Method of obtaining accounts

Hi all...I currently have a couple accounts of my own but I'm looking for maybe two or three more.  I'm wondering what the best method is to go about finding them.

In the past I have tried just driving around to different clinics and walking in to talk with the staff, but the person at the front always seemed annoyed and not very receptive.  I've also tried calling clinics out of the phone book, but they never want to put you on to the office manager and they usually just say they don't need any transcription.  Once I also tried doing a mailing and I sent out about 100 letters with business cards to offices around town.  I only got one reply back and that account didn't work out for me.  I'm wondering if the office managers even GET the letters or if they just throw them in the trash without reading them thinking it's junk mail.

So...for you all with your own accounts....how do you go about getting them?  What have you found is the best approach?  Thanks in advance

• Method of obtaining accounts - Searching
  • I also would like ideas/thoughts from people who know the best way (besides word of mouth) to get in - SM - AzMT
    • Keep mailing - Patti
  • Persistence is the name of the game - Patti

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potential clients use.  If you solicit someone that still uses tapes you need to be sure you have the equipment for that, etc.    I don't know if maybe someone has a sample of a solicitation letter to give you an idea of what to send out to potential clients. 

After a 27.5-minute ESL dictation that took me an hour to type and netted me $12, I'm going to embrace the new visible black character counting method by redefining  "verbatim."  Here's a transcript the way it will look in the future ....

"... I mean, no go back, delete that, okay and the admitting diagnosis was uh ... sepsis, number 2,  ... no, number 1,  no that is number 2 ... change in mental status.  (flip pages flip pages flip pages ... put phone down) Number 4 ... diabetes.  Long pause (... the nurses are talking about a baby shower).  Go back up to the labs and insert a chest x-ray with left lower lobe infiltrate ... no, it's normal.  Now, go back down ..."

Can't wait for that next check! 

Hello everyone

I currently have one of my own accounts with 2 physicians. They use digital hand-held recorders and we email files back and forth, encrypted of course. Anyway, is there an easier way for their office staff? Something where the doctor could talk right into the computer and it would be sent to me without using the office staff?  I am trying to take some of the burden off of them.

Thanks.
Lynn

Can anyone refresh my memory on  how to search by DOB in  Meditech.  Preferably in RAD module, but I know it can be done in PCI.  For instance, you search by Unit # (i.e. U00012345), account  # (i.e. A00012456) and DOB is something like D/ or D mmddyy or mmddyyyy or mm/dd/yy.

I need to know what goes in the front "D" and the mmddyy layout.  I don't have access to PCI on this account so I can't go in and check.  TIA

Encrypted email for delivery of completed documents works, but voice files may be too large for that method. A secure FTP site, either your own or through a commerical provider such as mydoconline.com or ftptogo.com, would work for both documents and voice files. You may need an FTP program, but there are lots of free ones out there, like filezilla.com, which is what I use.

Voice files are now transferred from clinic I work for via email (unencrypted) and are then sent back via Winzip and email. 

We need new method to be compliant, as well as to eliminate "many missing" files it seems when sending through email. Clinic now uses Olympus equipment and does not want to use email any longer.  Checked into secure FTP site and will not work well with the Olympus system they have.  Any suggestions on what to do here????

You are right, the normal function is when you highlight your text and then higt ctrl+y and a little window pops up asking for a description and an abbreviation.  For the description, I always start with my initials and a dash and then the actual description.  That way all my normals are grouped together in the list and I don't have to sort through everybody elses to get to mine.

I just read an article about this in the Advance mag I get biweekly.  It seems the MTIA, AHIMA, and the AAMT are endorsing the VBC method of measuring productivity for transcription.  Basically, that means they don't want to pay for spaces.  So they are finding another way of screwing with our money. 

I know there are several services out there that don't pay for spaces now and quite frankly I won't work for a company that doesn't pay for spaces.  I'm a firm believer that transcriptionists should get paid for every single keystroke, but that rarely if ever happens.  Now with those three major industry organizations endorsing not counting spaces, it may be the case that all services will adopt the VBC method and we are all going to lose.

