Actually, I live in a rural community sm
Posted By: mlstoo on 2005-10-26
In Reply to: On job board. Some goof posted 11:50 hour for 2 years experience - OMG we are Walmart employees
and left a hospital where that was very good pay. Starting wages for MT was $8.00 an hour with a 25 cent raise every year if you were lucky. $11.50 would be like gold for the transcriptionists that work there.
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Yep, I agree 100%. I live in such a rural area, though, that my neighbors, the natives, think I'm
NUTS cause I keep my dogs in the house, and actually still walk them on a leash in my yard. We all have about 2 - 5 acres minimum each of woods in our neighborhood, and no real dog laws at all! Dogs run at large 24/7, which is no picnic for me with my dogs on leash, either! And they ALL keep them outdoors, tied up with the chain and the smelly old dog house. I think they just look at dogs strictly as deterents? Not sure really, come to think of it! Cause even if they were getting robbed, Fido couldn't get off the 6 foot chain! Oh well! I used to be sad all the time for the plot of the dogs here, but I can't save them all! Only my guys!
You must live in a metro area because rural areas pay even less per hour.
Of course you can buy a big house for 130,000 in a smaller town and the same amount won't buy you a pot to pee in, in a place like San Diego or the D.C. area. It's all relative.
I live in a small rural area and they housed some evacuees at a nearby military base
crime went UP in our little community that previously HAD a ~very low~ crime rate. It is a FACT. I'm not saying all NO residents are like that, but MANY seem to be.
My mom was raised in conditions like this poster describes. Mom's parents died when she was 7 (father) and 9 (mother). Her teenage sister (newlywed) raised her and 4 other siblings. They had next to nothing. Not ONE of them turned to a life of crime. Not ONE even graduated high school but they still made good lives for themselves. Life was rough for them, but they didn't blame it on everyone else and cry around about what the president should be doing for them. It is all about RESPONSIBILITY and taking what life throws your way. IMO.
I worked for a rural doc. So much fun! :)
We even had a patient in the waiting room one day that brought in a paper bag with baby chickens in it as it was too hot to leave them in the car. Nobody in the waiting room gave it a second thought.
It was great fun to work there. They called it a "medical center" but it was in an old house with less than state of the art equipment. The country folk swore by "Doc" and "Doc" didn't think twice about going out at 3:00 a.m. to make a house call.
He never would have dreamed of asking for a co-pay up front and even let one farmer's wife pay with fresh baked pies.
They sure don't make them like they used to.
P.S. We still had typewriters back in 1994. :)
I have the same problem and we are not THAT rural....sm
It is very frustrating to feel so limited in your job choice b/c of something like that. I have never really had any major problems with my dial-up and have been told by two different techs. that I have excellent connection speed considering it is dial-up. Frustrating though....
rural hospitals
If this is an extra job I would certainly make it worth my while. I worked at small hosp. for 5 yrs that did not want to work us from home. Kept saying they could not but I knew better. Eventually I went off on my own and have been home since. We had 3 FT. They hired 2 in my place and 1 PT for wknds. I type at night now to catch them up. They still had 1 PT and 4 FT, but I charge them 15 cpl. I clear in 5-8 hours what they all 4 do in 1 day, literally. Still did not want to put me or others at home. Want me to drive 45 miles 1 way to type, after I've pulled my reg. 8. Now what I do, whether they know it or not, I dial up on my C-phone into thier system and type at home, save it to disc (they monitor email + HIPPA) drive over for about an hour and transfer work into thier system. So if they have a phone in line you might check with them about on call stuff being typed at home, especially if this is stat work. It will certainly get back to them quicker. This is just fear of the unknown. This same hosp. has now, instead of firing those not doing work and hiring a good worker or paying them OT will pay me double the amount. They have also moved the weekend girl to FT and are letting a file clerk/PT IC do the weekend x-rays and still want me to help. That's 5 full time typist and 2 PT for a 43 bed hosp. Thier may reason was not to put thier network on home computers, which they all ready do. Won't give me network access but have given it to the weekend girl. Plus they are paying a consultant out the wazoo to tell them why this is not working!
If you are going to be on call, make sure you have set days or hours that you will be on call and that you are compensated. Don't let them just pay you for the work you do. Your time is worth money also. In other words don't sit home all day 3 nights a week waiting for a phone call and get paid for 1 hours. I have done this in the past where I worked and was on call on weekends for x-rays. There might be 1 or 21 or none. I got paid by the hour. If there were none I got paid for 1 hour for showing up. Ask an x-ray tech or someone who gets on call pay. They get a flat rate for being on call and then they get paid for the individual call.
