University of Iowa Med Center announced layoffs yesterday

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by MQ sup. Have not heard a word about the winners of these. This is another "Edix" stunt. They have not played these games with the MT's in the very recent past, but that was an ongoing game with them. A friend of mine won in June, and just got notification this week (about 4 months later) of 3 or 4 places she could spend the money using some card that she has to get off the internet-- lives in a small town -- those stores are not even in her town !  Big whoopee for Edix/Spheris !!!

The theft was in October and released to the public in November.  I didn't follow it so don't know how it all turned out, but here's the link for anyone interested.

So regretful that we have just been informed me of management's announcement yesterday that my accounts were going escription and absolutely no voice about cutting line rate in half . . . there is no way that an MT can edit for half the pay -- especially those of us MT's who have highly depended on their abbrevations/shortcuts/expanders.  They are not allowed in VR, nor is retyping the report !

Oh, boy . . . please let me know when you find a company who hires MT's without doing VR nor jobs going overseas.  I will be begging for a hire date with that company !

I never see anything on their sites or on CareerBuilder about hiring in-house MT's so apparently they're all using an outside service of some type.  Most hospitals I've worked in-house for use Medquist and another service at the same time (without Medquist's knowledge).

The only Phila. area hospital I've ever seen advertising for in-house MT's is Cooper in Camden, NJ (across the river from Philly).

Or know someone who does?  If so, any comments, pro or con, about working there?  I'm moving to that area soon, and was wondering if they're hiring.

I've been with them a few weeks now and it looks like I've found a new home. Hoping to meet some other MTs working there....if you're with UST and so inclined, drop me an e-mail and say hello.  

Since the State Board for Iowa hasn't been used since 2006 I am posting this message here.

I took a job with a company in Iowa earlier this year.  I have 2 children and have to meet her courier every morning to pick up my work which is on tapes.  I also had to buy extra insurance because according to her this is mandatory HIPPA regulation.  Then I find out that she leaves tapes in another MT's mailbox AND sends the cassette files (digitally somehow) to MTs that live 20+ miles away.  I'm only making a little over .06/line and getting my children ready every morning can be a chore.  Meanwhile, this woman takes more vacations and has diamonds on all fingers.  Today will be my last day.  She should be ashamed of herself for treating her MT's like that.  We are the ones that pay for her vacations and diamonds.  Can anyone say Greeeeeeeeeeeeed?

I didn't even get the invite to the conference call.  I was working one day and started getting an error message that my account number was inactive.  Through a series of emails and phone calls, I found out I had been laid off!  Thanks a lot!  I just found another job working as an IC.  I think I'll be much happier! 

First of all, I would like to say that I sympathsize wtih those that were laid off at Heartland, however, I believe that that there were probably indications that this was going to happen, I for one, remember seeing a LOT of job ads for Heartland and they suddenly stopped on the 2 major transcription job boards. For me, that was an indication that something was going down the tube.

I also do not agree wtih offshoring, but when I read the posts on this board, I see one theme over and over; that being laziness in general. I see posts where people gripe and complain about having to work weekends or nights or whatever and wanting to get paid decent money, but they want to only be able to work 8-5 Monday through Friday.  I have been in this field for over 20 years and I believe that I have always pulled my fair share.  I have seen it in the company that I work for now, and the work load goes up dramatically on the weekends, because NOBODY wants to work and as we all know, medical transcription, for the most part, is a profession that is 24/7.

Sadly to say, our society has become one, where we expect to have something for nothing. Meaning that we want the nice thinngs, but we don't have to break our necks for it.  I hear of friends who are giving their kids brand-new to almost brand-new cars in high school.  Heck, when I was growing up, if I wanted contacts, or a car, or clothes, I had to detassel corn or work in a fast food place to get the money to be able to have those things.  I don't see that happening now, and in essence, that is why so many of our jobs have been offshored.  Its not only a cheaper labor cost, but most of these people in general have a better work ethic.

My company takes pride in the fact that it doesn't offshore and it will be a cold day in a very warm place before they do.

