I work an account where ESLs are better than the American dictators ever hoped to be. sm
Posted By: nm on 2006-07-21
In Reply to: Help - Looking for work
There is bad dictation all over - you need to learn to cope with what is out there. Don't be afraid of the ESLs - you can only do what you can do, and for even American dictators, there is just no hope for the report coming out flawless if it is a bad dictator. I have 25 years experience, and there is just the fact of the matter that if junk goes in, junk is going to come out, and experiences helps with figuring out the words, but some words are so badly mispronounced, there is no hope of figuring them out. Blanks are inevitable, but that is why we have QA - they are the next level after the MTs get the rough draft out there. It pays to have a second set or third set of ears, and it is part of the plan - it is not all on just you to get it right on the problem dictations.
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US dictators worse than ESLs
I absolutely agree, some US dictators are far worse than ESLs. Some US dictators take the transcriptionist for granted that because they are English-speaking that we are supposed to understand them clearly, when the mumble, or deep throat the mic, or whisper, or even when they act as if they are a auctioneer! At least the ESLs try to slow down so we can understand - as far as them learning our language - They obviously did, that is why they are called ESLs (English as a SECOND language). It is just an accent that we have to conform to. What is the difference in a New Yorker not understanding a Southerner's accent?? They both speak english - Just with different accents!
ESLs are about 60-70% of the dictators, we as language
With this particular doc did you just guess, or did you leave blanks? How many times did you listen? Did you ask for help? They all basically have the same or similar awful accents, so in the beginning you need to take the time to really listen and get to know the accent, that way in the future you can zip through them. What did you do to make them fire you, what was the mistake exactly?
Some US dictators or worse than the ESLs and the majority sm
of specialists are ESLs.
Not just ESLs, many American docs do the same. No need to bring race into that issue.
,
I have about 90% horrible ESLs on my account
I try to get what they are saying, but I cannot spend all day on one report. I know from my experience if I cannot understand them in a few minutes then I never will. These guys are the worst I have ever heard in my life. Sometimes I think they revert to speaking their native tongue! Often QA will leave the same big fat blanks I did!
I have account with lots of ESLs too. SM
I live in South Florida, so it is an accent that is common to me. Nevertheless, after you hear their accent for a while, your ear becomes accustomed to it and they actually "lose" their accent. ESLs also tend to say the same thing over and over, so it does get easier.
If you clear your mind of any prejudice you may have and we all have some, it does get easier. I know what you must be thinking, LOL!, ESLs have good days and bad, but it really and truly does get better. I much prefer them to doctors going a mile a minute.
I can tell you that remaining on the same account with same dictators
helps tremendously. Having to switch accounts and specifics is not the way to make a lot of $$.
Good dictators only on that account . . .
I get plenty of the stinkers, just like we all do. The accounts I don't share, and sometimes dread, are often short reports filled with lots of dead air in the sound file. They are also 90% ESLs. So don't think I skim off the cream. I don't.
I'm just saying it is impossible to cherry pick an account of all good dictators.
I work my butt off to make it. I'm not sitting here taking only the "good stuff" and leaving the crud for other MTs.
Also linked to dictators and difficulty of account
I used to have an account for which I did on average of about 2000 lines per 6 hours and I did use an expander. I still use an Expander but have a different account, which is very difficult, and I average about 200 lines per hour.
For this account, I charge 0.12 cpl. It is very easy clinic stuff with good dictators, but ...
I also do tapes which are horrible so I'm considering upping my line rate especially if all this aggravation keeps up. When I first took the work, I thought I was being fair because the work was so easy, but then they asked me to do tapes and then work specific hours, print and deliver work three times a week. I wish I would have addressed more than TAT and line rate in the original contract. I do charge them a $5 per delivery fee because of gas prices, but still I think I'm getting the shaft.
Oh well, live and learn. I am negotiating for a local doctor's office here in my hometown, small one doctor office, and I'm here to tell you I will be negotiated every little detail right down to paper and toner charges!
I do work for an American company
Also, I am professional, and constantly learning anything that I can!!
Unproductive work types continually, for me, DS with ESLs and residents. nm
x
I guess I hoped he/she was kidding ..... sm
otherwise, he/she is the type of MT that gives the rest of us a bad name -- no pride in the quality of work turned out ..... just slop it out and let someone else fix it.
Very sad.
hoped to use the speakers in background
instead of having both come through the headphones. Would probably have to have two soundcards or something.
Yep, see what our work looks like without the benefit of an American MT making 3 cpl
to edit! All you MTs out there working for peanuts just so you can say you're an editor, realize you are making the Indians look good and taking away OUR paychecks!
How many dictators do you all work with?
