Questions like this should be taken up with your supervisor instead of a public forum. sm

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Do you have any better idea?

They offered a job.  They are not producing the goods.  They don't return phone calls and they don't have any policy manuals for employees or contractors.

There is no other way to ask the question.  They brought us to this place through their misrepresentation of facts.  The fact is they offered work.  So why shouldn't they be looked at for unethical work practices?  I was looking for a job, they offered one.  It's not my responsibility now to go look for another job.  They need to reply as to why there is no work.

I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology.  We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals.  In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech.  We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up.  Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own.  I've been in this business for about 15 years.  I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting.  So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry.   I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible.  So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner.  Here are my questions:

1. Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function?  Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them?  Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?


2. How is a line defined in Meditech?  (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)


3. How is a line defined in Cerner?


4. What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?


5. Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).


6. Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.




1. What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?


2. How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech.  I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?

Feel free to email me or post here any responses.  Either is fine.  I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too! 

there are always people who are sarcastic.  Yes, sarcastic will be among us, just like the poor.

By the way, what is your point besides needing to lash out at someone today?

That's why I want my friend mentioned in my above post to go to the TV stations about this and expose it if it is not resolved -- NOT the particular MT in question, but the working conditions that make this kind of mistake possible.  This hospital is HUGE, one of the most well-known in the country.  I want TV there. 

Please, think of the children! 

I would feel sorry for Sh*ri except she is such an obvious whackjob who truly deserves whatever is coming her way.  Baby, you know the old saying:  What goes around, comes around.  Obviously it's coming around back to you in spades!