Truth to what you say, but reality check. . .
Posted By: T.J. on 2006-04-23
In Reply to: Tired of the gloom and doom - Amber
It is wonderful to inject a bit of positivity into the perceptions of our profession, but what you don't address is just how the hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of MTs are going to pay the bills and keep the family going while all of these hospitals, clinics, and doctors figure out that VR and outsourcing overseas are not what they are cracked up to be? During that time period, when jobs are scarce (and believe me, I know they are, because I have watched our two largest accounts leave recently to hospital bureaucracy and voice recognition, with nothing to take their place) what are we supposed to do? I'm an IC, so unemployment benefits are not an option. I have 15 years' experience on top of a college degree and I find myself, at 50 years old, contemplating what to do next. Change is inevitable and I am not afraid of change. What I am afraid of is having to sell my house, not being able to pay my two daughters' college tuition, and not having any savings left because the scarcity of good jobs in my profession that aren't being offered by sweat shops has left me high and dry. It is not for lack of trying, either. Our agency has been soliciting for accounts high and low and the demand is just not there for home-based MTs. At 50 years old, I prefer to be home-based for the flexibility, for a variety of family and volunteer reasons. I have been working too hard and too long to go back to the days where I get one or two weeks of vacation a year and have to ask permission to go pee. Our profession is changing and that is inevitable. And I do see hope that doctors will one day see the err of their ways and bring the work back to US, the smart, capable, professional human beings on the other end of the headset. I still believe the MT profession is a great one. But we can't hide our heads in the sand and tell ourselves that this day is going to come anytime soon. The changes we are seeing now took years to develop (while we mistakenly thought that SURELY they would see the futility in replacing us with offshore newbies or a computer) and it will take years to swing back to our side, when our intelligence and knowledge is valued more than the bottom line. So once again, my point----what do we do in the meantime? Sadly for our profession, we are going to lose a lot of capable MTs to other professions to keep the bills paid.
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Reality check
They aren't in control of when MDs start dictating. What are they supposed to do, show up at the hospitals and stand over the MDs and tell them to get hopping so their people will have enough work this Monday morning? Maybe something went down at the hospital and they couldn't dictate for 45 minutes (happens all the time), and that's all it took to get behind the MTs. I've worked in house doing radiology, where we attempted to transcribe each note as soon as it was dictated, so you better believe there were times we'd show up and there was nothing to do. That's why we staggered our morning arrival times since morning was the least reliable time for things to be working. I wouldn't show up until 9:30, and then I'd stay until 6:30 or 8:00 or whatever it took.
Reality check!
Companies are not so much in the training business today. There are too many well-trained MTs out there who know their stuff. The competition is fierce. You need to take responsibility for getting the best education you can. No one can/do it for you.
Reality Check
I heartily disagree. Her very articulate letter gave the MTSO something to think about. Too many of MTs are shrinking violets who take any kind of treatment handed to them. They are partly to blame for the mess the industry is in. Good for the writer of the letter. I wish other people and such initiative.
Reality Check
There will be a lot of layoffs in the future. With VR, one Transcriptionist is expected to do twice as much work, which logically means the companies will need fewer transcriptionists. I recently found a job with only straight typing because I refuse to work for third-world wages doing VR. I am afraid the day will come when companies will feel quite justified in offering 1 or 2 cents a line for VR work, and the sad thing is that some of you might be willing to accept it. All I can say is -- hold on to your hats, because you ain't seen nothin' yet.
sd re: reality check
I am so glad I will retire in three years. Of course, the State of California is supposed to go bankrupt in two months so who knows what will happen to the state hospital system?
sd re: reality check
I am so glad I will retire in three years. Of course, the State of California is supposed to go bankrupt in two months so who knows what will happen to the state hospital system?
The reality check is
it does not matter how fast you can type, it does not matter how good a Transcriptionist you are, if you're on an account where most of the dictators are horrible, you cannot make a decent living. You can be working for as much as 10-11 cpl, it will not make a difference. It all depends on the account you are given to work on.
Most jobs require you to work 8hrs/40 hour-work weeks, transcription is the only profession where you have to sometimes work for 10-12 hours a day and claim you work 8. I want a decent wage for a decent day’s work, which happens to be 8 hours. It is the only profession where you sign a contract agreeing to work on specified hours and days and you end up working far longer hours and different days.
