. I definitely do not want to go backwards.
I make more $ doing OPs. nm
x
Right there with ya...I make 10-12 cpl
No way would i even consider 7
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