Walk in my shoes
Posted By: Patti on 2006-02-18
In Reply to: Ok then - MTSOs need to get intelligent enough to figure out how to - PREPARE for the work flow, and plan and hire
I am very small MTSO and it still gets hairy with turn around time. All it takes is for one I/C to say, today I don't want to work -- which they can -- like the one above said, I want to work when I want to and do as much as I want -- and suddenly she decides not to work, well suddenly that leaves 1000 to 3000 lines to be spread around, times that by 2 and what a mess. You cannot control what and how much the docs dictate. I would not hire someone unless they were strictly for overflow without somewhat of a committment whether it be the lines or time that the could do on specific days. Imagine having 15 people with this attitude. Like I said walk in my shoes, it is a balancing act. Too much work, they gripe -- too little they gripe. But someone that wants to work when they want, how much they want could not budget accounts that way. It would be strictly overflow and then if you weren't available when the work was you probably would not stick around nor again would I keep you around. Sure an IC can set their own hours but I expect a certain amount of work done in a certain amount of time to meet my TAT and not be docked because we didn't.
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I have put myself in her shoes.
If she does not feel she is cut out to roll with the punches, she needs to find a job with a company that offers a mentoring program. If she is a regular MT with Spheris, she is expected to meet the same QA scoring guidelines as everyone else or risk being terminated.
Most companies cannot baby newbies. They just don't have the staff to do this. She needs to find a company that offers mentoring for newbies and stop complaining...or she needs to bite the bullet and try to do the work.
I felt overwhelmed when I first started in acute care. I found that it was helpful to type a blank on parts where I was having trouble and transcribe the entire report and go back to the blanks and listen again a few times. I was often able to figure them out.
I had to work ten hour a day when I started out in order to meet my quota, but I did it and it has paid off for me.
you are not in my shoes, so .......
if you are not, how do you know what the situation is for me, personally? So, your experience has been good. Others have shared with me in private that it has not been so good for them, either. I am not alone in this, so please do not criticize my opinion, okay??
Been in your shoes
I too started out in clinics about 5 years ago and was managed to be hired by a local hospital. Well...5 years later I'm working at Diskriter in their QA department. You can do it, it will come. Don't give up, it's worth it in the end.
Been in your shoes
Sorry but I've been in your shoes and did not like it one bit. I know this profession sucks but leaving the house for $10 an hour sucks too after taxes, gas, clothes, lunches, etc. I choose to work for 3 services to never again run out of work. I never work more than 10 hours a day (which is what it would amount to if I worked outside the house including driving there, being stuck in traffic, working and then driving home.) I was MTSO of my own company for 8 years until the hospitals kept taking longer and longer to pay and then suddenly there were all these woman who had taken the course and believed the hype and were willing to work for $.08 a line and then I was out of work. It that time I made $.14 per line and paid my subs $.11. I was good to them. I even kept most of the crappy dictators and did them myself so I've been on both sides of this job. I've worked for the services who don't pay or won't pay, who have no work. This job is not what it used to be but I've decided it is where I need to be right now so I will make the best of it. My family is coming off of 4 very lean years and I won't go there again. I'm all for helping someone who is trying to help themselves but not for people who want a pity party...and if I made $3 a day at my job I'd be finding out why and doing something about it.
I was in your shoes!
Mine were exactly the same ages as yours. It is very difficult to manage a home, 3 babies and work. My hat is off to you. I was able to get most of my work done when my hubby was home at night and on the weekends, but when I got real backed up, I would hire one of the teens in my neighborhood to come sit for a couple of hours so I could work uninterrupted.
Good luck to you and God bless you. You have your hads full....BUT they grow up so fast, believe it or not, someday you will miss these times. :-)
Those are big shoes to fill
I guess you've never worked on the inside of an MTSO business, but you wouldn't believe how physicians and hospitals are chipping away at our pay by demanding lower rates from the MTSOs. Some MTSOs that people on this site complain about offering offshored services to client did it to KEEP from losing their clients. When it starts with the doctors and hospitals, what choice do the MTSOs have but to pass that on to the MTs? It really is a vicious circle.