Just moved to a rural area
Have a satellite dish, no cable. The phone company out here does not provide ULD. One job I would like you need ULD, and the other you need internet access, no satellites accepted. Does anyone have any ideas? Is there a way you can get even dialup without having to use long distance?
Rural America wages
Last year interviewed for two transcription jobs. Neurology office $13.50, hospital $16.00. (the most I have ever been offered) I was offered the neurology position, but declined and the hospital job was given to someone with less experience, i.e. less $$$, they were hoping to add an addition MT on, but did not. I have over 15 years multispeciality office transcription experience including running my own business for 10+ years. I basically learned on the job, sort of fell into transcribing 20 years ago. I am also a Certified Medical Assistant (silly me, actually went to school for that), I have worked in physicians office over the past 20 years part-time doing medical assisting and transcribing and worked my way up to $11.50/hr. Unfortunately in the office MAs are being replaced by regular high-school graduates, $7.00 per hour, etc, and of course they can do transcription too.. ha ha. Since I live in a rural area the opportunities are limited and each position would require a lengthy commute and with high gas prices that is just crazy, so I decided to go employee with national. Since I get paid by production I can make more $$$ that way overall but the cpl rate is not nearly what it should be, you just keep working harder for the $$$. I would not recommend anyone get into this field by choice as technology will eventually whittle us away to almost nothing. If you want medical, go for the top.. doctor, RN, nurse practitioner, PA, etc. Decent wage and some respect, too.
Rural doctor situation...
I hate going to the doctors office. My daughter has had a sore throat for a week and went in to see doctor this morning, sat there for three hours. We have gone through six different pediatricians/primary doctors in 11 years. How are they suppose to know if there is something really wrong. Doctor looked at her (daughter, 17) throat and asked why she had not had her tonsils out. Did not ask her history. She has not had a throat infection in over 10 years. As a toddler she had frequent throat infections and naturally large tonsils and doctors never once stated they should come out. Now, she is worried. She is a vocalist and does not want to that to effect her singing. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here. We went in to see the doctor in clinic to find out he quit Friday and there is an interim doctor (who we've seen in ER and who has filled in for other M.D. in the past and like a lot better than current M.D. Too bad he is not staying). Is it that inconvenient for doctors to locate a practice in a rural area? Our area might not have much but we are only 30 minutes away from one medium city and 45 minutes away from a moderate one. Our little town is now down to one doctor when at one time it had 4-5 family practices. We have a hospital, but no doctors. LOL.
Thanks for letting me vent, but this is really getting riduculous. The doctor today did inform me that he was trying to recruit either some doctors finishing their residency or maybe some middle aged doctor from the N.O. area that would like to start over. We have great facilities, just no doctors.
I give, where in rural Georgia
are you talking about? I think I could put up hearing that more than I can with what I hear out of the Atlanta stations, at least it is not butchering the English language - just maybe their own language like I had mine from moving from Tenn. I understand that nexted above- I have heard that and even worse. I have a daughter-in-law who is parapro right outside of Atlanta (Jonesboro) and supposedly they are not to correct children when they speak incorrectly- she says heck with that and does. Can we say ebonics?
I'm not in a rural area. I'm in a big city and everything is SM
outsourced. My beloved company, run by a very decent man, was bought out by Edix. I thought they were bad until Spheris took them over. God help us.
Then there is the large community hospital, who has a "sweetheart deal" with another outsource company. You would not believe the garbage that goes on in this field.
Regarding unlocked doors, rural or not
My sister once left this true-crime book at my house and I read it, I guess because I wanted to have nightmares for a week. It was about serial rapists (WHY does she read this stuff?) Anyway.... one thing I noticed was that almost ALL of these perps walked into people's houses thru their unlocked doors, usually in the middle of the day. Sure your husband may be right about if someone wants in they'll get it, but just like anyone else, criminals prefer to do things the easy way. Why help them?
I'm an IC for a mid south rural hospital...
Although I get paid per minute of dictation, I have done the math and I make 10-11 cents per line. Patti is right, it doesn't matter per line or per minute. Its what you make per hour. I do radiology and the basic four every day with the same dictators with a new one thrown in every now and then and have been doing so for 13 years and make anywhere from $20-35 an hour working average 5-6 hours a day. Did not ask for a rate increase until my 8th year in which they balked at and began looking elsewhere. Two years later asked for another rate increase in which they readily agreed to but keep better track of what I do. Better to start low and become valuable to them than start too high.
