Yes, exactly!!! The entire profession will wind up being "dumbed-down"

to where anyone with a keyboard and software can do it.  It used to be that medical transcriptionists were required to have a great deal of knowledge to transcribe medical documents.  If they are reduced to being custodians, cleaning up the punctuation and doing odds and ends because the VR program already knows how to interpret the "big words," then anyone would be able to do this job, anyone.........anywhere in the WORLD!!!!!! 

Tell me, how many American MTs/editors are going to be left once we "fix" the broken machine that is replacing us all?

You make a WHOLE LOTTA SENSE, and it's becoming clearer and clearer that employment with smaller "mom and pop" companies who still believe in quality is the way to go. 

• VR, Transcend, MT profession, etc. Long msg - Leadfeather
  • PS Leadfeather: MQ and Philips are together working hard on the VR technology... - MTMT
    • I was with MedQuist at one time. SM - Leadfeather
      • Leadfeather, you are right on the money SM - Dano
  • one question... - MTMT
    • Fighting back. SM - Leadfeather
      • ...but I did "bail" and now work for a company who does not ... - MTMT
      • Mass exit sm - Dano
      • Maybe it would help if we knew exactly - Looking for another job
        • Do it because it's the best thing for you both now and in the long term. SM - Leadfeather
          • To Leadfeather sm - Dano
            • The answer is, at least from my perspective,...SM - Leadfeather
              • I AGREE 100% - why can't we ask our employees to us it, personally. Maybe I should ask my employ - MTMT
                • to USE it, sorry, I am excited now...nm - MTMT
              • Well, I applaud you for - Dano
              • Yes, exactly!!! The entire profession will wind up being "dumbed-down" - RME
  • Me, too! - Just got a new job!
  • I did just that! sm - Exiter
    • VR - anon
      • Two of us out the door ! .... sm - Ditto x 2

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AND THEN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN SOME MORE... AWAY!!

can be a rewarding profession, but definitely not an easy one.  There are waves of workflow, waves of pay, waves of anger, waves of joy, waves of guilt, waves of happiness, waves of sadness, waves with a shark lurking (like an ocean).  hehe

So what do we do in the ocean?  Go with the waves!  Surf's Up!!! 

in this year 2009, should automatically be a CMT; no test; no money; just grandmothered into a CMT.  I am only 38, but I've been transcribing for almost 20 years now and used to have to look every word up in a dictionary and didn't have Google or electronic spell checks to help me do my job.  I feel like I should already be a CMT and not have to take the test.

I also think the line rates are very low here lately especially for acute care work that requires evenings and weekends.  I know this profession is 24/7, but all MTs deserve more than 7 cpl to work nights and weekends as in any other profession, there is a shift diff that pays.

As far as the ist at the end of my title, I don't mind.  A transcriber, in my opinion, sounds more like the name of a machine or office equipment.  The ist I feel is derived from the term specialist, so add what you like before the ist and that's what you get; it is not belittling and definitely not feminine when you consider how many male physicians there are in society today.  Furthermore, I'd take a male dictator over a female any day of the week. 

Okay, I'm done...  for whoever cares... 

is..... it is very ill defined.  nothing is measured, nothing is objective, at least consistently.  7 cpl is equal to 10 cpl somewhere else.  a few examples.  people don't say they are acute care MTs to annoy you, there are a million different scenarios and a whole lot of jargon being thrown around, and i guess i'd be wondering what a person is called that does acute care but no ops.  a whole half a company where i work are like that.  so.. uh...see.  every scenario is different... which is a major part of the problem.

but, in response to your note, i disagree with a whole lot of it, and it's due mainly to what i say above.  i chose to work at home because i dont want to work at an office so i am sure as heck not interested in turning this environment into the very thing i left.

any, may i submit to you, and many others speaking in these forums.... it's fine to express opinions; it's not heard with much regard when it is touted as fact.  you see divas.  i see an industry of people who have been taken advantage of like no other.  there is no accountability from the doctor, the hospital, or the MTSO... it all runs down hill to the MT.  laws are blatantly ignored and policies rarely written with any definition.  if you want to compare the way we work to traditional offices, when was the last time you worked at an office where you worked 10 hours to get in 8, and you only got paid for some of the work, but not all.  it's come to be the norm here.

some heavy duty revamping needs to take place... and i'm working on it.  everyone put their thinking caps on about what's really at the root of these problems, and stop arguing for crying out loud. never seen so many arguers in my life.  it's apples and oranges that everyone is arguing over.... little bites of fact taken out of context.  no big picture.

i will be back over the next few months to hear them.  let's get down and serious and fix this chaos. look underneath what got you ramped up.. the ramping isn't valuable, but figuring out what is driving it is.  i say we start a revolution.