Some MTSOs team up with schools and offer interships where an MT in training works for free for a period of time to gain experience. Now trust me, THOSE savings are not passed on to the experienced MTs...that goes directly into the MTSO's pockets and those MTSO push their long-term, higher paid MTs out the door to save a few pennies with no trouble sleeping at night.
So what about a union? You're right. More jobs will be offshored. More experienced MTs will lose their jobs. Doesn't anyone remember what happened when the air traffic controllers went on strike and the president of our United States canned every single one of them and airports had to hire an entirely new staff of controllers? Did you see airlines stop flying passengers? Nope. Managers worked triple shifts until restaffing occurred, oh, without extra pay since they were salarired.
I don't pretend to know the answers as to how an MTSO should run its business but honest communication, good benefits and wages that have been lost in just a few short years (less than 10) would be nice. It should stick to its gun and promote keeping jobs in the states for the patients' sakes. And for the Indian physicians who have organized and created their own MTSO's to keep their families in India employed should be boycotted. MTs should educate anyone they know who uses a doctor to ask the physician where his/her transcription is done or if s/he even knows and use only physicians with American-based transcription.
Boycotts worked in South Carlolinia and other states to take down the Rebel flag. Why can't we have a similar affect? Mostly because we are not organized (I did NOT say unionized) and we do not generate the media coverage necessary to affect change.
d~
I have been in your shoes and perhaps worse sm
You don't need to explain yourself. You are here with a complaint about something a recruiter said to you, not so that others can pounce on you for not handling your personal difficulties! OF COURSE this didn't happen overnight and OF COURSE you have been working on it. I have had this very thing happen and it took many months to get ahead of it, but I did. I have faith that you can too.
I hang out here and I hope that like several others, I have a voice that is a voice of reason, maturity with more than a little heart in it. (Okay, so I am not the whiz kid of tech issues and some of you call me verbose and a braggart and I don't care.) Some days I come on here and think whew! Some of us need to go back to kindergarten and learn how to get along with others, learn to share, root for home team, share the ropes, hug our neighbors when they need it and understand that if we like our boo boos kissed better, then we need to do some boo boo kissin' too.
Now, I don't know about some of you with cold hearts and nasty fingers...but my mom told me several things growing up and I don't forget them even if I am olderer than dirt:
--if you can't say something nice, keep your mouth shut.
--you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
--if you want a friend, be a friend.
--if you hang your dirty laundry out to dry, it isn't going to get any cleaner.
--life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
--what goes around comes around.
I especially believe in that last one. I used to be a very angry, bitter person and I used to lash out and be nasty. Then I got sick. Then I came as close to dying as I want to get for a very long time yet. I don't have my health and I might not have much time left either. I have grown thin and frail though I am not yet 50. I woke up one morning while I was recuperating and decided that since my life was going to be shorter than I thought, so I had better shape up before I got shipped out for good. I changed my attitude and I changed my life.
Today, I have spent years sowing seeds of gladness, seeds of caring, seeds of friendship, seeds of understanding and I find my life incredibly rich and full.
I know that all of you who have to rip others apart have small, unhappy lives and you can't see that you have a major role in that, in fact, you have the STARRING ROLE. I feel sorry for you and you know who you are. I feel sorry for you because you are always going to have an unhappy, unfulfilled life because WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND.
sorry, I had to rant and it is off topic, but not exactly.
I DID wear the same shoes as others..
HENCE, where I am now. So there.
I was in your shoes not that long ago
I had 3 under the age of 5 at home. I've worked both statutory/IC (the only difference is that statutory means they take out the federal taxes and IC doesn't)and employee positions. By far, the best for me was statutory. Even now that my kids are all in school, statutory is still better because of summer vacations.
Some things to remember: Most employee positions require you to punch a timeclock. Some companies let you get your work done in a 12-hour window, others require you to work just the shift your scheduled for. The employee position I had did not give you the window.
My employee position also required me to produce so many lines per hour, even though I was paid by production not hourly. Therefore, if you are scheduled 6 hours and had to produce 100 lines per hour, you needed to have 600 lines in by the time you clocked out. If you got interrupted by 1 of your kids, you had to either clock out and make the time up at the end of your shift (which no one feels like doing) or stay clocked in, try to handle the problem in a few minutes, and hope you make your 100 lines per hour. Of course, the line requirement was averaged over the week or payperiod (can't remember which now), so I always went with the second option of staying clocked in rather than having to make up time at the end of my shift. But, anything that took more than a few minutes to handle, you'd better clock out or else Big Brother will report you for stealing from the company.
