Yeah, I'm thinking I may have to go back to that.

• Where are the VERY experienced MTs (20+ years) happy? - sm
  • What area of the country are you in? - nm
    • Midwest. - nm
  • Happy with my own hospital accounts. No more nationals for me. nm - 25 year MT
    • Well, I followed your example and here I am - this morning with a very promising sm
      • Good for you - Congrats and Best of Luck! nm - 25 year MT
    • Yeah, I'm thinking I may have to go back to that. - nm

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I must honestly say it is hard to demand respect looking like this.  Thanks for making me smile!  

It really does take unique people to be able to work while the kids are screaming in the background, the dog is bugging you because he wants to go outside for the hundredth time today, you know you only have one more load of laundry to catch you up for the day, and all the while you have the dictator who thinks it's ok to talk while he stuffs his mouth full of food, or to sit in the lounge where everybody is taking a break and making plans or whatever.  Oh well, from the looks of thes print on these sweat pants, I haven't lost my sense of humor anyway.  It is hard to be real serious when you are over 40 and running around with pink flames on your clothing, sheeesh! 

We are moving to a new town, and two of the hospitals there have job postings for transcriptionists. I'm trying to decide what to do. I know it would be easier to sit down and do the work without the distractions of home, but I would also lose the flexibility.

Has anyone else out there ever gone back to the hospital medical records department? and what was that like for you?

The accounts weren't too horribly bad.  The reason I ended up leaving was because slowly but surely they began to inch closer and closer to paying QA by production.  When I first started, the quota was something like 30 reports a day.   We simply had to make sure that we QA'd all reports that were close to being out of TAT first and then do the rest.  Then, my supervisor left and they hired a new one who immediately called a big teleconference meeting and said we had to up production to 60 reports a day.  Then, they started counting lines.  Which was fine because they were still paying hourly.

Next, there was an MT who used VR software because she was blind - yes blind.  Again, when I first started, I was told we had to edit her entire reports because she used the VR software and we had to make sure that everything was correct and made sense.  Then, we are told only check the blanks.  I wasn't comfortable with that and I continued to completely proof every word.  Then I was called on the carpet not because I wasn't meeting the production quota, but because I was ONLY meeting the production quota.  I told them I was proofing all of the MT's work that used VR, I was told that no one ever told me to proof every word of the VR reports and that I needed to fill in blanks and move on.  When I voiced my concerns, I was told that was my job, to fill in blanks and I should move on and strive to product above the standards.  Next thing you know, rumors abounded about changing the QA staff to being paid on production.  So I left. 

There just seemed to me to be too little concern for quality and more emphasis on quantity and I just didn't want to be part of company who would take money out of my pocket just to line their own and that's what they were doing by putting QA on production.  I also am not comfortable with the job of QA being thought of as a blank filler.  There is much more to the QA profession than just simply filling in blanks. 

I don't know if Transcend ever did start paying QA by production, but I could see that the idea was being floated there.  Maybe there was a enough protest that they didn't change from hourly. 

Good luck to you!

happier.  I am on a different account then the first time and it is as if it is a different company.  I have a great lead who leaves us alone most of the time but is there when I need her.  It showed me that you can have a different experience within the same company.

I have to say that in the few weeks since they have the new office, it is much more organized probably because there are a lot of people there all the time.  I had the pleasure of speaking to the new HR manager who was HR at a hospital, got my questions answered about insurance as I am going to full time and had a live voice pick up the phone.

Not all change is bad.  This is one company that has changed for the better. 

y

I've been an MT for about 20 years - 7 years with MQ.  I used to do on average about 300+ lines per hour on my primary and made a pretty decent living.  With ASR, I've gone down to an average of about 239 lines per hour.  Plus, they pay us about a penny a line less on ASR after you do a 60-day trial.  I tried quitting the ASR, but if you do that, all you get is the really crappy dictation, so the ASR becomes the lesser of two evils. 

My theory is that, since the ASR system apparently learns as we make corrections, that MQ is going to keeping sending it to us while we teach the system.  Then, when the ASR system has learned all it can and is doing perfect work, they'll ship all the work to India and pay them (the Indian ME's) 2 cents a line to edit it. 

If I were you and I were making a decent living doing regular transcription with a high line rate, I would not consider ASR.  I think the only ones who make any money at the MT's who did not produce huge amounts to begin with!! 

I would NEVER recommend MQ.  They're all about the bottom line and I guarantee, MQ ASR will be going to India -- just give the machine enough time to learn. 

I heard back from a position I applied for.  The person is asking me about what I want in an MTSO & I thought I'd share: 

No micromanagement.  I will work the hours I say I will work and if I’m doing so, leave me alone.

I don’t want to hear about everyone else’s mistakes in a nasty e-mail where you threaten to dock everyone’s pay.  Address the issue with the individual.

No demanding I work overtime & then being unwilling to pay extra.  If you ask me in a civilized manner I will see what I can do to help.

No new and creative ways to rip the MT off.  I don’t care about your VBCs.  I want to be paid for my time and typing – including templates and spaces.

A company which pays on time.

Low ESL, while I can do ESL it doesn’t mean I should have to do so continuously because everyone else has cherry-picked or they just can’t do it – they need the practice, I don’t.  While it’s true I can make money on ESLs because they tend to say the same thing over and over, when they don’t, they are a royal pain in the @ss.

Pay equal to my experience level.

State of the art equipment – No DOS!  No cumbersome software wasting MY time looking up patient demographics.

I think I might prefer ER or clinic, I can make more money with those than with op notes, even though they pay less per line.

A company that DOES send positive e-mails and keeps its MTs up-to-date with feedback from the accounts and abreast of latest terms.

It's really difficult to move from one platform to another at this company.  It's almost impossible, actually.  There must be a lot more to it than we know.  Maybe their profit is somehow connected to all MTs on one platform staying on that platform regardless of whether or not they have work?  I know it sounds really stupid, though.

Since everyone is an employee, and US Labor laws should still apply, I wonder if any of the MTs who lost work on EditScript, who they won't move to Dictaphone, have bothered to file with unemployment for reduction of work.  I think the unemployment office calls this partial unemployment or something like that.

Just don't.  If you think you are bored out of your gourd, treated like a factory worker and unappreciated now while you're doing MT, becoming a QA person is worse.

The QA jobs are production-based in some form also, even the hourly jobs.  You are expected to do XX amount of jobs per hour or per day and be on the system at XX:XX and off at XX:XX.  Believe me.  You'll see the same people sending their work to you to fix or do EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  It's really a thankless job and at least with MT, you are the master of your own ship, you are responsible for your own work, lines and jobs.  It's just something to think about.

Do they hire only employees or are there IC/SE possibilities as well?

What platform do they use?  Did you get to set your own hours/days?

You said they started you at a decent line rate, was it more than 9 cpl and are you an employee or IC/SE?  I know that the line rate is affected by this.

Thanks.