Just wondering this for those of you on big accounts, like hospitals? How many dictators are on your list and how many of them do you usually work with?
Same thing with nationals. You work all the time to keep the account caught up when others dont work
and then when they decide to put a whole lot of extra people on your accounts and run you out they could care less about how much you worked.
steady work...gearing up to start new account....but there was no work on Tues as it was a holiday
Be patient with your eyes open....
I so hoped they would. I felt for that little boy and others who had to leave their pets.
.
I wonder if the cherry pickers will be out of work when all the good speaking American doctors are
Gee, I will still be working because I'm grasping these ESLs pretty dang good, right along with ops and cardiology reports.
I'll bet I work for the same national! While I have great dictators, seriously they never say the
same thinge twice, save one surgeon who always ends his op reports with the same paragraph, which, of course, I have in my expander. I mean it - there are probably 30 doctors, and I never ever get a repeat or any pattern at all! Again, I have a huge expander that I've set up on my own over the years, and rarely type more than a few words "longhand", but I still am not hitting over 200-250 lines an hour. Oh well! At least I have great dictators, right?
No, same dictators, same exact work, nothing has basically changed except
for VR sucking big time now. One physician who is letter A perfect in dictation years ago fine, now his work is a mess. I even asked if some of the reports had been sent to another country, starts with an I because they were not like I did at the very start of VRing. They were so good when I first started.
When work gets slow and you're switched to unfamiliar dictators does anyone besides me find it ha
nm
Not always. Tongue stumblers. New dictators. Speedy and lazy dictators.
D
can you ask for another account to work on? SM
that's what i did. it was too much fretting over whether there was work.
companies won't wake up and stop doing anything. you will have to do it for yourself unfortunately.
You might not work on the account, but YES
x
I can work all I want. I don't have to account
for my hours.
I work on an account that still has tapes and ...sm
it is a very profitable account. The line count is twice as good as several of the accounts I have that are digital. To each their own, but there are many doctors out there who do not want to go digital and you will find when they do you might just lose them to VR, as I lost a very good account to that because they figured out how to do it themselves. If the account pays on time, the doctors are easy to understand, and they pay you a good line rate then go for it, tapes or digital.
Well, I work for a national, but my account
is a big hospital, doing acute work. It was a heck of a way to learn starting off, but I know it will benefit me in the long run, just one of those days!
Closing in on my 2 years now, I thought about maybe applying at a hospital inhouse here that hires starting out at $20, but once you add all the expenses (not counting any deductions), you come out to about the same. It's just not worth it. It would probably be less stress considering I would work set hours instead of all the crazy ones I have been doing, but then you have to add in at least 2 hours of drive time to that each day. It evens all out I suppose.
The company I work for has one account
that does not want IV at all. They have programmed their VR software to expand out IV, much to the consternation of cardiologists when they dictate IV conduction time and the MT doesn't catch it.
Is it possible some of the account work is going overseas. MQ does offshore you know.
:
I agree, it depends on who you work for BUT also the account
and how long it has been on VR. If it has been on VR for a few years, piece of cake. If it is just starting out on VR - tedious work, low pay as it takes longer to edit than to just transcribe it.
I have been doing VR editing for 4 years now with an account that has been on it that long also...can make up to $50 an hour, and some times as low as $30 an hour when we add new dictators.
Hope this helps.
Or why not hire an IC to work on the account under you? You found it
and it is your reputation and bidding that sealed the account, why not ask IC's to BID on it. You might find somebody who loves derm work and wants the money. Even if you only make 1-2 cpl over your IC it adds up.
I work on an account that just came back from India sm
They had an outsourcing company that sent their stuff to India. They were so unhappy, they brought the account back to be done by AMERICAN MTS.
But the poster below me is right, the government IS doing something, they are making it easier and more financially rewarding to go overseas. One day and sooner than later, the American worker will be so poor and so economically depressed that America will no longer be able to import goods/services from overseas because we can't afford them. By that point, we'll be gardening in our window boxes and stockpiling foods that we will no longer be able to have or afford.
The tip of the slippery slope towards another Great Depression.
Sounds like an account I work on locally
can ya try to focus on ONE thing. I know I would NEVER go to this doctor. He's not sure if he did a colonoscopy or an endoscopy??? Scary.
?? Bad dictators are bad dictators regardless of their mother language.
wonder when people will just get over it and do what they can and move on.
Anyone work for Sacred Heart or PeaceHealth as an account
Any advice on these I might need to know before I start?
I work in Meditech for a radiology account and have no lag time. sm
There are a few things to try that might help. The first is to try to go through an NT connection if possible through their Citrix. Another is: Disable your virus protection, log in and re-enable the virus protection. I have found this solved my problem.