You are expected to love the fact that you work from home and not the reality that you pay for your own internet, your own research materials, your electrical bill, and any other cost that may arise from performing your assigned duties. If there is no work, then you are expected to make it up on your days off. That is the reality of transcription.
Now, I understand this reality and I accept it for now. My hope would be that I could get paid for my 8 hours (sometimes 10) even if sitting and wait for work to arrive; although my supervisor does seem to get so excited when it does and sends out what I call “happy e-mails” after I have been waiting for almost 3 hours for work.
Lol, I’m always a good natured person and quite frankly, I have often wondered why there aren't more cases of “postal syndrome” where transcription is concerned, but then I remember…….I work in an office of one.
To Reality Check
First of all, let me say, I'm very sorry if your daughter is going through a bad time right now. That's far more important than whether I was surprised about a deduction from my paycheck. I hope things are better for her soon.
As I say, I don't post here much at all. As a matter of fact, I think the last time I did, it was to tell someone how much I like Keystrokes. I can't help it if I was confused about when the insurance was starting. It was an honest misinterpretation on my part. I can't help it if I was surprised about doubling up on the premiums. But please note, my posting used the word surprised, not unhappy. I'm not a Keystrokes malcontent and I'm not bashing the company just because I was surprised. I don't think Keystrokes is trying to be dishonest or pull a fast one and I'm sure that I didn't imply that. And quite frankly, that's about all I have to say on the subject.
Again, best wishes to you and your daughter.
I need a reality check on Amphion...
Okay, after 3 months straight of mandatory OT at Amphion, it is time to rethink my choice of employers.
Let me just start out by saying, I had no real problem with Amphion before the OT started. I don't mind a little OT here and there, but when I first started working, I gave a schedule that listed the times and number of hours that I could work. Months and months of mandatory OT just cuts deeply into time which is not really available for work and messes up my day on a daily basis.
Mandatory OT, however, would be great if I were actually making significantly more money, which I am not.
This brings me to my real vent. I seem to be the daily recipient of what I have dubbed "reverse cherry picking" (among other less socially acceptable terms).
Here's a little background info. I am in an account where we were urged to tell the people who route our jobs to us our preferred dictators and usually that is who we get. (After all, this account has over 100 dictators.) Anyway, this also means that there are certain shall we say less than perfect dictators out there whom nobody chooses. (Okay, I've been thru mushmouths and ESL doctors usually without a problem, but these guys at the bottom of the pile truly are the worst of the bunch in my opinion. They are the "distracted and disorganized rapid whisperers". When I went to school, we were taught to enunciate. I guess that is a dying art. We were also taught proper grammar, but I won't get into that pet peeve right now.)
So what is "reverse cherry picking"? That is when your employer purposefully interrupts your queue and sends you the backlog of the worst dictators on the account.
I will work for an hour or 2 and then before my eyes, my queue will clear out and fill up with nothing but those at the bottom of the pile. (Remember, nobody wants them, so they do pile up.) Productivity, needless to say, comes to a screeching halt or at least a slow crawl which often lasts until the end of my shift. I think because I work late night hours, very few other people are transcribing which leaves us with the bulk of these reports. However, now I am beginning to think I am being singled out. The last time I got an email from my lead notifying me about this, it only came to about 5 of us and did not go to all the people on the account. There are so many of us on this account, if they spead it out equally, none of us should be getting 10-15 reports in a row of these dictators, but I don't think that is happening.
I also have all the normal problems with Amphion that seems to be repeated, ad infinitum, on this board including the the demographics screen being unpaid and sometimes taking longer to fill in than the actual transcription. (Yes, I am aware that some accounts don't have this issue, but mine does.) I won't get into that here, but it is annoying as well.
Anyway, just wanted to know if anyone else gets slammed on a regular basis with the worst of the worst?