There are some downsides to statutory. You do not get benefits. If you want a day off, you take it, but you don't get paid for it. You also don't get time and a half. You work what you work and get paid the same amount, unless you're with a company that pays incentives/bonuses for anything over a certain amount.
I honestly can't say much else about statutory. It's my favorite. The flexibility is just too good to pass by when you have little ones at home.
I won't comment on companies to work for. Too many people like to argue when you try to post something positive about a company. Read the archives, decide on 2 or 3 companies, then ask about those companies. It's just too broad otherwise.
Having worn your shoes,
I feel your pain. I've worked for a couple of companies that went offshore, also. In one I was transcribing Social Security disability evaluations. Those went to the Philippines.
Picture this: Your full name, DOB and SSN, as well as details of all your physical and mental disabilities, going to another country, potentially to be stolen and used by identity thieves. The US government contracting to have its work done by a company that sends the work to a foreign country.
Inconceivable to me at the time. Still makes no sense, but then I'm obviously not management material.
Should I run while I can still walk?
I took the MQ acute care test and passed. I am a newbie. I graduated from Andrews. I was finally offered a position with MQ. I was thrilled, even though I was told I had to start on clinic accounts only. Let me say again, I passed the acute care test. Now, my first week at MQ, there is no work. I was hired in to do only clinics per my office. Know this is my first full week and I am begging for work. There is no clinic work and I sit for hours waiting for work. When I do get work it is very hard, unclear operative reports, even though I am only allowed clinic work. I have emailed my supervisor, no answer. I emailed her last week also, and last night. I am thinking maybe I should take the other job offer I got and run. Any suggestions.
Run, do not walk...
To a company that will appreciate you. Did they give you a reason WHY you would be making less? I suspect it is because they want to fill their pockets with more of the sweat from YOUR brow. So it is $15 this time and you allow it. What next? Where will you say no - at 18, 20, 25? Go now with your head held high! :-)
Run don't walk :)
however, my *really bad* experience doesn't mean you would have the same situation.
Run, don't walk. There are much better
This company wants total perfection from the employees, then let them do the work with no errors and see how far they get. LOL. Taking lines away for errors is BIG red flag. I'm not perfect, are you?
RUN do not walk away from them!!!
nm
Run...don't walk...from SPi...sm
This company is terrible. They are all about taking money away from their MTs/QAs. They offshore their work....which wouldn't be so bad, but they have accounts that have requested their work be done by USQA, etc...so you know what they do? Train their people over in Coimbatore, Manila, etc., so they can obtain a CMT and then they use them as USQA. How crooked is that? I also know of an assistant lead QA who recently left there and right before she left, she was out due to mental/emotional stress that SPi had placed on her because she was required to work almost double of 80 hours in a 2-week pay period or get let go. They also have issues paying you what you are due when you leave....so, this place has not changed a bit. I'm glad I'm gone as I am sure others that have left are glad they are gone, too.
Not sure where they would walk to since
x
Run, don't walk!
Nastiest woman I have ever worked for. I quit and she had a fit ... sent me horrible e-mails on and on.
run don't walk
I'm so sorry to hear this. I want to get out of where I am and was interested that MedScribe used ChartNet, an awesome platform. Oh well.. so much for that good idea. Guess I will stick with the sweatshop I'm at now.
Great post! In the same shoes you are! sm
I'm not worried anymore, though. I made it through my probationary period with lots of ups and downs, a lot of tough dictators, one that I STILL cannot understand and I do this guy EVERY DAY! But I like the job, like the QA people I have and have finally made it up to line count and I've been there since December. Now, to stay there.... Nice group of people. I like it a lot. Don't know what account you are on but I logged off just a while ago and the stats were still coming in. LOL  
I've been in your shoes, with 3 kids, but (sm)
there is a very fine line to walk between hiring enough people for a new account and putting them somewhere until it actually starts, and overhiring. You want enough people, not too many, not too few. Try walking that line sometime. I have, and you usually get flak from both sides. Hang in there.
But what if the shoes doesn't fit? What then? What about TT getting unfairly
bashed here from some anonymous poster who can come on here and say anything?
