Post not EXCELLENT, but completely out of touch with reality
Posted By: more inside on 2006-10-08
In Reply to: EXCELLENT.. EVERYONE SHOULD READ! - Emily Ayn
like you think the MT's control the pay in the MT world? Either you need the job and you take it for the pay or you have another option. MT's without another option will take the job at 6 cpl, or 4 cpl or whatever. When working at McDonald's becomes an option that is equivalent to MT work, then MT's will choose McDonald's.
The Transcriptionist is just ONE cog in the wheel of the whole industry. If people continue to look at only the MT's part, they miss the big picture. If all it took were people saying Let's all stand up together and demand better wages, then why couldn't the cashiers at the grocery stores across the US do the same thing? They can't. Because it they don't cashier for $8 an hour, there's somebody else who will. Same thing has happened with transcription. If you don't take the job at 6 cpl, somebody else will. It might be somebody from India (which you so quickly discounted) but I'll let you in on a little secret. The people from India who are doing MT typically have 2 master's degrees. They are hungry for work. They are intelligent, competent individuals, willing to work hard. They might have a little bit of a quality issue right now because of the language barrier, but it won't be long before you have lots and lots of Indian MT's with 2 years experience, who have learned from their mistakes, who have learned American idioms... and then you are really going to see the bottom drop of out the market.
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Or completely immature and out of touch with reality
.
Excellent post! I copied this post and...
am going to show it to my shrink so he can understand my frustration with my new "profession!" By the way, how much you wanna bet he pulls in 300$ an hour and has two years of schooling on me! Hmmmmmmm. Okay, you flamers, don't tell me to go back to school...I am thinking about it. Hmmmm
The post above you completely correct
and why do you have to get up on the wrong side in order to state what is the truth? You have no rights per se to work from home- it is their job and like her, I would be very glad just to have had the chance to work from home. The job owes her absolutely nothing other than to pay her for her work. A reality check is indeed in line. Too many prima donnas here thinking they should be given the ability to call the shots. Ha!
Okay, am I completely loopy, or was there a post about cherrypicking?
Just curious, because I responded, or so I thought, and now I do not see any mention of it...anyone know? Thanks!
Thanks for the excellent post!
d
EXCELLENT POST QA
Thanks so much for posting. Believe it or not, your post made me feel good. I am new, and am lucky enough to have mostly good dictators and only a few really bad ones. (But the account with the SKIPPING-TAPE-THING GOING ON IS DRIVING ME NUTS!!) Anyway, I know QA can understand about the skipping tape thing. I proofread every single report (so you know I am not making much money), but I rarely hear from QA, so I must be doing something right. It is just nice to finally hear from someone from QA on this board and to know they appreciate a job well done. I have e-mailed QA back, thanking them for the help, but lately have not, thinking that I might be annoying them - taking time away from their work, but now I know that e-mail might be appreciated instead. Now...we will probably get some slams from people having a bad day, but I thank you for writing. You should post more often, and we all would LOVE to hear some of the funnier "bloopers"
Excellent post! Well said!
My kids belonged to a bowling league..my oldest boys being in public school. The youth director confided in me that their 'homeschool league' kids were SO much more respectful and better behaved and an absolute pleasure to work with than the 'regular leagues.'
You are correct. Homeschool does not mean isolation whatsoever, unless, of course, you are way out in the sticks without a car, etc!
I homeschooled my daugter for 5 of her school years. If there was a sociability contest, she would WIN hands down! Everyone says so!! Her very best feature!
Excellent post!
I totally agree with you. This is the most intelligent post I have see in a long time. I have always felt that it was the large services and MTSOs who stir the pot to keep MTs at each other's throats. It's a lot easier to manipulate us one on one. If we were united and had someone to "get our backs" they wouldn't be able to get away with the cheap slave labor they are trying to pass off these days. I would really, really like to see some real union amongst MTs. The only way we can fight what is happening to our industry is to fight it together as a group! AAMT has been a HUGE disappointment to us. We need something better. I think one of the main reasons we see so much bickering and back stabbing on here is that there is no job satisfaction anymore. There is nothing to feel proud of. We get beat down on all sides. It would be great to be able to look forward to going to work every day again. I know we need a union, but have no idea how to go about starting one. Where is Norma Rae when you need her?
