I think it is how businesses is done. Hospitals are always looking for a better deal
Posted By: Charlene on 2007-09-21
In Reply to: wage - anon
Since all transcription services "GUARANTEE" turnaround time with complete accuracy a hospital will try to find the rock bottom rate they can get the work done for. Since they don't deal directly with the Transcriptionist they are going to look to the company that will insure them quality work at the lowest price possible. The service cannot make a profit if they keep reducing their prices to secure/keep a client so they have no choice but reduce compensation. It is such a competitive business so if a service is willing to do it for less but still provide turnaround and quality that is the service that is awarded the account. It just trickles down to the transcriptionist basically taking what is offered because they are not doing the negotiating. I think the trend is keep cpl as low as they can but making speed and quality mandatory. If you want to be considered for employment because of this competitiveness a transcriptionist has to accept this as not a field where wages are rising...if anything they are going down. It baffles me because all in all other health fields, salaries are going UP. With transcription salaries are other going down or the rate is the same as it was 15-20 years ago but the quality standards are much higher...that is the difference - the standard of quality but not the pay. It is the trend of the industry. It is considered such an advantage to work out of your home and be afforded a flexible schedule that of course you are willing to take less plus combine that with the threat of having your job outsourced because "you make too much and others including other countries will work for much lower wages" it seems that lowering cpl will continue as the trend.
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It is an okay deal - TR 11 font is small. Not as good a deal as Courier.
Personally, I would have to think really hard and compare reports and line counts, like the other poster below suggested, before I would jump right into it. It is probably 75-80 characters to a line +/- the single character lines you get for initials, and 2 word lines you get with op reports such as Surgeon:
IV Fluids:
Anesthesia:
etc.
It probably is comparable to 9 cpl with a larger font.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
Good Luck!
Yeah, but hospitals are already largely using VR in hospitals. (nm)
(nm)
I would, but they ran out all the smaller businesses here. nm
..
cleaning for businesses
Definitely pays more and there is less grunge to clean. You vacuum, empty trash cans and easy. Probaby depending on the size of the office, good money
friends of mine pay house cleaners once or twice a week, $75 for half a day.. the hispanics do about 2 or three hours and leave to another job.
Ummm, some MT's run their own businesses...
which was exactly the kind of advice she was asking for..
your life may be narrowed down to only MT but some of us do much, much more
They are running businesses SM
and a new MT is costly to train in the way you want. As far as making sure EVERY report is 98% or better, I'm sorry but there is no medium or large company doing that. As long as MTs are paid on production, errors are going to be made. I think you probably need to focus your attention on the work you are doing, don't bother with other people's reports. As for people working more than *they should be,* again, production is the key and the more an MT types, the better their paycheck is and the better the supervisor likes them.
Businesses also have people to
answer to. They hire for when they need people to work. If they cannot accommodate the schedule an individual wants, then that person just needs to look elsewhere.
Did you know that not everyone can get direct deposit for their businesses? sm
There are a lot of factors, and banks will not take on a small company. They want to provide services for bigger companies that have a lot of money going through their accounts.
I deal with one of the biggest banks in the country and they will not let me do direct deposit until we deposit over $100,000 per month or it is not worth it for them.
The smaller banks in my area do not even offer it.
All I can do is get checks out on time and correctly.
Outsourcing affecting other businesses...
My husband's co-worker's wife is losing clients to cheaper labor overseas. She owns an advertising company and would charge $25,000 per client, and now they're paying $600 for the same thing, but not here. She has lost about $100,000, and they are struggling now. These people have tapped into something that is really hurting our country. I'm afraid for our kids' future and what they might not have, nevermind ours. I just thought I'd throw this out there. I know this is nothing new to hear.
? for small in-home businesses
I am looking into adding a 1-800 number to my system, DH thinks that you pay for the minutes you use, is this correct? One of my Transcriptionist travels to my house to work, which is 45 minutes away from her's.
I don't want the govt telling businesses how
That is MY privilege to negotiate with my employer!
Too much interference by governments already by forcing minimum wage, etc.
You'll have businesses closing down if you put too much mandatory regulation in the mix. It's a free enterprise, you know.
I got your point. I already knew that. Fact is, most businesses sm
in other areas give benefits. We all know that holidays are given at the discretion of any business. The fact is though that most businesses do offer them off in other areas, hospitals do, and why wouldn't an MTSO want to make her employees more attracted to her service? That is my point. I understand your point. I had a point too. :)
Yes, I would be very angry. Men do not run businesses with emotions - they don't care! nm
x
many businesses are doing credit checks before they hire. Some of the reasons are
for example, an employee with a very bad credit rating, carrying a lot of debt might be deemed to be a greater risk for financial problems, such as embezzling. Also, if one cannot handle one's own finances, tends to show that perhaps they can't handle other responsibilities, particularly supervisory duties. Just what I've heard in the business columns...
anyone watch deal or no deal?
I love Deal or No Deal.......nm
Do you expect businesses to cease operating because the U.S. work force refuses to provide services?
What will be wanted is that the immigrants pay taxes and that there are no outlaws coming and going. This is all about taxes.
