Good accounts are going overseas

• Are there really any jobs that don't have 85% OR BETTER ESL? - hillbillymt
  • Radiology usually has few ESLs. - Me
  • Might try clinic work ... seem to be less there. Otherwise - tis the way of things now nm
    • Good accounts are going overseas - hillbillymt

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but I am really getting frustrated.  I left a company who bumped me off my ERs (which I did for over a year and were my 'bread-and-butter', and the more I complained or asked about it, the worst dictation I got, etc.  This was a change of management in which that company went down-hill fast, anyway, as far as the treatment of MTs. 

so I left, and now at the 'new' company I am still doing 5, 6 accounts.  Forget ERs, I am told. 

the question is, I am working on so many accounts, and even accounts with different management, different QA.  I am embarrassed to mention I just did a report using the SPECS FROM THE WRONG ACCOUNT.  Luckily, I had sent the report to QA, but I get a note from the QA like 'read the specs' (stupid) is how it sounded.  Yeah, I did, but for the wrong account. 

these companies do not see how making people work on so many accounts is going to be huge negative for them in the long-run.  they risk mistakes like this, not me. 

how does one keep it all straight, and why do we have to?  the only people who are having success, are people who will take any kind of abuse, it seems, and are just making the best of it.  does that mean only the aggressive will survive in this business? this gets more ridiculous all the time. 

not to mention, pay and money - LIVELIHOOD - severely diminishes the second week of pay-week.  anyone else notice that?  first week I am flying on the primary, second week in I am like getting scraps, working on 4, 5,6 accounts - there goes all I worked for in the first week. 

so these ladies typing 300+ lines/hour and making $50 thou a year, like so many boast on here, how,where, when ????  I am not getting it, and I am a 99-100% quality MT, working 35 hours/week.  every company I have worked with, my paycheck is totally dependent on the manager, period. 

The system is not accepting the 3-digit password, after I write out my message, why not?

A friend of mine is moving to Italy and I am really considering going with her.  Just wanting to know if anyone has lived outside of the US (not necessarily in Italy, just anywhere).

Thanks

When companies state no overseas applications or solicitations does that include Overseas Military?? I have DSL and we have a US Post office here on base. Curious cause i'm about to start school and want to know it wont be wasted while we are stationed overseas.

Thanks!

I don't know where you have been for the past several years but a whole bunch of people are screaming bloody murder about this to their congressmen/women.  There are plenty of petitions being circulated to put a stop to foreign outsourcing.  Most MTs I know have not only sent letters to congress but have called the senators from their states to complain about this.  My friends refuse to see a physician who outsources medical records - and they ask up front who does the transcription and make it know that their records are not to be sent to a foreign country. 

There's lots of stuff going on.  Do a search on the Web and you will more than likely more than you ever imagined.

Does anyone have any sources for info on overseas MT jobs?!  I have been Googling but haven't come up with a single MT position in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, or Costa Rica -- only Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Dubai.

Thanks.

If you worked for an American company say in Scotland all well and good, transcribing for U.S hospitals and the work contained in the U.S., BUT if you transcribe for British or European hospitals/doctors, the work contained in those countries, it is VERY difficult.  The spelling is very different.  I was born and raised in Britain x25 years and when I started working here in the U.S. I found the American spelling very difficult - although less characters per word.  British spelling adds a lot.  Just a thought!  Plus the accents are hard too.  They don't say period, they say full stop which sometimes sounds like part of the text, but you have probably already experienced that.  Good luck, it sounds wonderful.

Can a U.S. citizen travel while working for an American transcription company, as long as they have a legal U.S. residence?  Is there any legal reason not to hire someone who likes to travel and visit foreign countries while they work?  I'm not talking about off-shoring. 

I've been reading some very interesting posts regarding off-shore outsourcing.  I worked as a supervisor in a large MTSO in the 1990s when this subject was being "bantered" around the office, but it was my mistake that I didn't start taking it more seriously at that time.

As I have seen transcription issues evolve over the past 10+ years, I can think back to a time when, in fact, we had lots of "visitors" coming to our office, looking at servers, etc. in what I quite naively thought were server upgrades.  Some of these so-called "visitors" were indeed of foreign descent.  I lived in the southwest at the time so there was a fair amount of "overseas occupants" and I didn't think much about it.  Now, in hindsight, it's plainly and perhaps painfully clear that this was the beginning of outsourcing.

One thing I will say upfront is the fact that overseas outsourcing companies employ smart and very patient people.  I don't doubt this very concept of $.03 cpl transcripton is very palatable to foreign entities where there is so much poverty.  I also remember reading in some of the transcription magazines around that time that doctors and nurses were quitting their jobs in India to transcribe because they made more money!  I laughed outloud when I read that, but I guess the joke was on us.   I also remember reading ads for medical editors in Saudi Arabia for $40-50,000 with a full housing allowance, but the employee had to sign a two-year retainer agreement.  One MT I knew took a job in Saudi Arabia.  I did hear from another MT who was writing to her that there were huge personal safety issues and she would be glad when her time was up so she could "come home."

If we want to know how persistent outsourcers can be, especially with medical office/hospital administrative staff making critical decisions without actual hands-on experience and think MTs are just "typists," just look at our current situation.  We in the USA don't seemingly have the patience to look at the broader picture and the dollars matter more.  Don't get me wrong but the spiraling out-of-control cost of healthcare has always been an issue and with more sophisticated scanners, research, etc. being necessary just to compete with the hospital/clinic across the street, dollars have to be taken from somewhere and voila! it's comes from  'discretionary funds' called MT.  There is only one very large medical institution still in his country who tried outsourcing in the beginning and when the quality of the work was so poor they wouldn't stand for it anymore, they cancelled the remainder of the "standard" contract and vowed never again to outsource whatever the cost.   To this day, they are still one of the most prestigious medical centers in the world and all transcription is being done in-house.

I truly believe there is safety in numbers and hope I live along enough to see a radical change from off-shore outsourcing to bringing MTs "bread-and-butter" home where it belongs!

Maybe we can start by not utilizing their services and getting the word out.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/content.html

have you ever asked/educated your friends and family about the fact their medical records may be transcribed overseas and their personal information may be shipped over there, as well?

I was talking with my husband about this issue, and he was oblivious even though I have done transcription for almost 7 years.  (He was also pretty PO'd that with all the money we pay for insurance, our medical records could be coming from third-world ESL transcriptionists).

What if every person who went to their doctor said I want my medical records transcribed in the US by US MTs.  While writing to the president is a good idea, isn't educating each and every healthcare consumer a better idea?  I like the idea of a hospital/clinic having to post a disclaimer that your personal medical information is being transcribed overseas. 

I bet then their pockets would get a little deeper and all these MTSOs that are making money off shipping our work overseas would have a lot less business and a lot less power over us.  If veterans hospitals and Washington DC area hospitals cannot send their records overseas, why don't the rest of us have the same rights?  Are the politicians really going to be responsive to our letters if they know their records are safely done in the US?

I think this movement has to come at least in part from the healthcare consumers, i.e., everyone, as we do not have the money or the mouthpiece that MTSOs do.  It will empower the MTSOs trying to keep jobs here to offer better wages and expand their businesses while keeping American MTs employed.