Speaking strictly for weekends, she's probably not working, and has forwarded her calls to the help desk, where they could put you in touch with the weekend supervisors, if need be.  But I truly doubt she's ignored you the whole time you've worked there.  She's simply not like that.  She has answered every email I've ever sent her, and always answers her phone during her normal weekday.  My supe has an usual name that starts with D, same as yours, right?

Difficult as it will be, it's time we, as a profession, unite and put our collective foot down on this crap.  We are quickly running out of time to be able to do anything about this stuff, and this may, in fact, be our last shot at making a difference.  Therefore, my suggestion for those being replaced by a technology that still can't even do the work without our help is to immediately look for work with other companies that are not yet going to strictly editing positions through VR, and do it quickly and as a mass exit.  Any company experiencing a mass exit like that I don't think can survive it.  There are a lot of companies looking for good, experienced transcriptionists, so the time is right for making an immediate move.  Such a move will send the message that giving our work away is synonymous with losing accounts.  By watching the aftershock of such a response from the MTs, other companies will hopefully think twice about following the same path.

The point is, if we don't strike a plan and do something, and quick, we are all going to be looking for another line of work anyway. My position is, if the doctors want to use VR, then get it right. If I am going to have to hang back in the wings and fix it for them for less pay and longer hours, then my answer to that is, no thanks; do it yourself. The point is, of course, at least for right now, they can't do it themselves and don't have the time to do it even if they could. This is the best opportunity any of us will have to make a stand (and a statement) while keeping the pain we individually experience as a result at a minimum. Test for another company and move on as quickly as you can. If a company engaging in this cut-throat activity gives no notice (as the posts suggest happened in the case with Transcend concerning wage and work cuts), then don't feel obligated to give any notice that you are leaving.  If you are working for a company that is considering such a move in the future and has stated as much, then make plans to move on right now, and when you have secured another position, let them know you are leaving and why.

You can't wait on this. Don't give them time to figure anything out. Just leave them high and dry the way they eventually intend to do you (us). They're doing what they are doing because they want to be richer. You'll be doing what you do because you need to survive and put food on the table. BIG DIFFERENCE!!

The results will be that the other companies that are looking for good help will get all that they need, which will make their accounts happier because TAT is being met like never before.  In turn, the companies that experience such a mass exit will have their accounts looking around for a new home because of the backlog that develops, and that in turn will cost them money rather than such a move having made them money as originally thought. And, where do you suppose those fleeing accounts will have to go? To companies that are well staffed because they don't take their MTs for granted. This will give such companies a big boost economically, which will be yet further incentive to maintain a happy work force and not be willing to cut the throats of their work force when it comes to work availability. 

This will not prevent VR from continuing to progress and develop, but it will stop the tide that is beginning to take shape and perhaps even shift it once the doctors and the companies realize that, if they are going to use it, they are on their own because we will not help them put us out of work. The technology is still not to the point where it can stand on its own yet, so those that would see MTs out of work will have to rethink their position for the time being, and that in turn will give our profession more time to find a way to organize and make a permanent stand for the benefit of our own self-preservation as an industry. They're slowly pulling the rug out from under us, and we are just standing here letting them do it because we don't see how there is anything we can do about it. But there is something we can do.  We just have to buck up and do it.

Don't tell me this is idealistic either. That's all I have heard from fellow MTs when it comes to making any kind of a stand. It's only idealistic because you aren't willing to do what it takes to change it. If we stand together and refuse to go along with this, these companies will have to rethink their position. If we wait until they are in a position to survive without us, then they will do just that. Either way, we're all going to be out of a profession anyway, so why not make a stand right now while there's a chance it could make a difference, especially when there is still work to be had in this field with other companies that have not yet sold us out.