Everyone must pay their dues....we experienced MTs sm
Posted By: Old Exp. MT on 2005-09-29
In Reply to: don't make assumptions - Snow Bunny
worked in the office in the beginning of our career. I am not as old as one might think, 38 years old, but I started MT while still in high school in the 10th grade on a typewriter. I paid my dues many times over before I could have a career at home. I have to tell you, the experience and knowledge gained in that time is priceless. Yes, we learn something new every day, but in the office you have the doctors, nurses, OMs, and other MTs to offer their assistance. If you don't know a word or can't understand it, you go right to the doc himself. So, the next time you hear it, you know what the heck he/she was talking about. That is how you learn. Sorry to say it, but an office job or MT job in one specialty is where you should start. These schools tell you that you can work at home after you finish their course. That just is an outright untruth!
Just had to give my 10 cents worth.
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In a perfect world, dues would be enough; however, the Olympics is not about dues, it's about sm
winning. There are lots of athletes through the years I rooted for who were good but not good enough. Is Michelle good enough? Should she bump another more talented younger athlete from the team? Sentimentally, yes. Realistically no.
I did pay my dues
I did pay my dues but got into this when it was a good field to pick up own accounts and they have stayed with me, some for 18 years. But through this I have a few that did not pay, was not the right fit, etc. But now I pick up the little accounts, 1 to 2 docs with tapes still but it has treated me good. I still fight traffic once a day (I chose the time of the day) but I enjoy getting out of the house and seeing the gals at the office. I have 6 to 7 years full-time until I can quit and then will do part-time. I know it could change tomorrow and so that is why I appreciate what I have today. I have learned that I worry too much about tomorrow and was not enjoying today and changed this a year or two ago. I put in about 35 hours a week with pick up and delivery, have two part-time IC's.
are you current with your dues?
'Nuff said.
Sounds like union tactics, dues and all.
.
They have to make money somehow since they have declining membership dues. nm
x
And how much do you pay out of pocket for AHDI dues? And required CEUs?
f
Make off shore work illegal (to send to), lower dues, better pay - nm
s
I think $.07, $.075, $.08, or $.085 are all way too low for experienced MTs.
I truly love interviewing with these companies, then trying not to spew coffee out my nose at the line rates offered. Some of those rates were even for IC with no benefits or tax withholding. I'm about ready to quit MT and let them offshore because rates have dropped so much since I started. It's wonderful being offered the same rate to do ESLs and upper level work as what I made 10 years ago as a newbie. It's getting to the point where you can't make a decent, honest living anywhere any more.
Well, that's what MQ does. If are not an experienced MT,
nm
If you are experienced and don't have to SM
look a lot of things up, then the answer is macroing the daylights out of you machine. Macro just not large words, but medium and small words, such as "n" for "and" and "w" for "was", and so on. Try not to type anything out, if you don't have to.
I have also experienced that.
Did tell her that she might not have realized it but I felt there it sounded condescending and as our goal was to put out as perfect a product as possible, it was not helpful. Also told her that I appreciated constructive criticism as that would help us both.
Things did change. Sometimes I don't think they realize the importance of the way they phrase a sentence.
new MTs vs. experienced MTs
Dear MT Pundit,
Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts about experienced vs. new MTs. I think you're right-on. I see myself in the set-in-my-ways attitude sometimes. I'm not speaking for anyone else, of course. I can only speak for myself. Change isn't easy for me, but I've tried very hard to adapt and think I'm doing okay. This industry is changing fast and furiously, and if I want to stay in it, then I need to be able to go with the flow. Otherwise, my job may well end up in India. 
Too experienced? sm
Looking for a little advice. While applying for MT jobs recently I have been told I am too experienced to "just transcribe" because they see that I have held supervisory and other positions in the industry - along with many years of actual transcribing experience. I realize these days about 8 cpl is the going rate and although I wish it were higher, I wouldn't apply to these postings if I wasn't willing to work for that rate. Just looking to supplement my income. I would hate to leave all this experience off my resume, but maybe I should? Any ideas for a different way to spin this?
If you are experienced, you don't need to
look at the keys, whether characters are there or not.
Experienced ICs, please help.
I am an experienced Transcriptionist but I have always worked as an employee. I now have the opportunity to pick up a side account as an IC.
I really need some help and guidance on how to create a contract and what needs to be in that contract. Can someone please give me some advice?