I am also answering your cut and paste question from your other post: It is HIPPA as the possibility of putting the wrong report on the wrong patient exists. However, I would go above or beyond your company's IS dept (they tend to be the most paranoid) and go to a production person such a Lead or Coordinator or even MTSO. If they are MTs, they tend to be more sympathetic and will often allow cut and paste when IS will not. If you are the only person experiencing this, IS is not going to be too diligent in helping. Worst case scenario? Ask for another account. Sometimes it is an account-specific, computer-specific problem, almost like putting the wrong size tape in a tape player.
work for hospital account - use lots of expanders - nm
x
Wasnt that a rip. They must have called every person on every account to work. I cant possibly
figure that mentality. PLUS we get nothing extra for weekends, nothing extra for holidays ZIP. They overload the accounts and so we have no work. Why would they pay weekends or holidays when they play this game. Somebody is pocketing something but it AINT THE MTs. I hope every MT in that office inundates Mt. Laurel with complaints until they replaced the people that did this and not to mention their STUPID STUPID PICKY MQ point plan. That is a horrendous joke. Somebody up there needs to be removed and quickly.
I work an account that the doctor names scare you half the death, sm
all foreign names, but the voices are pure heaven - very clear and good enunciation, even the one that have a tangible accident. I feel lucky to have an ESL account like that.
I know a PA from South Carolina at a hospital I used to work at that would bring you to tears. ESL is not necessarily a bad thing.
The national I work for usually offers jobs to the in-house people when they acquire an account. nm
nm
he is not American on what was an American site
What we post, jobs posted, and those who are posting jobs have no way of knowing it is off shore because he is hiding it - what a great way to get more of our jobs - not sure why this does not bother you. But as an American it bothers me
What is the difference between an acute care account and a multispecialty account??..nm
nm
I've never had a problem switching from account to account.
The problem I had was being switched too soon. If I don't get one account spec solidly in my memory with QA feedback on mistakes before starting another, I get confused. The other problem I had with former jobs was inconsistent QA. One person tells you one thing, another person tells you another.
Lately, I don't have a problem with it. Right now, my binder has 8 account specs (some I've never had to use) and I'm picking up a new weekend job for a while. The terminology and report formats stay basically the same. It's just all those little preferences. LOL
I would rather do some ESLs that some of the
sloppy southern drawls that you cannot ever understand. Wish those people would learn that not everyone is in love with a southerner.
ESLs
What is an ESL ..... and I agree with you completely about the time spent on GRAMMAR!!!!
They can take the smallest so-called "errors" and put a black check by your name. We are medical transcriptionists, NOT English teaches.
Any GOOD MT has equally good grammar. Plus there should be less emphasis on grammar and more emphasis on the medical terminology. Do you REALLY think the doctor cares if a comma was put in or left out? NOT !!!!
I wasted a lot of time agonizing over GRAMMAR when I could have been getting in more lines and doing what is best for the patient .... accurate medical terminology.
Bad ESLs
Wouldn't it make sense for companies with bad ESLs, to hire US MTs who speak the dictator's mother language to do the transcription?
ESLs
If it makes you feel any better, I once worked part-time for a doctor in his office. I wanted to get back into a hospital setting so I gave him my notice. He couldn't understand what I loved about being an MT. He said, "At least I have the benefit of reading their lips." AND I was once transcribing for this absolutely miserable ESL one day, pretty much the way you described, and waiting for him to hang up. Instead he was chatting with someone when I heard "I don't know how they do it, but I give them a lot of credit." I had to rewind to make sure he was talking about transcription and he was. Not all of them are that sweet. I once had to show an English book and the BOS to an extremely arrogant ESL oncologist. I hope you had a little chuckle here and feel better!
ESls
That's why AAMT is no longer a valid entity for us. The standards have been lowered to accommodate the ESLS because they can't make a decent sentence and don't know how to convey what they did or did not do to the patient. How the hell are we supposed to read their minds???? Those who can speak English and demand verbatim get what they deserve. Just the other day, the doc gave a female who had a vasectomy. He was a verbatim ESL and he got exactly what he dictated. When enough of them get sued or reprimanded, maybe standards will return, but I have no doubt in my mind that ESLs have lowered the standards at the hospitals and that's why we no longer change the dictation to make it sound like they at least passed English class. When I started it was not verbatim. We edited to change context and not content. Hospitals should make it clear they either speak clearly, or write clearly, and failing both of those, they should hire a PA or someone who can dictate like it should be, and some of the PA's aren't much better.
ESLs sm
Once they know you're good at it, expect them to send you nothing but!
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