Unsure, need reality check
I don't know how I feel, I guess numb. So, looking for feedback on how this job is going for me. In the biz a long time:
1. Got cleared from training quickly. 2. Immediately got all the most difficult jobs, did not complain. 3. Decided to stick it out day after day. Though never ran out of work. No feedback. No nothing. Figured no news is good news. 4. Still got the worst work. Noticed reports out of order during early shift. Obvious cherry picking going on by other team-members. 5. Decided I must be wrong, my bad... later in day came on early, got good reports, did a few. 6. Came back for shift was actually flagged to type all the worst dictators, as they are marked with red that they were assigned. Started to get a bit paranoid. 7. Came on today cherry picker gone, all bad work out of TAT, this MT the only one on, typed many reports. Lots without dr. giving demos, etc. Did the best I could. Flagged for QA the ones without demos (although taking a chance as a newbie, because QA blanks are counted against our progress). Decided to still hang in there.Finally got feedback after several weeks from big boss stating this goes to the whole team: bad demos, bad quality, etc. We need to do better (written in stronger words).
Have strong feeling I want to quit after this bad e mail, and after all the bad reports and cherry picking going on. Still have other job. Stomach is in a knot. Is all this worth it? Feedback happily appreciated. 
Thanks for the reality check, Happy MT
I have an IC job I never left which I could just go right back to, but I kept running out of work.
I have to say with this newer one, my mind screams RUN, while my heart is in my throat. And I haven't even done anything wrong... it is strange as a grown woman to feel this way. Sometimes I think I need to be put in time-out or in the corner for these feelings.
Anyway, aside from that, my instinct does say RUN! Sometimes we ourselves are standing in the way of our own happiness. I guess that is why I am on here asking for outside objective feedback, and I truly appreciate yours! :)
Response to reality check.......
I have a reality check for you....a trained monkey can answer a phone. The off-shored customer service can be done by any idiot, and that is what you get when you try to deal with them. Tech support, don't call Microsoft, they can't even understand american names (common names) to be able to send you a shipping label in the mail. First name...WRONG.....last name WRONG....even though we spelled it for them 4 times.
So let's not talk about quality, even with spelling it for them 4 times they can't get it right.
And yes I have seen the quality of reports and some of them I just shake my head and say where do they get these people from? Some are undoubtedly newbies (but everyone has to learn somewhere) and the rest are what you get when you want to pay 3rd world wages for your work, you get what you pay for and the majority of good MT's won't work for what they want to pay. If you want quality work you hve to pay for it. BUT don't ever try to compare a trained monkey in Customer Service and a Medical Transcriptionist, they are no where close to being in the same category.
Sure thing...M.M. Hate to trash a person personally but the truth is the truth. nm
x
or they know the truth and the truth hurts. NM
poo
But the reality is that
there are good people (with better formal English skills than are being produced on average in schools here) producing good work overseas, with more being trained to speed as we type. And we're informed that all work is QA'd before it gets here, anyway. To believe the competition isn't very real is like burying one's head in the sand. In the same time, companies, including MDI/Transcend, are offering sign-on bonuses to U.S. workers... A crystal ball would be helpful, but in the meantime, instead of pretending they can't do the job, let's hope continued development in overseas countries creates more jobs there and leads the competition to demand better wages for themselves as well.
Here's my reality....
The first time I asked about the insurance deductible, I was told it might be $1000. I asked her if she could please find out the exact amount. In the meantime, I located a current employee of the company on this forum who told me that the deductible amount was $2500. When I asked the recruiter a second time, she told me $2000. Something fishy about that.
I was supposed to begin training on a 30% to 50% ESL account for 8.5 CPL, but would later be switched to a new account in mid September that would not pay the same since it was not heavy ESL. When asked how much it would pay, I was told I'm not sure, but probably on the company pay tier, the details about which she was rather vague. She thought it would be around 7.5 CPL.
I have done 65% to 70% ESL in the past and feel that 8.5 cpl is not adequate. I also felt that 7.5 CPL was a bit insulting after 27 years of experience.
With an ever diminishing bank account balance, I decided to hold out rather than sell out. What I accomplished was ending up with 10 CPL, $500 deductible, M-F, 8-5...everything I was looking for. That's my reality.
And by the way, for all those plenty of MTs who would be happy to take that job, they are welcome to it.