EXCELLENT post! Here's something else....(sm)
A very similar job to MT, with only a slightly different twist to it, is COURT-REPORTING. Back in 1975, I (stupidly!) decided at the same time my friend was going to school for court-reporting, to instead to go school for medical transcription. At the time, both paid about the same, court-reporting being slightly higher. But that made sense, as she had to stay in school longer.
So here we are, 30 years later, and MT has become a crummy sweatshop job with what adds up to less than minimum wage in many instances. I live hand-to-mouth, and will never be able to own a home, or most likely even to retire. My friend, on the other hand, is paid a top salary, owns a home on the California coast, works when & if she wants to, and has tons of work. You never hear about court reporting going offshore, because it's a legal docoment that is being typed, and I guess a recording of the court proceedings won't cut it - it has to be transcribed live for it to be considered evidence. Same with taking depositions.
MTs are every bit as literate, highly trained and professional as court reporters, and we, too type medicolegal documents. At any time, any report we type could end up as evidence if that particular patient or doctor were to end up in court.
So it sure seems to me that if transcribed medical reports are going to be used within the American judicial system for any reason, then they should certainly be considered important enough to be typed by American CITIZENS who live within our own borders. NOT by people with green cards, NOT by illega aliens, and most certainly NOT by non-residents.
If our profession is compared side-by-side with court-reporting, it may be a bit like comparing apples & oranges in some respects, but in other respects they are still very similar, and are both FRUITS of the American labor force. Yet one is a high-paying, respectable career and the other is considered by many to not even be a "real job!
That has come about because of corporate greed, and by people in other countries looking to make quick, easy money.
Of course, the reason this has happened to MT and not court-reporting is mainly due to one thing: Our ability to work on PCs at home. If court reporters could sit at home and listen to court proceedings on a recording or over a live connection, they would have found themselves facing the same loss of respect and income that we have had to deal with.
excellent post. nm
x
That is an excellent post.
s
Excellent post!
Good insight into the complexity of trade, competition, and lower salary workers.
What an excellent post!
Thank you, thank you! I am a bit depressed reading the post above yours. This is exactly the kind of attitude that enables these companies to lower their rates.
I think you spoke for a lot of us.
Excellent post.
Excellent post.
nm
A most excellent post
I think sometimes, in our zeal to get hired, we throw everything into the pot. We declare that we possess every skill that might help us to make the cut over other applicants. We're a nurse, we transcribe, we can make coffee, can get grease spots out of a Brooks Brothers suit, drop his kids at day care on the way to work - no! it's no trouble at all, really! - whatever. In this case, having your office nurse also be your Transcriptionist probably seemed an attractive prospect, until the doctor's wife figured they were paying twice for what she thought they should be paying for only once. Now these very skills have been turned against the worker. So your points 1, 2 and 3 are particularly valid.
I have seen ads for MTs in local papers and the description of duties sometimes says, 'medical transcription, reception duties, appointments, filing, other duties as needed.' Then I know I don't even want to apply for the position, as I have no idea how I could be MT as well as receptionist. How frustrating it would be to have my concentration constantly interrupted! This practice wants a secretary/receptionist they can make transcribe as well. Lots of luck getting someone who can do both well.
Any professional should balk at being told that a salary covers 'anything the boss expects' them to do. Especially if this throws out an established arrangement and doubles someone's work load. While we all like to be team players, if only the owner gets a tropy this diminishes our team spirit considerably.
