To adminstrators. Love your new format. Could you please back the actual time of the post.

• To adminstrators. Love your new format. Could you please back the actual time of the post. - I miss that.
  • Thanks for your feedback. Will see about adding back the time. - Administrator nm

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I know exactly what you mean. We see it in E-mails all the time where I work. Although they aren't enforcing it, they do ask that we work our full shift AND get our lines in. I know Dictaphone Extext tracks your typing time and you can see that when you check your line count. It gets really depressing on the speech editing because actual typing time is a LOT less, so it takes longer to get my time in.

This is another way to get more out of the MTs. I think it's all crap, especially since if you were to go over 40 hours a week you won't get paid!

I just have to vent about companies that keep track of your actual "typing time" and then say you are not putting in your 40 hours.  I always come up short and not by just a few hours.  They have said I worked only 60 hours when I worked 80.  But they say "their system is not wrong."

For one thing when you look up old reports or do research on-line or if you walk to the fridge, that shouldnt count as "not working" as long as you are getting your line rate.  Also something is wrong because I dont take that much time looking up things.

Also how can they get by with making you work 40 hours when you are paid "production?"  This is wrong.  Either pay me by the hour or leave me alone!!

people who don't understand our jobs as MTs, I wanted to add a couple of comments I recently received at a HS reunion about which I just sigh:  When asked what I do for a living, one person said that she learned medical terminology and ShortHand in the past, realized shorthand is no longer used and thought medical transcription was obsolete/now fully automated.  I briefly attempted to explain what MTs do and about automated speech recognition, but she didn't seem too interested.  Another comment I received was how it would be nice to work when you want to; I didn't feel like explaining about having scheduled hours/punching in and out, TAT, production goals, etc., and just let it go...

I think the next time someone asks what I do for a living, I am going to say that somedays I am a magician, most days I'm involved in a race, and that at all times I am required to be a good interpreter! 

Once upon a time, back when I lived in a city, I worked three 12-hour overnight shifts at an answering service and was all by myself.  It was considered full time and had all the benefits that went with that.  Sometimes it was busy but most of the time not so much.  If I knew about transcription back then I would have totally double dipped!  All I did all night was either read, watch movies, or surf por...um...educational stuff.

Personally, I adhere to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy myself when it comes to these sorts of things.  So long as one doesn't interfere with the other, go for it.  Like I said, if I had the jugs for it, I'd totally be hooking up a boobie cam so I could earn a little sumthin' sumthin' while I typed away. 

You have 2 toddlers who need daycare.

You have a teen (the childsupport)

You have $350 roomie but that + disappears with his costs of living there.  and I would be scared to count on it.

You have $9500 CC bill which that payment is probably about $200 a month.

At $42,000 that is not solid money - it is PT monies. 

1.  Can the BF come up with his probable court-ordered child support of at least $1000 a month? 

2.  Do you make car payments?

3.  How much is your student loan payment - and for how much longer?

4.  Do you have a degree in something?  Should you stay in transcription? 

5.  Can you make the house payments if the BF finks out on the child support in 2 years if your 16 yo moves out and gets married and doesn't attend college?

6.  You will be at an expensive time in your life with the 1 and 2 YO/ who will then be 3 and 4 years old by then and still needing day care.

7.  A house is expensive upkeep.  And much energy.

I agree with the others.  Don't jump the gun here.  Take care of one thing at a time.  Get yourself into a situation where you won't be stressed if there comes a blip in the road - like you break your arm - or the car tears up - or you need an emergency root canal - one of the kids breaks a leg and you need to stay home.  There are a million things. 

I would rent, move BF out, get childsupport started from him to see how that goes, re-look at the budget.

when the FT job comes around, and if you feel it is the one for you and they are good for the money, then look at the house.  You must live for you, not the 16 YO. 

By then you will have your FT monies coming in, the child support coming in, you will know what your extra income is, you will have all your insurances in place and leave time built up, and a house may be good by then.  Also, the market is overvalued right now.  They are saying people buying right now may be buying things that won't be worth what they paid for them in a year. 

Do you have any family you could stay with at all for 6 months.  You need some breathing space, girl. 