The reality
Is that we have transcriptionists of this ilk to thank for salaries being downgraded. When clients realize that so many people are willing to GIVE error-filled reports (often because someone failed to open a book or look up something) they began to ask why am I paying a premium for this? And we saw salaries begin to follow the influx of poorly-trained, poorly-performing MT population.
There are GREAT MTs out there. Unfortunately they are more often than not the exception rather than the rule.
That's reality. nm
x
This is the reality unfortunately.
Everyone is for themselves out here. Those lucky enough to still be seated in their position and maintaining a pay that meets their bills and gives them some extra to actually enjoy life, or those who do not rely on MT income solely to pay their bills have put up a brick wall to the voices of distress. And it is mostly everywhere in the business world, especially creditors.
Sad state of affairs in America but unlikely to change. Angry people should take their voices to places where they are heard. To state your disappointment here and then have an MT respond by saying that your dilemma is not worthy of discussion is just salt in the wound.
Thanks for the reality checks.
Now, I don't know whether to be glad or cry over the situation. Guess I will just hang onto whatever job I do have and try not to have to deal with recruiters or being new again. Uggggg. But thanks again. I know this is odd about people going through bad situations too, but you responses cheered me lots!
DUH..WELCOME TO REALITY KIDDO
Where do these people come from who think they can find a job where the boss takes orders from the employees and where the boss works for the employee????? Welcome to the real world, kiddo! If you don't like the company, find another one..it's that simple! javascript:editor_insertHTML('text',' ');
javascript:editor_insertHTML('text','');
I am 100% on board with this, but the reality is - sm
There are people who will continue to accept less. I am sure you have seen them on the student boards literally begging for a chance to work and even offering to work for free! Yes, their knowledge base might be small and their quality not even good, but they are contributing to lowering of the wages for us all. Just not sure how to solve this problem. 
I don't think it's horrible, it's reality sm
If you refuse to work for a company, any company, that offshores work, someone else will be hired instead of you. If you need a job, that's the bottom line in today's economy.
In a perfect world, jobs would stay in America. This isn't a perfect world. We buy things every day not made in America, and I'm sure you do too.
Differences between reality and fantasy
I completely agree with your analysis except to say that what your post proposes as perhaps an ideal standard is not what is in place in today's real world business protocols. When I worked for a local company who paid by the hour, the lph were the same regardless of trained VR versus untrained VR. They did not pay for spaces and expected 1600 lpd. That is 3 cpl whether you did simple editing from what Dragon entered or had to clip out the entire report and build it from scratch. They would kick in an extra $2/hr if you made above 1600 lpd (no spaces) IF your daily average was above 1600 lpd for the 2-week pay period. No one ever made the bonus while I was there, and eventually they dropped the bonus program all together.
I ended up leaving and on the first day of my absence, they announced they had contracted to send the easy dictators to India for the necessary training of Dragon to fit the voice file. The hard dictation was left for the in-office staff. Fair? Hardly. Reality? You bectcha bottom dollar. They lost 10 employess within 60 days out of a staff of 16. I averaged over 1400 lpd, occasionally hitting that 1600 lpd, and got the same pay per hour as those who did 800 lpd.
So, what is my incentive for entering 104,000 Keystrokes a day for 3 cpl? NONE! I came back home to do MT for US only MTSOs who treated their staff with respect and with adequate compensation for the knowledge shown in the daily work. They are out there and I will be loyal to them. Those who choose to offshore lose my respect. We all have choices in life. I know my value.
No one believes a recruiter. They all lie, and the reality of the job is very different. sm
Can you say used care salesman. Can you say bait and switch? Just post your company website, so we can see what the actuality is, please. Do not waste your time dissing the applicants. You really do not have a huge field of qualified applicants to choose from, as we all know.
I WISH they were a joke. They're a sad reality.
They're raping the American MT.
No the loss of pay isn't fun and the reality is that I should be scared.