I'm of two minds on this. I would either agree and simply not bust my butt getting the transcription done until it was piled so high SOMETHING had to change. Certainly there is a limit to how backed up this practice will allow its reports to become? Meanwhile I'd be looking for new employment. Of course, as the reports piled up, you have to know the office manager would be timing your trips to the bathroom with a stop watch and accusing you of wasting time on her dime (as seems to be her nature) but I'm sure you could perform all your usual nursing duties with just a bit less alacrity in order not to appear idle. Or I would simply call their bluff and refuse to go along (which might be shooting myself in the foot unless I had another job to go to. )
Excellent post and viewpoint
nm
What an excellent post you wrote! (sm)
Everything is a hit-the-nail-on-the-head ACCURATE description of the mess the MT industry has become today. If the doctors & hospitals truly don't care about such gross mistakes in their dictated LEGAL documents, I wonder why they even bother at all.
I also wonder how long MTSO's really think they are going to get the most experienced MTs out there by continuing to chip away at their pay and benefits. I'm expected to turn out perfect medical reports, which means, even with 30+ years of experience, that when doing difficult accounts, I can't blast away at Mach II on my reports - I have to spend a little more time looking up state-of-the-art treatments, drugs, etc., and then extra time proofreading each report afterward (which is difficult when you're proofing your own work). And yet in order to earn what would normally constitute 8 hrs. worth of pay, I often end up working 12-hour days. And yet my rent (which is way below-market, I might add) still consumes more than half of my income each month. (I went to school for WHAT??)
WOW!! Excellent eloquent post!
You covered everything and did it so well that there's not much to add.
I will say, though, that I have been in a profession in which I was in a union. I have plenty of gripes about the union, but it'd be nice to have that protection here. It'll never happen, though, because of the other shortcoming that plagues this industry: Offshoring. It used to be that, if you worked hard and were good at your job, you had some leeway because you just *knew* that your company wouldn't let you go because they valued you so much. Not so these days, at least not the company I work for, and not from many others if what I read on these boards is true. Most of the companies have a virtually endless supply of maleable workers who will work for little to nothing. I get the very distinct feeling that if I said I was quitting tomorrow, they'd almost be happy for it. After all, they can now just backfill my position with one of those nameless, faceless people in India, the Philippines, Viet Nam, or any of the various other 'offshore' places.
A friend who works for SPi and is very good at what she does, when she told her supervisor that she had gotten another job offer, was actually told by that supervisor her advice was to take it! Back in 'the day' and not too very long ago, the response would've been 'how can we keep you?' Every single QA or Editor that I know is actively searching for a new job, some in this same declining industry, others in completely other fields.
After working so hard for so many years, I now feel just extremely tired - body and soul, completely demoralized, struggling to have any pride in my work any more. It's bad now and getting worse. I only hope the above poster is correct and things will make a turn-around, but frankly, I'm having a really hard time seeing it or even mustering the optimism to envision it. :'(
Excellent informative post!
You have given us all something to think about because you are right. We are not the only field this is happening to.
Lydia - I think your post was excellent however
I would like to bring up the new technology of VR where the use of word Expanders no longer has the impact that they have with straight typing.
I am doing editing and when I talk to others they were doing 300-400 lines with straight typing and word expanders. Now they are editing that same work and perhaps doing an average of 400 lph and yet making half as much money. It is an entirely different skill set learning to navigate quickly and get the work edited for speed, something which I am struggling with. I would love it if editors would share their speed tips but usually all the posts I get go something like this: I do 500 lines and hour and make more money editing OR I had to take a pay cut editing but no specifics as to why or how to build speed. So that is not really helpful as to why there is more or less $ with editing. I use my keyboar and not my mouse. I am working as hard as I can but I only can do maybe 100 more lines tops with editing than I can with straight typing but my pay has dropped by 50%. I don't see editing going away so to that end it seems as if the pay is dropping in transcription. Does anyone else see where I am coming from????
Thank you for an excellent post. I wish we had our own board. nm
x
Excellent post and info...a must read.nm
x
Here's an excellent link to a post for suggestions
Here's a link to an excellent post at Productivity Talk by Tonks. I'm trying this out right now. If it works, I'm going to send her a big thank you.
http://www.productivitytalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3683
Excellent post. I totally agree.
nm
Excellent post! There are still people with passion out there - that is great to know...
Sometimes everyone sounds so harsh and cold about all of this.