Thanks In Advance!!
Even the most experienced MTs can
have trouble with new accounts. As long as your company has not said anything to you, don't sweat it.
experienced MT
Companies tend to want to hire newbies with the mindset that they can pay out cheaper. We all have to start somewhere, of course. Experience needs to continue to be worth something, including a deserved pay to go with it, and this notion seems to be whittling away...
In this profession, we all learn something new continuously.
I have experienced this...
before. There are many clients who operate in a similar fashion. If that's what they want, give it to them. After all, they are paying for our services, right?
yes, dnh.... I am experienced
I have been doing this for 15 years. Did my time in the office before going home and still learning every day.
I feel that I am above average at what I do, in the past 11 years on my current job, not one QA audit below 98%. I also have a 2nd job to make ends meet and in the past year, my monthly QA audits have been above 99%, twice at 100%. The 2nd job is OPs only and paid less than the 1st job.
I work a schedule at both! I do not complain and take pride in what I do. Of course I look things up. I do not abuse QA.
Thanks for you advice about trying to find a job like yours that never posts ads because no one leaves. That should help a fellow MT find a home.
I am an experienced transcriptionist, and have no more need sm
to proof every word of every report that the doctors have a need to actually listen over to their own dictation. Speed and quality go hand in hand in making a good MT. If you don't have both, then you will never make any more and never have any confidence in your skills. I think I already told you, above, that I have a QA score of 99.4. Good enough for me.
Experienced MTs Needed
AccuStat Carolinas is seeking experienced MTs to work on many multispeciality accounts. All MTs must have high speed internet acess to apply. All MTs must reside within the US. NO OFFSHORE NEED APPLY!!! Each MT will need to have a 9-pin (serial port) foot pedal. The client will provide all software needed to perform work. All work must be 98% or above in accuracy to remain with our company. AccuStat offers statutory employee or IC status with no restrictions on scheduling for either status. Pay is sent via mail or direct deposit twice a month. Pay is 7.5 cpl per line for all transcribed work and 2.5 cpl for all edited work. The program that you will work with is a VR program so you will have both transcribed and editing work. Please cut and paste resume into email. Only eligible MTs will receive response.
unbelievable... 6.5 to 8 cpl for EXPERIENCED ONLY
that was an ad in the job seeker's board. UN-freakin' believable.
Experienced MTs, please see New MT/Student
.
It may be pitiful but consider how much experienced MTs are
making. Not much more. 8 to 9 cents per line, maybe 10 if you agree to transcribe heavy ESL. Yeah, it's sickening, but then service owners have to edit newbies reports and still show a profit margin without losing their shirt. It's a quandry.
And they always saddle the experienced with these. sm
And then wonder why few really experienced MTs apply for the jobs.
Anyone experienced with ExText? (sm)
This is a new account and we're still on dial-up, and don't have the help function. I have 2 questions: 1) How can you bring a normal you have made for yourself into the document without having to go through the entire list? 2) How can you stop an expansion from expanding on a 1-time basis. Let's say you have PT as prothrombin time, but you need just "PT" -- how could you get it to stop at PT? Many thanks!
That is the norm from what I have experienced - sm
this gives the bride and groom time for pictures, etc. between the wedding and the reception. Every wedding I have ever been too, it's been about 90 minutes between the 2 events. Unless the reception is at the same place as the wedding, I'd expect some sort of gap between the two.
I have experienced all of the postings
below and they are my pet peeves too, but I have one doc that sometimes will not use the call in system, but uses his tape recorder to dictate and he does it while he is in a train station waiting for train, riding on the train, and leaving the train with his wife and kids talking right beside him, not to mention the noise from the train station, whistles and all. I get two 30 minute tapes a week of this guy and I seriously have a headache when I am done listening to it. Wish he would STAY HOME!! lol
I have experienced similar.
When I was working in a physicians office using a tape transcriber, if someone drove by the office using a CB radio, it came in loud and clear. I have never heard a regular radio through mine. I just assumed the ear phones were a type of receiver.
I think for me and what I am reading, these are mainly experienced MTs and ....