Only one responsible for the bills, no time to sit on my hands so to speak! Wrists resting or not... I am sorry I absolutely cannot take a dip in pay. Just got off the phone with my car loan and they will defer the payment but I had to give a reason why and then they will call my employer and verify I work there... isn't that something... Also wondering how I am going to pay the rent on the first... Just had to put 400 bucks to repair my car just in the last 2 days. Nope. Reality is I personally don't have the time to wait it out and see how it goes. I have to make as much money as possible, yesterday, so to speak. This was where the fear is. Not in the training. So, I count my days until I am safe and secure in a job where I know my paycheck will pay the bills and that is what I am working on while I look for a school to retrain for something else, while I work doubletime here at my job now to keep up. So, that's the story folks. Trust your instincts like the poster down below said. Everybody's situation is different. But with no second income, the time to move is now, not later. As the car loan lady said... Don't let your next payment be late... and guess what I will heed her advice!
I'm sure you'll be singing reality in a different key
when it's YOUR job that goes bye-bye. Tried to buy ANYTHING made in America these days??? I have. Heck fire, we, as Americans, can't even clothe ourselves. If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything and that's what most people are doing these days....falling for reality, at least until it comes back and bites THEM in the rear end.
Not according to the AAMT when I inquired. So in reality a recruiter
who is an employee of a company can write up a glowing review in hopes of MTs flocking to the company.
Yes, sad reality we have here. Again, I saw broken promises and expectations. That's the name of
this game. How I wish it were different. If someone is luckily enough to have a decent job, it is either good pay, expensive insurance or bad pay, cheap insurance. You just cant wish. The only way to get 12 cpl is to get your own accounts, which is sometimes a pain too.
It seems a reality. I've even seen jobs working every
xx
I wasn't attacking you, nor disputing your reality. sm
I was simply saying that I (and many others like me) have had little problem with lack of work. As for the 0 length accounts, lots of those are low ESL and low volume accts anyway.
So, regardless, good luck to you wherever you landed.
10 seconds = 1.5 lines closer to reality...nm
x
are you kidding? I work. It's our reality and it's NOT going to change.
either get a grip, and realize that .. or enjoy your poverty, your welfare, your food stamps and your desire that isn't going to feed you. I wish everyone would stop griping about offshoring. If you have a job, so what your company offshores. It's life. Put on your big girl pants and deal with it. Feed your family and get over it. Take the money where you can get it ...
I don't fault them for that. In reality, with nearly 1000 employees...
they couldn't just open the floor to questions on a town hall phone call like that.
MTSOs are going into la-la land, losing the grip on reality!...nm
nm
Check Monster, CareerBuilder, MedHunters.com. Check with the companies you see listed if they're
s
They started looking in 2007. No promises. Now it is a reality and yes, they are paying half. sm
They always come through. Why do you tell lies on here? They are the best out there and those of us that are there and have been a while know that.
Taking any job you can get to feed family is not an attitude...it's called reality. nm
x
Does background check include credit check?
"You can check my credit if I can check yours"
x
The truth
Many good and bad things can be said about this company. I am currently with them, going on my 5th year.
First the downside. They do outsource offshore, no secret, says so on their website. Hospitals can choose either U.S. or if unwilling to pay that higher rate can opt for the offshore services at a reduced rate. The reason they do this is at the request of the HOSPITAL, and to stay competitive with other vendors.
They have had some dishonest supervisors in the past that allowed cherrypicking to occur, now if you get caught doing so, you can be written up and terminated, it is NOT tolerated anymore and those who get caught do get reprimanded (I am on a team who has had several cherrypickers and the whole group got the nasty emails so everyone would know it was going on and that they better not do it because it hurt the whole group).
They do have clients that are soley re-record and overflow. But, they also have full service accounts that are not re-record. The sound quality on both is superb, only a slight difference on re-record, but not enough to complain about.
Their pay is fair and if you are as good as an MT as everyone claims to be, you can make really good money with them. The faster you type and more accurate you are the more you make, plain and simple. If you know your terminology and don't have to waste time looking up things, no reason to not meet and exceed your required line counts and get that incentive. Also, have heard that they are now paying extra incentive for 2nd and 3rd shift to get people to work those shifts - not something that used to happen.
Overall, I would suggest this company to anyone that is a quality MT, if you don't want to work hard, don't waste your time because that is how you make money in this field. I'm not a cheerleader for the company and there may be other companies out there that are better, but to each his/her own. No company is a perfect fit for every MT, this just happens to be mine for the time being. You have nothing at all to lose by applying and trying them out for awhile other than a learning experience for yourself. Who knows, they might be a perfect match for your needs.