Best wishes to you, and good for you for finding another way of making a living.
Hopefully, those of us over 45 will have luck finding jobs...
I should research what happened years ago when the steel mills shut down, or when automation took over. People must have had some kind of help when they got their pink splips...
How soft is the touch, is it a muffled sound (microsoft used to make a very soft touch keyboard.
You can't buy it anymore and I hate the clacky ones. I think a really soft one sounds muffled when you hit the key. Thanks
You better get with reality!!
You're looking for a minimum of 10 per line as a subcontractor???? 
Don't you realize that docs are such notorious cheapskates, and the vast majority of MTSOs are charging that amount, perhaps a cent or two more if they're lucky, so how is it YOU expect to be paid a minimum of 10 per line?????
I had to totally laugh out loud when I read your post. I mean, you DO feel it's okay if the MTSO makes a LITTLE bit of profit, don't you? Or do you expect them to sweat blood and tears in this business for their health and give you the whole shebang? 
It always irritates me to no end when I read a post such as yours. If you're looking for a full line rate, get it from obtaining your own accounts!! Don't expect an MTSO to give you 99.9% of the pie dear!!! Really, I've had such a belly full of SCs with the attitude of gimme, gimme, gimme I could just scream!!! 
Reality and how it is in 2005 and my
being able to "deal" with that is not the problem. What others seem to have a problem with is that they believe they are stuck with that reality for the future. You should only be that lucky. The one thing that is sure for the future for MT is that it is not going to be is static. If you think it can't get worse, think again. It absolutely can. And if you think it can't get better, you are wrong there too.
I didn't say there was a "code of ethics" in any particular company. What I said was that the above-mentioned practice was unethical by higher codes of ethics such as what is right and what is wrong. I don't know of anyone who would argue that the majority of MT services are the epitome of ethical practices or even have ethical codes.
The fight I am referring to? For one, the fight against unethical practices by MT services. The MTs that would unite to fight that? Certainly not all of them, but you would be surprised how few it would take.
I think it is time for MTs to start organizing to form their own destiny, not be pathetic sheep following the heard that AAMT is trying to shepherd us into as they walk us off a cliff, or slaves to the whims of service owners who are used to being able to take advantage of us and get by with it.
The one thing I am sure of is that it isn't a fight I expect to lose.
Negativity and reality......
are 2 different things. We all have difference endurance and tolerances for things. It's like my 30-year-old nephew. He got his girlfriend pregnant when he was 16. They married 3 years later, have had 2 more kids, and are still happily married 11 yrs later. It that the norm for a couple of teenagers? No way. It works out occasionally, but it's definitely the exception and not the rule.
I usually do not like reality shows, but this one I
have to see. I love that show!! I do feel sorry for the wannabe chefs dealing with Chef. I gotta say I am watching tonight, the finale!!
Don't need a reality check
I don't realize that ICs don't have health insurance. Thank you for your tips.
When will the reality shows end?? and...
Who keeps paying for them? Come on America!! How about quality not quantity? Shameful, I think.
How about No Boundaries on Reality TV
Kinda like Survivor only its on every night at 9 through the end of the race. About half way through now.
"Good" reality TV?
Sounds like an oxymoron to me. There are many things I'd rather do than watch boring TV.
sobering reality
I support Sheri Steadman regardless of whether I agree or not. She is to be commended for her efforts.
It's true. Offshoring cannot be reversed. It is here to stay.
I was listening to Coast to Coast last night a late night radio talk show with Art Bell, who had a very interesting discussion about the state of affairs, jobs in this country. The speaker, I believe, a noted physicist, whose name I cannot recall, said that America is going through very painful changes, that countries that are receiving our jobs are experiencing the industrial revolution for the first time, like we once did. He said that the jobs of the future in this country will force us to become more creative. I thought about this for some time. It does not make it any easier for me or any of us. Painful it is.
I think this is ludacrous! In reality, that would
put MORE American MTs out of jobs than is already happening. Then we'd all be heading ot the poor house. Thank you, I love my job no matter what nationality the dictator and I do it well. Quit if you must, I'll keep my job. Thanks.
