How do you handle a family member who is a hypochondriac???

Has anyone ever had a family member who they believed is a hypochondriac?  We have an individual who seems like he always has something wrong.  It is to the point now if he really does get sick I can't believe him anymore.  I can't even bring myself to calling him to see how he is feeling when he says he is sick b/c I think he is just making a mountain out of a molehill.  Am I being insensitive?  I am just so tired of hearing it. 

I am sure someone is going to recommend counseling but he already does that.  Anyone have any other advice how to handle him?

TIA

• How do you handle a family member who is a hypochondriac??? - no more sympathy
  • From the other side... - Hypochondria
  • my hypochondriac... - rachel
    • I could have written this - post...sm
  • He is depressed. He does need help. - Sorry.
  • Some people are - Me
  • Tell him, "I think you're a hypochondriac." - Of couse, he'll deny it. Then always change th
  • It's called being psychosomatic (nm) - Hopefully getting therapy for it.
  • Why don't you go to counseling with him? - Me
    • It is not my family.. hubby's side.... - no more sympathy
      • You are missing the point - Me

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I went to visit my aunt last night.  Last week she fell and broke all the bones in her ankle.  She has plates and screws.  This is her fourth fall this year, but that is another story.  I looked at her cast and placed my hand on her leg just above the cast and it was warm.  I felt her other leg and it was cool.  The more I went up on the broken leg the less warm it got, but all the way up it was definitely significantly warmer than her "good" leg. 

My mother is a nurse practitioner and she showed up while I was there.  I explained my concern to her (my aunt is also a diabetic) about a possible infection.  She wouldn't acknowledge my concern.  I repeated myself and still nothing.  Lately my mother and I have had a couple issues regarding family members and their heath.  I am not a nurse nor do I claim to be, but being in this profession you do learn about the medical field and somtimes I feel I see a different side of things than my mom.  I can't figure out why, but she just doesn't see any value in my thoughts regarding medicine, ideas, thoughts, alternatives, etc.  In every other way she is the best mom in the world and I love her so much, but I feel she is disrespecting me by not taking my opinions/thoughts into account regarding the field of medicine and our family.

Another example is she has trouble with the pronunciation of medications.  I'm not claiming to be a pro, but I hear doctors and nurses says these meds over and over and over and I feel the majority rules in this regard.  Again, she thinks I'm wrong and doesn't really listen to what I'm saying.  The only reason I correct her is because I think it would be embarrasing to speak with a doctor and not say a med correctly.  I think it is a reflection on her.  It also helps with dictation too (as we all know).

Any ideas.  I don't know what to do.  I tried talking to her about this a couple weeks regarding my dad's health and she really didn't listen to what I had to say.  With certain things you can just blow it off, but this is the health of my aunt and father and I just couldn't live with myself if something happened to them.

Thanks for listening and for any ideas. 

I am wondering what the proper protocol would be if I ever came across a report that was dictated on one of my family members. 

I just started doing transcription for a hospital in a really small town--the ONLY hospital in that town--and it just happens to be the same town were most of my family lives.  I know myself well enough to know that I won't break any rules of confidentiality.  However, is there anything in the *laws of transcription* that say I legally am not allowed to transcribe reports dictated on relatives??

I am afraid to ask my supervisor this question, as I really like this account and don't want her taking me off of it.  It's chopped full of *standards* and the line count/pay just doesn't get any better than this.

Things in this field have changed for the worse over the past years.  Salaries have decreased, yet expectations have risen.  Benefits are contingent upon production, yet a good share of the time production can't be met due to complications outside of the MT's control.  When it comes to taking the losses due to changes in the field such as offshore outsourcing and technologic advancements, it isn't the clients or the service owners taking the major hit.  It's the transcriptionists.  Yet AAMT has done NOTHING to help the transcriptionists in general.  In fact, it has gone out of its way to PROMOTE offshore outsourcing and even to change some of the guidelines in the newly published, amended BOS to accommodate voice recognition and other technology geared to replace the MT or relegate transcription to other forms labeled "editors", which in reality involve retyping whole reports or major portions of reports at a cut in pay, of course. 