Just the truth
Like I've said, I've never posted here before but everyone reaches a breaking point. I didn't mind lying low and minding my own business for all those years because I had 3 accounts to work on so rarely ran out of work. 2 were their worst accounts but I've never worked for any other company at home, only in hospitals. I am just so disillusioned that they would offer us a quality incentive after complaining how bad the quality was and that they were losing accounts and then for those of us that have always done good work, the money never came. And the fact that they just ignored my messages not once but 3 times is so unprofessional. I am totally ashamed that the VPs would stoop so low. I probably would have accepted an excuse if they would have replied and been upfront about the incentive thing falling through but they didn't do that. Its just too much to swallow and it makes me sad to think people would treat employees that way. They are going through so many people so quickly that soon no one will want to work there. Its a shame because I really liked 2 people that you had to deal with on a daily basis and they were always nice. Unfortunately they are not in a position to make changes that desperately need to be made.
To tell you the truth,
I really don't care whether MQ finds out I am posting comments or not. What are they going to do? Fire me before I can quit? Blackball me so I can't get another MT job anywhere?
Also, I sincerely doubt that with the reduced staff MQ has, they have enough people to sit around and monitor/read our postings here.
some truth--but...
I agree with your point that people are car pooling, etc., which contributes to the lay offs. Foreign cars being better than American made, sorry, that I don't agree with..but we are all entitled to our own opinion and I respect yours as well. Maybe you had a bad experience with an American made car to give you this opinion. Don't give up. There are good American made cars out there as well. Just, think about this, when you go and buy a used car, and I commend you for doing that...I think it is smart, just think about buying an American made car. I think we need to support our own and maybe if we do things will be better for our children and their children!! We can't change the world in a day as it took much longer to get us to the state we are in, but if everyone made a conscious effort to do just 1 thing everyday to support our economy by buying USA or even making an effort to let your hospital know how you feel about them offshoring when your American earned $ are what is supporting them, if everyone would do just one thing a day, that would be just 1 less thing to support the off-shore community, and 1 less thing per each person in the entire United states adds up to billions of less things done for off-shoring. Now that will make a difference, and just think if each person would do just 2 things each day, etc.....It can be done!! Just make some noise. That is what these companies whether it be medical transcription, car dealers, or whatever, do not want!!
You want me to not tell the truth? Why?
I made 38K as a base with added $$ over a certain number of hires a month. I was offered more by another major MTSO, but I decided to get out of recruiting altogether for reasons cited in my other post, and declined the offer.
A recruiter I know personally was paid much, much more than I was and I have no reason to believe she'd lie to me. She made a great deal with the company. Sometimes it's about who you know, or your reputation in the business. They want you bad enough, they'll pay.
You can't equate what production pays versus working a deal with senior management for a salaried position. There are QA managers and MT supervisors out there making $30K, and there are those out there making $50-60K and probably more. (I was offered 50K to supervise, but you couldn't pay me enough to assume that particular nightmare.) Bottom line is that it's all about the deal.
Bottom line: Just because you don't believe it, or haven't seen it personally, doesn't mean it isn't so.
tell them the truth and see what they say!
nm
Ain't that the truth
Awhile ago they were having some big brujaja and taking up huge amounts of space on this forum, pushing everything else out. We asked the mod to give them their own board, and she did. Thanks...
Spheris is an okay company. I have nothing bad to say about them. I left for personal reasons. Never tried the #1 squid, but I had worked for a number of companies they ate up.
Just tell them the truth (sm)
Tell them your kids come first and you have other commitments than your job. If they want mandatory OT, if you are willing to do OT, tell them it has to be at your convenience or you will be unable to fulfill the requirement. If they are in that desperate need for OT they will take it when they can get it and when it's convenient for you. If you don't want to do it tell them you aren't doing it you have other commitments that came before the OT was instituted and you can't just get rid of those responsibilities. they will deal with it, they need you.
Boy, that's the truth!
It seems that all companies are offering 7 cents per line even if you have 10+ years' experience or more...........
Boy, is that the truth!!
I have gone through this in the years, also, and it is crap to say the least, the very least!! 
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