Has anyone ever tried those multilevel marketing businesses such as Fortune Hi-Tech marketing...sm
My friend wants me to sign up...she is making about $2000 a month now but working quite hard at it. My husband claims it is like a pyramid. I just don't know. I wondered if any of you have had personal experience with this type venture. TIA
Most hospitals have ......
contracted their work out to the national service, a practice I hope comes full circle eventually and hospitals reopen their own departments in the name of confidentiality and quality control. I only know of 2 hospitals out of about 8 in my area that have their own department (I work for one of them). It is by far the best MT job there is, or that I have ever had. I am at home, but a regular employee. The hospital is only 20 min from my house (we have to live local). I have worked for the big nationals and saw nothing but a decline in pay. Now I get regular raises, good hourly pay, production incentive pay, benefits, and vacation time. I wish more MTs could find my situation. I have hopes for the future once the industry figures out that they are cutting off their nose in spite of their face.
Do All Hospitals
In Tennessee pay that well? I have been considering moving to Tennessee to try to get away from the hurricanes.
VA Hospitals
I did the VA Hospital dictation here in Portland and it was all contracted out to companies, no employees. But you might contact your local VA Hospital but if it is as an employee 95% chance you will have to go into work and not do it at home, if it is at home it will be as an IC and no benefits. Just what I know about it. If you think your ESL's are bad at a regular hospital, this is worse as there is a lot of ESL's there on their rotation and they could care less how they dictate as they are only there for 6 to 8 weeks. Changes that often.
The hospitals are not going to get
dial into. They'd be better off hiring MTs and paying benefits than doing that. And if you dial directly into the hospital, instead of into the MTSO's dictation system, then the MTSO has no say in 800 lines. The truth is, hospitals usually do not want to just turn all of their dictation over to a service and they certainly aren't going to pay for long distance incoming calls in addition to what they pay the service.
just sometimes it is the hospitals...
they are actually told to hold back dictation at times, due to costs. sometimes the hospitals sneak around and try other services, or voice recognition.
in the future, there will not even be any voice dictation...just templates where information is added, like data entry...
Not that many hospitals.......
still have their own dept. That's how Medquist and Spheris and all those huge nationals exist... They have whole hospital accounts. Out of the 3 large hospitals in my vicinity, only 1 still has their own department. I trolled their website for months before I found an opening, but I eventually got in. Some hospitals don't have their MTs at home, mine does. It all depends. Most hospitals have a website, so fine the one you're interested in and check out their job opportunities, and then check it almost every day and if they do have a dept, they'll eventually have an opening.
Well - believe it. Hospitals pay that. I can tell you
at least hospitals in the Philadelphia area pay up to 24 cpl. MQ charges 23 cpl. I have one small department of a hospital at 17 cpl. It is out there - pull your head out of the sand and go looking.
I wonder if hospitals know
There are American transcription companies opening up here in the US that actually work for companies in India? I had a job offer from an American company and they let it slip that they were actually getting paid by Focus Infomatics. I thought about this and what an idea! You open up a company in the states, the facilities think they are getting American work, then you actually have the work done overseas.....hmmmmm
hospitals
do hospitals now go by minutes instead of lines in regards to productivity? if so, what is the usual they are asking for an 8 hour day?
thanx!
All hospitals are different. Concerning
your "past," if it has been exspunged from your record, then basically it never happened. This happened to my BFs son and his attorney told him that since his record was exspunged, nothing ever took place, so he does not have to mention it on any job application. You might want to call your local court house or your attorney on that particular question.
I would say go ahead and apply. Good luck.
All hospitals are different. when I sm
first started, ERs did their own stuff too. But as the years went on, ER combined with the MR departments and was considered part of acute care. It is not as detailed but you get some of the same language in an abbreviated from by doing ERs, even some OP reports. I don't like ERs either though simply because the docs are usually in a hurry and they are motor mouths. I do think though that MTs now should consider ERs as part of acute care especially if they don't like ERs.
Some MT companies do split them up though and hire folks for just ERs.
SM hospitals
It's been years since I have heard of any hospital that has ANYbody working in-house.
What hospitals?? I'm soooo there
No, even the hospitals don't want to hire new MTs.
Doctors don't want to hire newbies. In office, at home, it doesn't matter. It's not about being a stay at home mommy, as you are so assuming and generalizing yourself. Everyone wants to hire experienced workers, but nobody is willing to train them. As I said, every other industry in the country trains their workers. MT seems to be the only one where people are expected to walk into it knowing everything. It's not an assumption; it's an observation. Just because my experience and observations are different than yours does not make me wrong. You're not the know all, end all to the MT world. I do have business management experience and education, so don't dismiss my observation as lacking just because it doesn't match yours.