I have been doing this for 17 years and what causes the burnout is the stress, not from the job but all the changes in the last 5-6 years, with major companies having people just to figure out how they can make more profit and the constant changes with line counts, different platforms to the company's advantage, dictation maneuvering, on and on and on. I worked for one company that gave me a secondary I fell in love with, told them I wanted it for my primary, it reminded me of the hospital dictation I was used to, it wasn't a week later that I was doing almost 95% ESLs, that was bull - then to be making less than I was 5 years ago and working more hours to make less, VR that is not trained and takes longer to change than to type and make half per line, all these things contribute to burnout - sometimes I work sporadically all through the day to get my lines in because I am so discouraged of such a skilled profession making less than minimum wage with some companies. Yes, I agree it is great to be good with ESLs but it does slow you down and if you want to work 2 more hours a day or more because you are on an accout that is mainly ESLs, then you are doing it because you are lowering your standards, again, and again and again. That is the nature of this profession anymore.
In bowling good bowlers have a handicap for less experienced bowlers but that is a game, this is not a game. I do not like being handicapped in this profession bacause companies have to handicap the more experienced transcriptionists to be able to have less experienced transcriptionists do the work. Too many experienced transcriptionists are getting out of the profession because of that stress, not the stress of transcription, that is not the stress. The cherry pickers are the team leaders having to get their lines in and doing the easier dictation, they can do that, I don't think they have favorites they give it too, most are faces they don't see or know - they give the more experienced MTs the hard dictation, take the cream for themselves, and maneuver other dictation for the more inexperienced transcriptionists, and probably for not much different pay.
Is it hard for an MT experienced in - sm
general surgery or radiology or to transcribe neurosurgery/neurology? The EEG studies seem okay. What are the nuances of neurosurg? Any info you have would be great.
i have experienced the same thing you are. sm
some will "get it" in the MT world and some just won't because they lack the dedictation and care it takes to produce quality work. i had it happen not too long ago to me. i gave a month to get the act together after a year of working for me. it didn't happen. same mistakes over and over again even though i did compare documents and sent it back to them and then long expanded emails with every mistake. i am talking DOBs wrong, pt spelling wrong (when given pt lists), just complete nonesense typed. i had to let them go. why pay someone to do the work when basically you are doing it all anyway so you are giving them "free money". don't put up with it. move on to someone else until you find someone who takes pride in their work. there is a difference in not knowing and researching to figure it out just like there is the pride in work and wanting to do it right. some just don't have that. they want easy, work from home, money, but not putting in the effort to do it accurately. i think you should have done something long before you let them slid by for five years!! has it happened for five years with quality or just gone downhill recently?
Experienced versus New
I have to admit that even though I have 19+ years of experience, this article is strikingly true. I am not saying that a new MT has the experience in that they can make a decision in an instant as some of us with many years, but they are trained now to follow AAMT, which I had never heard of until I set out on my own and came online to find work. I also have seen posts on this board of people that have worked in a clinic setting for 10+ years and have no idea about what else is available to them online or how to set that up for themselves. How many times have we seen posts that someone has worked on one platform and never anything else. I don't think that article is a plug for that school. I think that article speaks for what is going on today in the MT industry. I think someone who has just finished school has been shown a lot more than what we all have had to learn on the job. I could probably type faster and know more about terminology than any new MT, but a new MT should know BOS and be more computer savvy than I was starting out.
Agree with Experienced MT
This is great advice and probably the same I would give. This is definitely a career where the skills and knowledge it takes to perform the job well are not commensurate with the wage scale in most instances. Being in the field myself for more years than I can to mention, there is never totally smooth sailing. Rough waters ensue almost on a daily basis. Eventually with a lot of hard work, you can pretty much do the gamut the industry has to offer but I don't ever think you ever get to the point where you call it "easy."
Even experienced MTs are slow at first with a new
company. It takes a while to adjust to new formats, new software, new doctors, and usually a new medical facility that does things a little differently, including dictation.
Just because you're terminated does NOT mean you have no right to receive your back pay. I'm not sure what the legal timeline is for when you are supposed to get the pay you are owed when terminated, but I would recommend finding out, and once you know when the cutoff date is for receiving your final paycheck from them, if it's even so much as half a day late, I would pursue it very aggressively, starting with a call to your state's Labor Board.
Question for the experienced
Do those of you who have been at this awhile (but not burnt out) feel that MTing becomes more enjoyable as time goes on?
I am still pretty green at this and am hoping as I gain more experience and knowledge it will become more pleasurable and less wearing.
What has your experience been?