Do not judge unless you have been in their shoes. I worked for another sm
company that went through the exact same thing for 2 years. They were too big for small company insurance and do not have enough people that want insurance to qualify for large group. They would get all the way to the final contract and the insurance company would double the rate.
Keystrokes has been trying to get this resolved for a year. The reason for the information is because each company wants different things.
I spoke with someone very high up in the company about this. She told me that they get close and then something happens to change it, like the insurance company backs out due to too many health issues or that they decide that the group is not diverse enough. Keystrokes employs mostly women. The insurance companies do like this because women tend to go to the doctor more.
I do know that they are going to pay a portion though.
I think that the shame should be on you. Do you think that you are helping by complaining on a public board? There are 500 happy employees and just a handful who come to the boards to bash them. This is worse than high school.
let the MTSOs step in the MTs shoes - sm
If they cant pay a decent wage, them maybe it is time to let some of the clients go and work for yourself. It is just like MTs, if you accept a low rate of pay that is what you get. Stand up for yourself MTSOs and ask for more money. Get a back bone.
Run, don't walk away from this company.
x
All I can say is RUN, dont walk
Also a note to future hires, if you get put on the EditScript platform make sure you don't get the team lead who's name is T...wont say name dont want to get banned...but she is terrible.
I can tell you run don't walk from Chronicle
xx
Did you just walk into the end of this conversation? You really
nm
I can't walk at the moment but
I'm definitely gearing up. What burns me the most is that D says she's for the MTs, but where has she been these last few months when MTs have been starving for work? Was she giving it to Transcend then? How long have we been going without work because she was giving it to them? And all along, she's been playing the supportive and caring act. I think she quit caring back in April or May when we got that first shocking State of the Union about VR, cutting pay, etc. It must have been in the works then.
What a complete disappointment. I came to this company because of their loyalty to the MTs and now this. Back to the pavement.
We're all moody at times. I would never want to be in the shoes of one of the sm
big service owners. I imagine I would be postal, not just moody. I could never run a service of that size and be in a good mood all the time, could you? Have you tried? Didn't think so.
We have work. I've been in your shoes though with other jobs
They are screaming desperately, I get the job, and the second day of the job, there is no work so I sat there all afternoon twiddling my thumbs. By day 3, when I was told there was only 3 reports to do, I quit. Life's too short to waste my time and energy.
constantly over-hire run don't walk nm
nm
You mean the woman who took her time to walk me
through a problem at midnight one night? She spent her time helping me at their website and she did not have to do that. You call that hateful?
You people are too much.
Run, don't walk, away and read the archieves!
Not a good company to work for at all. Psycho management. Very inconsistent and unfair.
Run don't walk away from Fast Chart.
I tested with them--and then I found out they were going to pay 6 cpl for IC work. Not only that, if you don't meet a certain quota, they actually charge you a fee to use their platform! They were rather fuzzy on the topic of whether this fee was waived if the failure to meet quota was THEIR fault, i.e. lack of work....
No experience beyond that; never worked for them, and never will, if that's the best they can do.
It is a very fine line you walk when you agree
to this - and you must be prepared to tell the IRS should you ever be audited (knock on wood) that the schedule you are working is the one you desire to work. I would not commit this to writing - the employer is looking for trouble that way. You need to understand from the companies standpoint they need you to commit to a certain schedule because they need it covered - but I would not go so far as to commit to paper - just tell them you are a professional - you realize they need this coverage - and you will be there for them.
Here is my advice.......RUN, do not walk to the nearest phone book. sm
Look up Legal Aid of whatever city or state you live in. They are a group of lawyers and paralegals that do work for free or sliding scale, etc. They will do all the leg work for you. You supply them with copies of your documentation and any other records you have kept regarding email, snail mail, or phone calls.
The most important thing... when you talk to and deal with these people, document, document, document. Document EVERYTHING
Then go to the Better Business Bureau and let them know what is going on.
Call your state Atty General's office and tell them what is going on and give them copies of any documentation you have.
Then I would quit. I know she probably can't afford to and it is experience she may not be able to get anywhere else, but as the post below said, they aren't going to give her a good reference anyway if they have not responded to her mail and phone calls.
Let us know how it goes. Keep us posted.
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