IC working for a small rural hospital
I have worked for a small rural hospital as an IC for 9 years, this year I asked for a raise. Hospital thought about going to a national until they found out how much they charged. They contract their transcription themselves.
In 1995 I was making 12 cpl for a small, rural
Changes were gradual. First, we were allowed to start working at home at 12 cpl, instead of the hourly wage. We still were employees and had the same benefits. This saved the hospital money in overhead and we were all happy. Then they started using outsourcing services for holidays and weekends. Gradually, the whole MT dept was phased out and we had the option of going with the service handling the hospital transcription or finding another job. The service kept us at this rate of pay for a short time and then gradually started implementing "incentive bonuses" and lowering the line rate of pay. It evolved over the years to what it is today. Starting line rates were lower and incentive bonuses done away with. Health insurance is contingent on production, but their platforms crash regularly (as do many, many others) and we either have to work extra to make up the loss or just eat the financial loss altogether. The services overhire to make sure that their TAT is met, which means unstable availability of work, which in turn affects production, in turn affecting benefits.
The logic today behind all the changes is the "lack of experienced MTs in the U.S.", thus the need to hire people outside the country, who have even LESS experience with the English language and slang medical terms, at half the price of hiring American MTs. The MT field in general has to be able to compete and so must lower their rates to keep clients from going offshore at half price. And now with the advent of VR, the MTSOs using it try to justify the cut in line rate to the fact that we're no longer "typing", we're "just editing." It's been a gradual evolution, but not in a positive direction.
And in all of this, AAMT has not come to the aid of the transcriptionist. It has furthered the promotion of offshoring and has developed ways to enhance the MTs adjustment to VR instead of enhancing the MTs value and amount of worked involved in VR. When the AAMT doesn't step up for the very ones it says it represents, why would the ones using the services respect, understand, or value the MT either?
It is pretty rural where I am too, but the sprawl is coming - sm
My friends in the area (been here 8 years now) are people from the old school my kids went to, now a couple parents at the new PS they are going to and my neighbors. I am lucky in that I live on a private road with 14 houses on it. It is our own little world/community and we all get together now and then and have about 2 big parties a year (Daytona and 4th of July). I am close friends with one neighbor. I don't really have a "best" friend here (they are back home where I grew up in PA who I see 3-4 x a year) that I go shopping, etc. with, though Mary and I do things now and then with our kids. See if you can get friendly with your neighbors, good to have a local support system in place if you need it. Maybe a local library or club. Our area is slowly building up, have a supermarket now 5 minutes away versus 30, a local library, 2 dance studios, martial arts, a couple restaurants, Curves, movie store, etc. Try to get involved in some local club or activity, great way to meet people, or voluteer down at your local elementary school 1 day a week or something, they can always use some help. I keep very busy with work, Curves, taking the kids to dance (there are adult classes too), library trips in the summer, etc. I am pretty social though I don't mind being by myself either; so I try to keep a happy medium, but getting out and involved in something is the key to meeting new people. Give it a shot.
Do you think a company pays less for rural pay than city?
Does not make sense to me.
I am am in a rural area with lots of trees - sm
so when I had Bluesky (or what ever the name it) come out they said too many trees for the satellite. My one neighbor just got Directv high speed.....she also has lots of trees. So I may be looking into that (have Directv now just not the internet hookup). But I currently use a Sierra Wireless Aircard 875U. Unlimited and costs me $67 a month. It is through AT&T but I know Verizon has it too, as well as Sprint. You need to make sure it works where you are first though, but their websites can help you there. I love it. Not as fast as DSL but a huge step up from dial-up. I have it set up to use on my desktop, laptop, my backup desktop, and my daughter's computer. The only thing I have with it is it does not work everywhere...when I try to use it on my laptop...unlike the commercial where they show the guy in the middle of Africa or wherever he is. But I have been very happy with it.
why no, i don't live in snobville. did you think you knew me? i live in heritage hills a suburb
it takes a little longer to get to work and shopping but thank god i have some privacy and am away from the congestion. lovely trees and lakes all around. maybe about 20 minutes to a large shopping mall. but no, i don't even know where snobville is.
I worked in a rural physician's practice for years.