Just because YOU haven't experienced it
doesn't mean it's not happening. I lost my last THREE transcription jobs in the past 18 months to VR. The companies or hospitals decided they could make more money by putting the decent MTs on difficult accounts and letting everything else go to VR. I used to consistently make $28 an hour, and that is no LIE! I grossed $3,000 a month working part-time, 25 hours per week or less. Then my pay was cut back to maybe $6 an hour doing garbage dictations that the machine couldn't handle, such as ESL, oncology, static, mumblers, cardiology. Forget that! Sure, I didn't technically get "laid off," but I had to quit because I could no longer make a living wage to support my family. McDonald's pays more than $6 an hour! I would have taken it if I had been offered a position as a VR editor. I can't find another part-time job in MT. Instead, I've been job hopping through nonMT, minimum paying jobs and am now going into debt again with student loans to retrain in a different career field.
It can even happen to experienced MTs...
I want an experienced MT to email me please - I have questions for someone who has been there, done
nm
re wanting experienced MT to answer q's
go ahead and e/m me if you want. I've been at this since 1975; will help you if i can.
Opinions wanted from experienced MTs, please!
I may have commented on this before, but now my boss wants me to handle it in a different way, and I am not sure if it's the right way to go.
One of my docs makes up his own words. He will often say that the results of a test are "equivocable". We know that's not a word. I can't just substitute in "equivocal" or "unequivocal" because this is a verbatim account. My boss used to tell me to just make a note in my log, which is sent with my work, that the doc had used that word. I liked that, because it provided documentation with the file (of which I retain a copy) that while the doctor may not know that's not a real word, *I* do and I am just typing what he's saying.
Now my boss has asked me to leave that off the log because it is annoying the doctor. I totally understand her point, because we know how snotty docs can be. Lord forbid anyone point out that they're wrong about anything, or the world might spin off its axis. But I am not sure...
Do I need something on my log so that I can prove that it isn't my mistake being made? Is it okay since my boss knows that and the doctor should know his own non-word since he's the one who made it up in the first place?
I am probably worrying about nothing, but just thought I would see what you wiser, more experienced MTs were thinking. 
Glad to know this happens with you experienced MTs too, thought it was just me sm
I have SOOOO many ESLs on my account. Although I have normals and samples, it is SUCH slow going. I can fly pretty well when I have a decent dictator but they are so few and far between it seems.
This is my first job and I'm so tempted to look around for something else, but I'm scared that this is the way it is everywhere. I don't mind doing ESLs, just want some good dictators too.
Any tips for a new nightshifter from experienced ones..
I would love to have some tips to help with the transition. My shift will be from 8pm to 4am (I am west coast time so three hours difference from where the company is) three consectutive nights a week.
Many friends have told me I'm nuts, but my hubby will be working on the days I am sleeping, no kids at home anymore and we live in the sticks, so no one just drops by!
Any good or bad feedback appreciated!
I need opinions from experienced MTSOs please...sm
My mother-in-law owns her own business and I'm an IC for her along with two other companies. She just lost a pretty good size account to India. In the last two months, she has had two phone calls from offices inquiring about her transcription. They were referred by word of mouth from other doctors. In the past 20 years that my MIL has been doing this accounts have always been dropped into her lap (so to speak) and there was no effort involved on her part. I keep strongly encouraging her to follow up with the doctor or office manager and then drop by with some samples of work and just to introduce herself. I feel that she is not aggressive enough and has lost two accounts due to this. It could be rates too I'm not totally sure.
Let me give you the scenerio from the last couple days. Two days ago the doctor herself called and spoke to my MIL. Unfortunately, her grandson was screaming in the background, but besides that the conversation went well. The doc is very behind and needs someone right away. My MIL called yesterday to fu and the doctor was with a patient but the woman on the phone sounded glad to hear from her. There was no return call yesteray and my MIL feels she should drop it that she didn't get the account. I feel she should go to the office this morning and introduce herself and bring a few samples of her work and even pick up the tapes if it were to go that well.
I need help convincing her to follow through with this. Over the last 20 years things have changed and that MTSOs need to be a little more aggressive or the accounts will go to the next MTSO that is.
Please give me some ideas that I can share with her. Thanks so much!
Any experienced Kansas City MTs here
I need two MTs, clinic work, each for an average 500 to 1000 lines a day Monday through Friday, but usually around 700 to 800 lines. Would like MTs who are really experienced and can turn in work ready to go to the client. If interested, email me and we can discuss the work, pay, etc.
