MT is profession, not a sloppy hobby. sm

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volunteer work.  Let him do for those less fortunate and maybe his life will seem pretty good.  If he feels needed that may change his whole attitude and everything else with just fall into place.  

He might also need some adjustments in his meds.  It s/l there is some depression involved, but it could just be situational and the counseling will help with that.   Meds could possibly diminish his libido and it would be worth talking to his doctor to see if that could be the case in his situation. 

Maybe you could make him a list of little things to do to help out, or plan the meals and have recipes on index cards so that he can actually prepare the meal.  If he is home all day he needs to at least be doing the daily chores. 

So I should get a hobby so I won't care, like you?  A hobby isn't going to pay the bills.  I can't afford a hobby because in addition to working for a living, I also have to study in a different career field in my spare for fear that eventually transcription will be strictly an offshore operation!

Download Google Earth and you will have a blast.  You can basically fly anywhere on earth that you want via satellite pictures and then zoom in from above.  If you fiddle with the controls at the bottom you can actually tilt the view so that you actually feel like you're flying over at a low altitude.  You can type in the address of your childhood home and fly right over.  Also, check out some of the wonders of the world.  Flying over Rome and the ruins is pretty good.  The only problem is that if you're flying over a really green area or if the ground colors are a certain hue, it's blurry.  I actually found a backyard swimming pool in Karachi, Pakistan.  Whodathunk?  I saw mention of it in an online newspaper and it's really fun.

This is old, but has anyone read this??  I must research further what the final outcome was.  While I totally agree with what they are doing and why, I totally DISAGREE with their final recommendation for standardizing line counts. VBC is not the way to do it.  

About three weeks ago I began a position with a local health care company (transcribing for local acute care hospitals but part of a national chain).

We are not really transcribing, at least not by my definition (21 years of experience).  Rather, we are recording medical ShortHand (abbreviations [even in DIAGNOSES section], shortened medication names, slang, contractions, etc.).  On the one hand, they claim they want you to type it verbatim (no expansions, additions, etc.), yet OTOH they say to delete redundancies, repetitions, etc., which is hardly verbatim. We are not allowed to expand, add to, or correct ANYTHING except number and tense dictated by ESL docs, who comprise about 60% of the dictators.  In addition, certain dictated terms are to be abbreviated (e.g., "emergency room" transcribed as "ER").

The supervisor had the gall to look me right in the eye and deliver a harangue about how these are "legal documents, and we have to transcribe EXACTLY what they say."  (Conveniently disregarding the bit about deleting redundancies and the other "allowed" changes.)  So ALL of my previous employers, AAMT, etc. did it wrong, and THEIR crackerjack legal department is smarter than everyone else?!     Don't think so.  Cutting costs is the game they're playing; everyone can see that.

Excerpt from a typical report looks like this:  Wrote scrip for vanco 100, patient also to take aspirin 81 and will return next week. I don't think .... [blah blah blah]

AAMT taught me to create a complete, coherent, grammatically correct document that doesn't look like alphabet soup.  Needless to say, I don't feel good about what I am creating and HATE THIS JOB!!

I'm just curious if this is happening elsewhere.  With all of the emphasis on "cutting costs,"  I have to think that it is.

Thanks for listening to my splenic venting.

I'm an independent contractor and have just lost an orthopaedic clinic account to EMR.  Also, I've been sending out hundreds of letters for new accounts, and I'm hearing nothing back! 

Is our profession (clinic work) drying up?  This is getting very scary!

Could someone either (1) comfort me with "it's not true" news and there's more than enough clinic work out there to go around, or if you find that it is, indeed, drying up, write back and tell me of your experience.

Thank you `` Nancy in Alpharetta, Georgia

I don't agree with you.  I'm betting that MT is good for MAYBE 5 more years.  Maybe.  Thinking they won't perfect VR is only fooling ourselves....they will.  I wouldn't recommend MT to anyone looking to enter the field.  Money better spent on something with a better future but what that would be, I don't know.  Seems everything that can possibly be offshored is being offshored.  Maybe we should move to China   Then we can be sure to have jobs seeing nearly everything in the U.S. comes from there anyway.  Or maybe, the way things are going we had all better learn to like rice, cuz that's probably all we'll be eating before long.

criteria for a profession are extensive college required, also person's work autonomous. Separate body of knowledge required for work. Think of lawyers. Extensive college, they work independently, i.e. they don't have supervisors, editors, etc., and law has its own body of knowledge. Even nursing is on the edge as far as being a profession, not quite autonomous enough. MT certainly doesn't fit the definition of profession.

For some reason, some MTs think since they work from home they can do the job "their way."  This in turn, has caused the MTSO to impose such strict requirements regarding TAT, daily line counts, etc.  Remember - they DO have to meet the obligations of their clients. 

There are truly some great MTs that really require a flexible schedule, etc, but these "no-show, no-brain" MTs are ruining  a good profession for the rest of us.  I admit, it is hard to test for MT companies especially when the tests are long, but I can't blame them a bit - at least it weeds out some of the airheads. 

I am not a MTSO and never have been.  But, because of this situation it is hard for me to find a decent job because of the need for a flexible schedule and because I am not a fast/high line producer. 

I know there was a post about this yesterday, but I did not want to taker hers over.  I am just wondering if I can really do this.  I have been doing this 3 years and have been at the same company.  I just got back 5 reports this morning that just have me almost in tears.  Granted, some of my mistakes were stupid and should not have been made.  But, others that were sent back to me I really have issues with.  Some of the "mistakes" were not typing "Jane Doe" in the report instead of typing "the patient," which directly goes against my account instructions.  Also, was told not to expand an abbreviation in the diagnosis section because my account is verbatim.  I just do not agree with this!!!!  Plus, had different instructions on the same thing.  The QA is totally inconsistent, and let the QA manager know what I thought of some of their changes. 

I do think that I am a good MT.  I have a new position starting with a great company soon, and I just want to know that I really can do this!!!  Any advice??

As an MT with 20+ years experience,I am finding another career...I can't imagine just starting out in this field, as those of us who have been here for a long time do not get treated fairly anymore...you can't make money, very few online companies appreciate anything that you do.  Like I tell my daughters who are all under 21 years of age, get a degree in something and then if they want to do this type of work, do it as a side job, but don't count on it to make a living...it just can't be done anymore.

Good Luck!