Reality check
With the deaths of three people that I grew up with on TV, and now with what I hard yesterday from Dr. Phil yesterday he reminded us that if we have 20 years left in our life it -- and that sounds like a long time, but that equals out to only 1040 weeks which then makes you realize as the weeks go by so fasssssssssssssssst that it is not very long and we need to make the best of those weeks as we can. So that made me stop and realize what is really important and what is not and what is worth fighting about and what is not. This may not stay with me but I am going to keep thinking about those weeks instead of years and hopefully it will make me enjoy the weeks that I am here.
Back to reality!!
I did not attack you,  and if you believe I did it's your own insecurities. I'm just telling you how it is. And by the way, I'm not looking to be employed as a SC as I'm an MTSO, dear and have been for many, many moons! Thanks for the offer anyway!
What you expect to receive line-rate-wise is laughable! Now, you ARE aware of the economy and the current climate of the MT profession, are you not? If you're not, allow me to throw a few clues your way in order to help bring you back to reality so that you realize the line rate you expect is WAY out of line:
 India, Pakistan, Canada, VR, EMR, Bush (as in Bush trying to wipe out the middle class/middle-class jobs and so far brilliantly succeeding!), undercutting, and newbies who'll practically work for free, just to name a few!
See, it doesn't matter how many years of experience you have.  You could have 100 plus for all most MTSOs could care. The bottom line is what are the docs paying - now subtract the MTSO costs - now add MTSO profit (yes, surprise - they are entitled to make one!!  ) - and you'll see the line rate you expect is outrageous.
Don't believe me? Then I refer you back to the clues above. Go Google on all of them and find out for yourself!! 
And another one who can't handle reality.
/
I think it's maybe more reality than jealousy
I still don't understand where you came up with 17 cpl but nobody pays that and something smells very fishy here. I would not count on it.
Reality bites
Sorry to hear about your disappointment in a raise in line rate pay, but it is reality. I had my own business for many, many years, and during the last eight years, I could not raise my pay or I would lose my accounts. I went from 14 cents a line in 1991 to 11.5 cents a line in 2005. Every year it was the same old thing - Gee, could you lower your rate, CFO got a brochure from another company willing to do it cheaper, or I was always told it was not in the budget, hospital was losing money, had to cut somewhere. The sad reality is that offshoring has cut our pay to crap because of the competition, if you can call it that. Remembering that the whole medical system is collapsing upon itself in this country with no universal healthcare policy in this country and millions every year losing their medical insurance, the powers that make these decisions in cutting their budgets where it is most obvious - nonrevenue-producing departments. Be creative, diversify, maybe do other types of transcribing added to your business, and perhaps learn something else now. The job of the future will be three part-time jobs. The kids of today know that all too well.
Reality is one thing but
going so far as to criticise and ridicule what someone else is having for dinner is way aobe and over any mark of professionalism. That is the type of negativity that is being referred to here, not what someone has to say about any employers.
It's not a "mentality", it's a reality. SM
WE should "get out" if we don't like the relationship between the two?
How can we produce a high quality report when we are too busy sweating the small stuff or trying to remember all the rules and the exceptions to the rules and wondering which QA tyrant is going to be checking our work today so we can make sure to remember their rules in additiont to everything else. And on top of all that, we have to produce, produce, produce.
Something's gotta give and it can't be the MTs cause we've given enough already! We've given in our pay, we've forfeited our better judgment and our education and intelligence when we've typed verbatim instead what is correct just because we are told to do so. We've given in our time. We've even started losing our jobs to overseas outsourcing even though we produce a better product simply because we think and question the status quo, where as the India MTs do as their told without question for 2 cpl.
Personally, I would like to see reformation in the MT industry. I would like to see uniformity across the board as far as style, format, rules and regs. I would like to see an organization that represents the MT and not the MTSOs. I would like to see QA departments adopt a set of rules and that's that. I would like the MTSO to treat MTs like they have a brain in their heads and can make judgment calls without being penalized for not typing verbatim that incoherent jibberish Dr. Alibaba dictated.