He eventually ended up joining a group. He still has his office in the same place, but is financially part of that group. Unless they join some sort of group/organization so that they can get group rates on lab, insurance, etc., it is really hard for them to survive. The community lost its hospital several years ago. You said your community has a hospital, but is it a full-service one? Our next nearest town with a hospital is about 35 minutes away. Now the 2 hospitals in that town each have satellite physician clinics in our little town. When I was working for this physician, we had a total of 4 doctors in town. Now, through these satellite clinics, we have a good number. Before this physician joined this group he recruited numerous physicians over the years. Unfortunately, he was not able to assure them enough of a salary and benefits to keep them. There is simply not enough money coming into these small clinics. They have to satisfy Medicare and insurance regulations, just like the big clinics. The recruited physicians all eventually left for greener pastures after being actively recruited by other facilities. One physician I remember tripled his salary when he left there.
just some information for MTs in rural areas where high speed is not available
Hi all,
Was just on the Sprint website a little bit ago and checking out wireless cards for my laptop since I will be moving to an area that doesn't even have landline service available yet. Sprint is now offering a wireless card that is a USB card and apparently will work with both a laptop and a desktop as long as you have an available USB port on your computer. Might be something to think about 
Opinions please! I have been asked by a small rural hospital to do their overflow. SM
It is clinic notes that are pretty easy to type. Some of the work is digital and some is still on tapes. They want me to come in and pick up tapes, and they want me to print and deliver reports when I pick up the tapes because they don't know much about setting up a remote printer. I made an introductory offer of 12 cpl for the first month and then 15 cpl if we both feel like continuing to work together. I felt that since I am going to be out the cost of gas and ink, my offer was more than reasonable. Well, they countered with a flat 12 cpl period with a one year contract and then we reevaluate at that time. While I was mulling that over, she called back and asked if I would be interested in doing some radiology for them in addition to the clinic work. So basically this account will keep me very busy and is not going to be just overflow.
So now I'm back to thinking 15 cpl and because they balking, not offering the introductory rate anymore.
What does everyone think?
You have to go outside the community....
nm
I also went to a community college
and never had any problems finding a job. In fact, I got my first job at home before I was even finished with school. I took all my classes online and have worked from home for the past 3 years here with my kids. I say go for it!
Community hospitals
Hi. I just recently got outsourced by my local community hospital which I had worked for for 8 years, the third hospital where I've lost my job to outsourcing.
We were paid hourly from $9-$15 hourly. We had to have a minimum line count of 135 an hour based on a 7-hour day, so 980 63-character lines a day was exceeding standard, worked every 4th weekend and rotated holidays. I loved it. Then they outsourced to Spryance and most of the work in the entire Dayton Ohio area went overseas. There are only a few transcriptionists left working for the hospitals.
why yes the quality of air where i live is quite different than where the city people live.
Lots of pollution. That's why everyone is moving away from the city and areas zoned for multiple housing units and low income housing and trailer parks. Population is dense and near manufacturing. So yes, the air is different but millions of people pay a little extra for the quality, the space and privacy afforded to those who move out of polluted crowded areas such as you defend. There is always a reason why some areas and housing is cheaper than others. Maybe it is the air and maybe it's something you can't quite put your finger on but you know you would prefer not to live in certain areas. You know what I mean or are you living in one of those areas? They tell after awhile you block out the sounds, the smells and get used to the pollution. I don't know. I didn't stay long enough to test the theory. My mental and physical health is way too important to me.
I know they live a long time, so if there is a chance they will out live you - sm
make sure you make provisions for them in your will. I have only had cockatiels and some finches, so don't really know anything about the bigger birds. I love African Grey's but they are very expensive.
The phone line has to support DSL signals. Most rural lines don't due to distance from central of
x
Who is to say that these people are pillars of the community?
x
Given by a community college? What school is
z
Community near me succesfully fought one off, but sm
that was only because there are about three within ten miles of there. If there are none in your town, I wish you luck.
Santaluces Community HS - Lantana, FL
nm
Your local community college...
It will cost a **** of a lot less, and your education will be just as good. Many will tell you that you only get help in job placement, externship, be ready to work, etc. via Andrews, etc., but that's just not true because they just don't know any better. Besides, that's a great sales pitch/gimmick, isn't it?
In learning this field, you need a classroom setting and hands' on experience/instruction. You'll see exactly what I mean when you get in the thick of it, or even starting out in learning it, for that matter.
I was fortunate with community college
I took courses through my local community college's continuing education program. The instructors were people who worked in the medical field during the day and taught at night. By doing exceptionally well in the classes and being a model student, I was recommended by a couple of the instructors and got a start at the office where one instructor worked before I even finished my transcription class.
Once I got my foot in that first door, I've been working steadily and successfully ever since. I had only a couple of classes under my belt!
The approved schools are probably the best chance for work after graduation, but opportunities can arise wherever you train.