Hospitals being sued
Seems to me the hospitals must not be very worried about being sued or they would require fluency in the English language as a pre-requisite for staff privileges. Secondly, any doctor who doesn't read what he signs pretty much deserves what he gets. Transcriptionists make mistakes....so do doctors. Thirdly, maybe hospitals should re-think how their work is contracted out. Far fewer problems when transcription was done in house.
i am sure you are aware that there are still hospitals out there
that have not yet adopted these rules. I type for one major hospital that still wants the patient's name typed in the report. Another still wants cc instead of mL. Had this person tested and changed it to the "correct" form, who is to say that she wouldn't have gotten marked off for changed verbatim. Nervous MT2, hang in there, and if you test again make sure you ask up front whether they want you to follow BOS or type it verbatim that way you know ahead of time.
but what percentage of hospitals allow that?
From what I've been reading ... the home-based service MT is averaging 8 cpl, for those dictators which make you run screaming from the room. And, I don't forsee things improving. Then again, some are lucky enough to make a line rate worthy of their skills, without worry about the dictators from Hades.
This is a bit out of date: http://www.bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos271.pdf
My nearby hospitals pay around $10 as well (sm)
I make 22-25$/hr at home. I live in an area where average pay is low, but likewise cost of living is reasonable.
I miss the hospitals too.
But things are so different there now that the online companies exist. It changed the way transcription is handled in most places. When I went back to working for a hospital last year, the supervisor wanted a certain amount of lines per day versus minutes per day like the old days. It was an outrageous number and with no Expander or medical speller or anything.
Hospitals oursourcing
HIPPA is all about smoke and mirrors, designed to keep the masses feeling "secure." If the powers that be were concerned about privacy and the state of the world, they would have built that provision right in there from the beginning, but powerful special interest groups designed HIPPA and left out this all important factor. I personally know hospitals that directly outsource overseas, and maybe, just maybe it may have to do with the fact that the owners (doctors) are foreigners living in this country and have colleagues in India. Wheh I questioned an administration about HIPPA and what they were doing, I was told, "Not to worry, they take the same precautions and follow protocols we do here for HIPPA." I say, yeah, but who can see from here what potential dangers lurk overseas, especially with so much concern of volatility in those areas of the world. Terrorists live in India, Pakistan, the Phillipines, etc. and all it would take is a nasty vendetta against our nation and POFF!!! There goes our medical records! Now we have to be concerned that the United Nations may take over the supervision of the internet!!
Nationals: Sometimes the hospitals have their own MTs sm
and pull the MTSO off the account when work is low to keep the hospital employees busy. This probably happens more often than one might think these days. IMHO
You have 911. There are local hospitals
with free nurse referral lines. That's just for starters.
You just take the cake for stupidity with your original question and now your silly offended replies.
Hospitals Using Outsourcing
Really not so unusual for all hospitals in one city to contract out transcription. Little Rock, AR for example where I used to live, did just that, save for one hospital (Baptist), so I moved east to Memphis, because I could not stand working out of my home to land a hospital job to work in. Cost-cutting measures you know.
that would be because MDs/hospitals adore.nm
.
in hospitals it seems always ASAP - SM
I work rad (employee) in a hospital, and they are always ALWAYS working to improve TAT. From the time the exam is done to complete dictation, they want 3-4 hours. That means if your doc delays the dictation, they want transcription NOW because the doc took so long.
However, in the situation you describe, checking back in 1-2 hours should not matter that much. You should just let them know the deal - they probably know how that radiologist is as much (or better) than you. Maybe they/he could call or email when he is done?
My hospital has a contract with a sister hospital to do their radiology - they have radiologists that do this exact same thing. We told them when our staffing is available. If they do not dictate during that time, then their reports are delayed -- no question. they have to deal with it.
Doing it yourself, your situation is different, of course, but hopefully they would work with you to let you know when the work is available so that you don't have to be "on call" for them.
As far as line rates, I can't say an average. I have another rad account that I do at $.15/line, but this is 3 days a week for a mobile service (TAT is 1-3 DAYS here...) I would charge more if they needed it "now", especially if they wouldn't work with me as to when "now" might be!
Long answer - hope it helps.
Feel free to email with any more questions if you want.
Hospitals in town
I hear sometimes that there are still hospitals doing their dictations with their own transcriptionists, and I'm lucky that I found one through their website... but wondering, just how do you find out who does the hospitals in your city? No one ever advertises in the newspapers anymore and most hospital websites have nothing about transcription. I live in a pretty big city with lots of hospitals and clinics and outpatient surgeries. Surely they're not all outsourced to the Big Greedies.
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.
Try hospitals and/or clinics-
I don't know about other places but in at least 3 of the major hospitals in my area they have people work both in house and at home. Everyone works in house to begin with and has to prove themselves before going home. Some people (like me) just prefer working in house, so it works out.
Why would hospitals have a list of
transcription companies, doesn't make sense. If you want your own clients you should come up with a brochure to send to local doctors/clinics. A doctor may ask in medical records who does their medical transcription, but it isn't the roll of the hospital to provide them with a list of providers.
Children's hospitals!
I have only been transcribing for about a year now and I am on an account for a children's hospital. I can not find half the words, nor understand the ESL doctors. Does anyone has any pointers, or know of a good website or book? Thanks guys!
Are any of those re-hiring hospitals in
?
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.
I would say those are major. Hospitals SM
often have this sort of policy and expect the services doing business with them to enforce it.
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