MUST have C-phone and you could start as early as Monday if you like!
experienced MTs need to find companies
I just went with a company that will not hire with less than 5 years experience. They pay better.
An experienced MT in your employment is worth
Sorry, but that needed to be said again - for all you MTSO's out there reading these boards, who think it's good business to keep losing top-notch MTs due to dismal pay rates, and simply replacing them with less-experienced (or worse, OFFSHORE) workers, here's a news flash:
A seasoned MT in your employ is a money-maker for you, and they should be paid closer to 15-18 cpl to START... not the lousy 7-8 cpl peanuts you're so callously throwing at them. The people who are sending you dictation are for the most part huge, wealthy establishments that can afford to pay a premium price for the premium quality transcription and "I-want-it-yesterday" turnaround-time they're demanding from you.
So please grow a spine, and charge them for what you're MT service is really WORTH. Don't sell yourselves (and ultimately your MTs) short by always having to bring in the lowest bid for an account. You might just see more high-quality accounts, and less of the *garbage*. And then, try paying your MTs who are lining your pockets with money a fair wage with decent benefits, and see how many more of them will stick with you instead of constantly changing jobs in search of one that pays. Not only would it be the right thing to do morally, but it would be a better for business in the long-run.
I did not know the words educated, experienced, etc.
could only be used by Northerns? I think MTs here fit that bill as well. Thanks for your concern.
An experienced MT, I agree and disagree with you sm
I have two jobs right now, one I have had for 3 yrs (old job) and one I have had for 6 months (new job).
Old job sends back a corrected copy of every report that goes to QA. I am getting used to a new account, so these are used as references and for learning the new account. I could not learn the new account without this, and that is understood, it is a challenging account. This feedback has always been the case, however, no matter how long I have held onto an account.
The feedback is generic, in that there is NEVER a personal comment about it. You don't get "good job" but you don't get "you should have known this" either. It a tool and THIS very experienced MT uses it!
New job...feedback is rare. You can go back and look up things you have done, but unless you know what you are looking for, you won't find your corrections. In fact, many of my "corrections" were sent as blanks to the client and there is nothing for me to learn from. When feedback does come, it is only for errors and it is by phone with a thorough "ripping me a new one" and I can't say I like this, so I tend not to answer the phone. Every comment is made as a personal statement about me, not about my work. We had a conference call a couple of months ago and every error that one can with the MT system, I have made. Then again, I am the longest serving MT on this account. Every time they wanted to point out something you don't do, they called me BY NAME in from of my peers and said: You know ALL ABOUT THAT, don't you? Cheap shot and unprofessional to say the least.
It is sometimes true that experienced MTs lack adequate computer knowledge and have a lot of difficulty in this area. Some of us upgrade frequently enough (I do) that we have to stretch to learn new things.
I don't, not for a minute, consider that I don't have a certain excitement and acceptance of new things. I have had to learn no fewer than 5 MT platforms in this very calendar year. On top of that, I have made it a personal point to learn to do ESLs of all kinds, which is why I took the new job in the first place.
Knowing the BOS2 backwards and forwards has been an impediment for me because it is not the same as any specs I have ever been given for a hospital or a company. Use it properly? That is why it is very handy in PDF format!
I don't have on the job training in the sense that I have it in lieu of a training program. I took a training program and did extremely well with it and even passed a test and was hired before I could complete it. The rest is history. I am one of the lucky MTs who work part time and make a full time income with extreme accuracy, a willing attitude and the mentality of a team player.
Your post has a point and I acknowledge that. I simply don't appreciate being told that because I have training, a college degree and have been an MT for a dozen years that I am past my prime, I don't like to learn and I can't use the BOS properly!
We are all individuals and I don't think you said that clearly enough.
I believe clinicians prefer experienced MTs.
We catch the errors. And I must say, from where I am sitting, ~a lot~ of errors go by me, right and left, wrong patient's, wrong organs mentioned during reading (I am in radiology). When I think back to when I began this work, I do not recall so many. Or maybe there was but I did not notice.
You can pick a report apart letter by letter in QA but if it has a major error in it because an MT didn't catch it and it was acted upon, the whole purpose of having a human being at the other end, mentally processing the information. I have been thanked profusely by medical staff for saving the day many times in my 30 years. This alone is priceless to surgeons and radiologists whom I have worked with.
i would say a good experienced average is about 200 lph so students maybe 100 to 150 lph. nm
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