So instead of leaving the industry, I'm staying to effect change. I'm in the midst of going back to school to prepare for my RHIT credentials and by golly, I'm going beat 'em at their own game and change transcription once I move up that ladder.
If you don't like the us vs. them reality, YOU get out. You're probably contributing to the problem as it is!
DH now knows reality of my job, didnt at first.
x
Reality check
I have been in this business for over 30 years -- the BIGGEST issue that is going on is with a "new generation" who has only voted MAYBE 2 times -- and NO, this post is "not political" HOWEVER, what some of what is being proposed is NOT the end of the rainbow -- I JUST had Fox news on, and there is a proposal to "give free housing to the mentally ill, drug addicts, etc" -- we're griping about our life and this is what the PRESS wants to report -- -- we're peons and no one seems to care -- and as an aside including my SO who is sooooooo concerned now with "Teddys" brain tumor and the fact that the press has reported that its connected to his cell phone -- good grief, I lost a mother to cancer, a husband to cancer and a grandfather to a stroke -- bottom line -- we are going to die, when it is our time to do so -- sorry had to vent
Reality check
A good English course may help with your test scores judging from your posts. Even with verbatim accounts, you still need to be proficient with grammer usage and have a good grasp of the English language. All companies look at this, and score on this.You cannot slack on this if you want to be able to keep a job in this industry. When you are new to a company, they will audit (QA) every single report you type for a while, looking at grammer, terminology, etc. Remember, you will be typing for a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) dictators who do not have a good knowlege of English and you have to be able to recognize and correct their errors.
Verbatim does not mean you do not have to edit. Every verbatim account has its own rules, but many of them require that you correct such things as subject/verb agreement, a versus an, he/she discrepancies, plurals, etc., much of which many ESL dictators (and even English as a First Language dictators) have no concept of. In my opinion, a verbatim account is a bad place for a newbie to start as you will pick up a lot of bad habits that will haunt you later on should you need to work on non-verbatim accounts later on, but just my opinion.
Getting out into the *real world* can be rough at first and a real reality check, but work on your English skills on top of terminology and I am sure you will do fine. I don't know what course you are taking, but there are only a few who truly prepare you for the real world of transcription and that is a shame. Start testing now for companies (many have online testing on their websites) to learn what you need to work on before you finish your course, it is a great tool for newbies.
I wish you the best of luck.
I should mention that I almost in reality
type in ShortHand because of all the Expanders I have, and rarely have to type a complete sentence. Build up your explander list like the poster below suggested and that will make a world of difference.
In reality, I think most of us DO care - a lot - (sm)
but dealing with inconsistent QA that will pick apart a complicated report by a difficult dictator and mark you down for using a semicolon instead of a comma has resulted in taking a lot of that stuff with a grain of salt. Now, if I get a report back where I made an an error in interpreting what the doc said, THAT makes me very unhappy!
Reality bites doesn't it?
Sorry you don't seem to be able to deal with the reality of MT world as it is in 2005. You are the one with false illusions that somehow there is a code of ethics in any company or these MTs would unite to fight ??? uhh what's the fight and where is it at. Might as well try to get a herd of cats together to fight an undefined battle for you once you figure out who your enemy is.
Idea for new reality show
I came up with this great idea for a new reality show called American MT:
YOU'LL LAUGH when you see the MT struggling to understand English speaking MDs who can barely put a sentence together, foreigners who can barely speak English, food chewers, side talkers, paper shufflers, sneezers, nose blowers, coughers, chokers and the like.
YOU'LL CRY when the American MT is faced with dire consequences such as eviction and malnutrition from the incredible shrinking paycheck and the amazing dwindling workload.
YOU'LL GASP IN HORROR as vital medical records are outsourced to strange lands to be typed by people who barely comprehend, write or speak the English language.
Coming this fall to a TV near you! American MT! You'll have to see it to believe it!
What do you think? Sometimes I kill me!
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