Oh, the AAMT says that the VBC method will create a "level playing field throughout the industry" and allow for a "great opportunity for the industry to engage in a real discussion about the inherent value of transcribing and how pricing under the new defintion should reflect that value."  The AAMT also states that MTSOs should consider an MT's "critical thinking skills and interpretive judgment" when discussing compensation.

Yeah right.  Like MTSOs have been considering anything more than the bottom line and pumping up there pocketbooks.  To them we are machines.  I'm tellin' ya medical transcription is circling the drain. 

My national employer has 19 accounts in my queue, though I rarely work in all of them in a week or a month.  Still its too many.  I'll often work 5 or 6 accounts in a single shift, despite the promise of a limit of 2 or 3. 

This is a terrible business practice. If you are a dedicated MT, it requires extensive time to review account-specific instructions, not to mention being unfamiliar with place and people names associated with the different regions.  It is unfair to "quality patient care" to bounce MTs into unfamiliar territory.  After all, how quickly and accurately can one transcribe a record when you are overwhelmed with studying your fifth or sixth different set of instructions in less than 4 hours?  I believe the substantial amount of MT shuffling is to slow us down--they have overstaffed and its to their benefit to force familiarity with odd accounts so they can do it again next time.  They do phase people out of primaries and secondaries and even tertiary accounts once they become proficient.  We hear the work is low due to summer slow down, yet they keep sending their "please welcome our newest recruits" memos.

And, yes, I will definitely be searching for a new company very soon. 

best way of getting your own accounts?  I have one small local account that I got from a newspaper services ad eight years ago.  If I had two or three more like this one, I'd be a happy camper.  I've mailed postcards and made cold calls with no luck whatsoever.  I've even done intro letters with business cards to new providers on the city business license list and in response to help wanted ads.  No nibbles there either.

It doesn't even necessarily have to be a local account.  It could even be Internet based or via mail/UPS.  One guy used to priority mail tapes to me from New York back when I had my virtual assistant/secretarial business.

Any positive suggestions are welcome.  Thank you.

It is like selling a house or anything, it takes a large volume of people to get one buyer.  Even if I am not looking hard,  I send out flyers every year or so to keep my name out there -- have a lot of people that are willing to subcontract for me.  I also hit the smaller ones sometimes and do the rounds in the medical office buildings by the hospitals.   Send flyers out to smaller cities/towns if you are set up for digital as those are the ones that are sometimes looking.   Do networking with other MTSO's in your area. I know many in mine and we all network together.  A lot of it is being at the right place at the right time as they often just throw our flyers out and that is why you have to keep sending them out.  Offer something unique -- I cut apart chart notes and that helped with a couple of accounts.   Stupid but they love it.   Also accounts that use transcription services -- take them a flyer personally with some cookies -- it does work to get it to the manager's/doctor's desk it really does.   I have also offered my own accounts a "finder's fee" if I get an account.  Anything works.   I have gotten a few through the yellow pages.  But it takes time and persistence.  One mailing does not usually do it as there are a lot that start up and stop so if they see it once or twice, they remember it.   Good luck.   Keep your prices fair and offer a good service.   Patti

do you feel obligated to share whatever work there is with them, even if it's really only enough for you?  In my case they have other work that can do but they make more from my work, so they are anxious for any work I have available.  It's overflow, so sometimes there is work and sometimes there's not.  The amount of work available right now I could easily do myself.

Usually I share whatever I have with them, but right now I have so many bills and really need to do the work/keep the money myself.  But I feel bad about doing that.  Should I feel bad?  My husband says no.  He thinks of it strictly in a business sense.

Well how did this office contact you?  I would get this one under your belt and use them as a stepping stone and a reference and go from there.  It works the same in this field as in any other field you want business, you go out and advertise, do flyers, make phone calls, etc.  Most will not come to you unless you have been established for years or have an ad in the yellow pages, etc.  So start with this one since they have contacted you and go from there. 

Hi, I would like some info on where to start in getting my own accounts as in what kind of equipment required, where to begin, etc.   Also, what do you charge, etc.

I have 17+ years of transcription experience working for others, want to try something different.