In our increasingly global community, maybe
x
I went through Bellevue Community College
Also the CareerStep program online with once a month meetings if we lived close. Got a Sallie Mae grant. Got hired by MQ right out of school (after testing). Careerstep is one of the best schools and one of the only ones you can get hired straight out of school. I would not really recommend transcription anymore, though. It is not the job it used to be, paywise. Coding is still good pay I hear.
I went to a local community college
I started working for a small local MTSO.
Local community college nm
x
Everett Community College
online has a transcription course and since it is a community college, should be able to get financial aid. Try that. Google it.
CHS is Community Health Systems
xx
I actually borrowed a set from the library at the community college here.
I used them as long as I needed to, then returned them.
Really!!! This is fairly common MT 'net community
can this go on?!!
Check out your local community college -SM
I can't speak for all of them, but the one I went to offered externship programs and job placements for their best and brightest students. An acquaintenance of mine also got her MT training at a local college, and they did the same thing. Be careful, however, of the online courses. They cost a lot of money - much, much more than your local college, and you won't get the hands-on training or be able to get your questions answered in a flash with them as you would in an actual college setting. Also, an associate's degree at a college is much more impressive than admitting you received your training via an online course. That, to me, just sounds so "fly by night." 
suggest finding out if your state is a community
When I divorced the ex, we had just bought a house. We live in a community property state - everything you accrued during the married is pretty much split 50-50. I hired an attorney for $600 !!! He hired a real-property attorney for $350 as he was worried about the house. I gave him the house and the dog and I took the child. It is a joint custody state but I was the primary custodian.
It's worth it to hire a divorce lawyer, and like you said you're only married 2-1/2 years (I was married 12 yrs) and you probably have little to no equity in the house at this point (just like us back then).
Check out cheaper divorce lawyers and see what you can do. Best of luck!
SIL says she went through Wellspan Community Health Center. sm
any idea how to call them? i am not finding that exact name info. i did find roseann freundel as a DO student in WV but just pictured and an article. no contact info.
I vote for local community college.
If you attend a community college, it helps to network. If you do on-line training, you won't have the social part of your training. Also, it helps to try and find an on-site position at first to gain the knowledge although since you are already in a clerical position, you probably know more about anatomy and the hospital/medical setting than you even think. I wish you all the best. Another good thing about a local community college is that sometimes they know of great jobs because the teachers are also employed or know of jobs. You will have a certificate of training in an MT program, but a certified MT is done through the AAMT or whatever it is now, and is not worth the money in my opinion. You wind up after paying a few hundred dollars getting to put CMT after your name, but not when you transcribe a report. For example, even CMTs cannot put XXX/xxx, CMT if you catch my drift. 
I graduated from a local community college. sm
Had my first job before graduation but it was in-house with hourly pay and great benefits. Those are very hard to find anymore. I worked in-house for my first 2 years and then went on maternity leave picking up side work through a company for more income. Realized I was tripling my money going from hourly to production by that time, turned in my notice, and never looked back. Been at home ever since. If at all possible, in the beginning I would recommend to anyone to work inhouse even if it is for a transcription company. The value of having other "ears" is definitely not something to take for granted. I also learned as much as I could while getting that hourly pay as time is money when on production. I have to say I probably would not be near as proficient of an MT today had it not been all those hours learning and having another ear around to help out when stuck.
You bring up a point too though that I haven't really thought about before....With all the transcription being outsourced out of the office, it is only going to get much more difficult for anyone to get those breaks and get the required "experience" as a beginner.
This lady is well know in the MT community and is a long term MT. I understand
your skepticism, but that is not the case with this gal. She has been straightforward from the very beginning and I have practically her entire background. I would ask that we leave skepticism out of the picture and try to help this family out.
Thank you,
Sheri
Hi! Went through a similar thing at a smaller community hospital....sm
in the state...all the same set-up as you stated, but the coders, who shared our office, were also the darlings of the hospital and were treated differently. When pressed for an answer, the head of HIM said that between us, the coders were seen differently because they were responsible for bringing lots and lots of money into the hospital, their coding "properly" translated in to billing, which translated into $$$ for the hospital...all the while, the coders, in part, depended on back-up from our department when trying to decide which code was most appropriate. Since your working conditions would be changing if you are sent home, I think it is entirely reasonable and very intelligent to ask them for a new job description, I always love to have things in writing for future reference. You sound like a very productive MT, so don't worry...I didn't have to worry about speech recognition at this hospital cutting down on pay, but is there an HIM head whom you could all have a small meeting with to clarify these questions? It would be nice to put your mind at ease. Hope it all works out and you have the best of BOTH worlds, Granny!
I'm going to a local community college for culinary arts, I'm 52. nm
xxx
Live and let live. Don't force your lifestyle on me.
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