All anyone, newbies included, needs to do is to look at the history of the medical transcription field, see the changes, and then see how much AAMT did to promote the worth of the Transcriptionist in this country.  The depressing message isn't coming from those speaking against AAMT, it is coming from the consequences resulting from the actions of the AAMT.  One fact alone can depress a newbie, and that is to look at the average line rate in 1995 compared to the average line rate now in 2005.   Thank you, AAMT, for promoting that.

to start holding hands with India. They are not out to help AMERICAN MTs. They don't care one way or another about American MTs anymore.

Their latest pitch is to the  MTs STOP transcribing verbatim. So not only will we have to be language specialists, we'll have to put a doctor's words in "proper English."

It doesn't matter what the docs want. It's what they want. Baloney. They are not our boss. Our docs are our bosses. If the docs want verbatim, that's what they'll get...at least from me (except for the JAHCO list of unacceptable terminology).

I'm so glad there are hospitals and doctors out there that don't give a hoot about AAMT. I sure don't. Oh, and if anyone noticed, usually buying products through AAMT doesn't save a dang nickel. In fact, you pay just as much, if not more, for the same products you can get by dealing directly with the company that makes them till all is said and done.

I'll save my money and spend it on more important things.

I have been at this for about 15 years and have thought off and on about becoming an AAMT member and about getting my CMT, but always stop short because of the cost and basically the inconvenience of having to find the testing center that seems to be located in some obscure office building I've never even heard of.

However, I have recently started working for a facility that actually encourage their MTs to further their education, to network with one another and share information, and offer pay raises for the CMT credentials.  So, once again I am considering the pros and cons of membership and taking the CMT exam.

They will try to get you to work like a dog, your fingers to the bone.  You just tell him no.  I will work x number of hours a day and that is it.  That is what I did and it worked out fine.   They will try to push you to work 24 x 7 if they can.  That is the way they are (men from India).  Just hold firm and they will accept it.   You need to be "thick-skinned" I think to be able to work with them. 

Merely sent an email. In the subject line put MTSTARS (company name) so when you get a response you have the details.

Merely say, I have a couple of question prior to sending in a resume or testing taking.  This saves time on both sides. 

May I ask, what is the lowest to the highest rate of pay. What pay rate formula is used, for example, by the line, by the minute, by the word, by the gross word.  Are spaces paid, ALL spaces.

some in their ads say "we pay for ALL spaces"  so I guess some companies pay a percentage. 

For instance Medquist does not pay for the demographic screen, the CC notation or the headings. and prob more that is not known. .

You need to know how to convert this to an hourly rate so you know how much you actually are making.

Below is a quote from a company in Texas TSI and I sat down with the calculator and figured some of the hourly rates.  For the most part, way too many lines for most MTs

First off I'd tell my mom that he's a pig and what he has done. 

Secondly I'd never be around him without a recording device turned on in my pocket so that way you can record his comments, and if he touches you or flirts then get a recording of your asking him to not touch or look at you that way and his response.  Then play the recording for your mom and other relatives.

While it may be true your mother may go into denial you need to stand up for yourself.   My mom was a fool and protected my father when she was told about his untoward advances towards women for years.... and then something happened that made her realize that she had been a fool for years and that he was the one with the problem. 