My only advice to those that were laid off is to hang in there, send out the resumes and hopefully, you will be able to find a new company that will treat you like an employee and not a number.

Some people seem to be missing the point here -- I also do QA as well as medical transcription and I generally am working MANY hours a day and usually 6-7 days a week, because I know budget-wise what it takes for me to surviive. 

As a QA person, I see a quality of work that is totally unacceptable and it is from American medical transcriptionists.  I read about people saying they can do X number of lines in an hour, or that they type X number of words a minute and as a QA person, that is usually the persons report that has 10 or more blanks in it, because UNFORTUNATELY they are more concerned about production than they are quality. 

I sometimes wonder how many medical transcriptionists go back and re-listen to a report they have typed and then are able to figure out what the doctors are saying?

I have worked both inhouse and from home and I really have to agree that if someone TRULY wants to get started in this field, then they should work onsite first to truly get a grasp at what medical transcription entails.

There ARE people who are medcal transcriptionists who DO work long and hard hours and ARE getting shafted by the companies they work for, but quite frankly, I am tired of the ones who have toddlers and small children at home and whine about how they can do this work and take care of their kids too  -- just because you work at home, dosen't mean that your children can be underfoot all the time and it is also learning about priorities as well.  If you were working on the outside, you would NOT be allowed to take a huge amount of time off for kid activities or family activities, so the MTSOs do have legitimate gripes when it comes to employees not working when they say they will or keeping to a schedule, and this is where I am coming full circle when I talk about a work ethiic  -- it has slowly and steadily been disappearing over the years.

Where's everyone planning to go now that Cbay has laid off the rest of the editors?

The woman that owns the company is crazy.  She treats physical therapy like it's acute care.  They are office visit notes and she acts like they are Op notes and the doctor is breathing down her back waiting for them to be typed.  The physical therapist could care less ------- it's an exercise class lady - get over it.  At 6 cpl she wants a miracle. 

While there are many employees in all areas who fit the poor work ethic you describe, it is by no means anything but a lame excuse for greedy corporations to do what they would have done anyway.  It goes along with the jobs Americans won't do we hear so much about these days.

I do think the handwriting has been on the wall about Heartland.....er...I mean HEARTLESS for some time.  I personally don't and never have worked for them but I've been hearing for a year or so that their ultimate goal was to do exactly what they just did.  Still one can hardly blame those who chose to stay and watch the ship go down, it isn't like HEARTLESS doesn't have lots of company these days.  I believe I actually read somewhere that companies are rewarded tax-wise for shipping jobs overseas.

Now is the time for all MTs to prepare for the future, although I have no clue as to what career or occupation would immunize employees from the exact same thing that just happened at HEARTLESS.  A casual observer can see the increase in the number of job postings for VR editors so the next step will be unless we are willing to spend all day every day transcribing impossible ESLs, mushmouths, Speedy Gonzales and all their kin, MT is going to be gone.

There is also something to be said for the way MTs in most, if not all, companies are treated.  Here we have QA people who search for MINUTE things or even WRONG things to correct so they can meet their quota or whatever they are evaluated on.  Why, I even had one QA person correct Tessalon Perles that I had transcribed to Tessalon Pearls.  Cold hard fact of life is the suits at the corporations care nothing about quality, they just make a show by saying they have QA people to ensure quality.  HA!  The hospitals care nothing about quality, only the bottom line.  The physicians (most) care nothing about quality, only their insurance reimbursement.  So there you have it, a grim future for all of us.

Lastly, anyone who falls into the jobs Americans won't do and offshoring is necessary because there aren't enough qualified Americans, is nothing short of a fool.  What they mean is Americans can't and won't work for less than it takes to maintain a decent standard of living and the cost of living in the good ole U.S. of A is not cheap.

I have nothing to offer the employees of HEARTLESS other than that my heart aches for them and their plight and I pray each and every one will be able to find a decent place to work in the short term and that they will be looking to see how they will survive in the long term.

GOD BLESS ALL YOU EMPLOYEES OF HEARTLESS, INC.