/

I have not had work for most of July.  I am an IC and have been doing this for years.  This is the slowest I have ever been and I'm stressed out.  Luckily, hubby pays the majority of the bills so I am not starving!  I have applied several other places with no luck.  Is this just a summer slow period or what?  How can I keep from going a bit crazy?  I am getting rather depressed.  TIA

I picked up some extra IC work back in May, and since that time have covered for the owner by editing for her while she was on vacation for a week, and then taken extra work as the MT with whom I share dictation from this doc was on vacation for a week, then sick for a week just after return, the next Friday had a family emergency, etc.  This was supposed to be part-time work, and has turned out to be more than I would expect for part-time . . . to the point where when this doc was going on vacation, I was trying to hold out and not say anything about it being too much, thinking that I'd be caught up and fine to take on the work when he returned, but wound up "breaking" with one day left to go, and told the woman it was too much, and she asked if I could just hang in there with her as she was testing another MT, and would reduce the amount she gave me if this girl worked out. 

Well, the doc returned from vacation and I did not get any of his work for about a week, and then the next week (this past week), I was given slightly more work than in the weeks prior to his vacation, although I had already told her it was too much, and it was still the same girl working the account with me.  At the end of the week it seemed that she had hired another girl, but did not reduce my work, just switched from girl 1 to girl 2. 

Sorry so long, but here's the BIGGER problem . . . in the early part of the week, the owner e-mailed with an attached voice file, requesting that I download the voice file and listen to a blank she was trying to fill-in.  I listened (over and over) could not find her sentence, so responded with what I was hearing in and around that area.  She then gave me another location and said that she had two counters on her program and did not know which one my program used, could I listen at xxxx location, so I did, gave her the fill-in, but was a little bewildered as to why she would request my assistance in that way as SHE IS NOT PAYING ME FOR THIS KIND OF HELP. 

Here we go again, yesterday she sends an e-mail with some voice files attached and some sentences with blanks, and she is requesting the same thing, that I listen and fill-in the blanks.  I am just not sure what to do here.  Early on, a couple of weeks after she returned from her vacation, she asked me if I could "proofread" the other girls files for that day as an appointment she had was "screwing her up".  I e-mailed back that, due to my heavy workload, I would not be able to EDIT work for her.  (The girl's work requires editing, not proofreading, which I quickly found out while covering the owner's vacation.)  I thought that I had let her know then that I do not work for free, in a nice way.

I would like to keep the work, but only what I am being paid for, so . . . How would you handle this situation? 

Once a report is typed and checked in by you and someone else accesses the report be it QA or another Transcriptionist adding a line or making a change per the dictator, is that second/third person required to indicate in some way that your report has been altered?  Thanks

I have 44 clients for my business.  I charge 18 cpl.  I pay 7 and 8 cpl for my MTs (ICs).  With the 10-11 cpl left over, I have to pay all my overhead.  Sometimes, I have no money left over to even pay myself, and have even put in my personal savings to make sure the MTs get paid.  Now, I have a company that has offered me to do work for 5 cpl but it is offshore.  I have to say, tho, that the extra 3 cpl would allow me to sometimes even pay myself something.  My contractors are complaining about wanting more money but I will go under and close down if I do that.  Also, this company will do the work overnight and return it in the mornings when I have to constantly juggle with my current contractors because they only want to work days.  I don't want to cut my contractors but I don't see any other way around it.  What should I do? 

See the dilemma?  It's not as easy as you think.

I am an IC and for the past 5 years have worked for the same doc.  He still uses tapes so I deliver on a daily basis.  I already load the work on his PC and make sure the pages line up etc. and do not get paid extra.  I also convert some reports from WP to Word and e-mail to him at no extra charge.  Now he starts calling me after I leave the clinic and expect me to either turn-around and come fix the mistakes/changes (15 minutes later) or I must wait in his office until he is finished with a patient consult, can go through the work to check for mistakes/changes for me.  The mistakes range from doctor's names misspelled (workmen's comp with lots of different doc names, impossible to search and find as no clue where the doc is located) or template changes etc. and sometimes silly mistakes which is totally my mistake.  Am I fair in stating that I do not mind doing the corrections when I return the next day but that I cannot wait around in his office for him as he does not pay me for that and I will also not turn around after I have left the office to go back when they call me? How do all of you handle this type of situation?