Again, good luck.

someone using a heated keyboard -- that might help.  I have used the typing gloves before when my hands/wrists were flaring up, but I generally found they slowed me down a bit.  However, if your fingers and hands are cold and stiff, that slows you down too, so it might be worth it.  Hand-Eze is the only brand name I can think of, but I am sure there are lots of others to choose from.  You can usually find them at places that sell craft supplies, maybe a little less expensive than the sites on the web.  Good luck. 

If we still cannot get an organized group of MT's to write and innundate the senate and congress with letters or some kind of petition than we should all give us and do what a poster said "just give up tilting at windmills"...are you ready to give up?  (PS the first address for the San Francisco Gate is still active and is the full article.  The second address for the Deccan Herald is no longer active. Read the San Francisco Gate article and weep!)

Posted by Georgia gal on January 12, 2004 at 12:51:23:

In Reply to:Form letter to send posted by Lane on January 11, 2004 at 18:45:26:

Hello _______,

As a born and raised American I am appalled at the number of jobs that are being moved overseas by US based companies, all claiming that they need to cut costs. This is hurting the US Economy and boosting the economy for countries such as India and Pakistan. I am a manager with a medical transcription company and our industry has been infiltrated by these other countries. There is growing concern in the medical community regarding HIPAA and overseas transcription, since HIPAA is a US based law and not international. It concerns me greatly that the health care providers that are sending information out of this country are not informing patients of this, and the fact that patient names, social security numbers and other identifying data is made available to people in these other countries.

Recently a medical Transcriptionist in Pakistan threatened the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center that if they didn't pay her off a large fee then she would disclose these patient medical records. Here's their newspaper article that explains in detail what happened:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/22/MNGCO2FN8G1.DTL

In addition to that situation, a medical transcriptionist company in Ohio had 2 of their employees in India threaten to publish medical records on the internet because of a pay dispute:

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/nov04/c2.asp

I would appreciate your consideration in supporting or initiating legislation to keep jobs in America, not only for the medical transcription and coding business, but for all American jobs. I would suggest that stiff taxes be placed on any American business that sends work out of this country to the point that it would cost them more money to send work out of this country than leaving it here. In addition, I would like to see the HIPAA laws expanded to state that medical records may not leave this country due to patient confidentiality and security reason.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

I was interviewed and asked to test. The test recordings were so full of static and hard to hear that I decided the tests weren't worth the time or frustration. I sent the recruiter an email regarding the poor quality of the recordings and never heard another word from her. Has anyone else had the same experience with their test recordings?

I transcribed the report.  I didn't tell the doctor about it.  I didn't tell the little MTSO I worked for and I didn't tell my family member.  I have not ever disclosed any of the information I heard, either.  As a professional, I can't be "interested" in what I am doing, not in that way.  What is contained in the medical records is not my business either.  I transcribed the report as any other.  I have to say that the family member in question doesn't know I transcribed anything to this day, although it was years ago.  It was, and is, my job to produce accurate medical records and not to concern myself to whom they belong.

I have talked to other MTs that this has happened to and they all did exactly what I did.  As a fact, the MTSO above had this happen to her.  A friend had an abortion, but told everyone she had miscarried.  This MTSO had been working for someone else at the time and had transcribed a report that discussed the abortion.  She kept it to herself because it was the right thing to do.  A gal who was a nurse at the doctor's office knew both the MTSO and the woman who lied.  SHE was the one who broke confidentiality, but before all was said and done the MTSO had been blamed for it, her boss had been blamed for it and there was quite a stink, but the leak didn't come from the MT end of the equation. 

General question for you all. I recently applied with a company that took a month getting me through their hiring process only to be told that one of their accounts dropped them so they could not hire any more MTs. Now I've applied somewhere else and interviewed, a company that sounds like a great company, but it's been about 7 days since the interview and have yet to hear back. I interviewed with them last Wednesday and was told that I would hear back one way or another by the end of last week. I sent a follow up email yesterday and have not heard anything. How long do these companies typically make you wait before hearing something back? How long before I should give up and apply somewhere else? Thanks.

I was worried about because, let's face it, my short term memory isn't what it used to be LOL. Plus the program is ONLY full time. They had 1000 applicants and picked the top 70 of us. If you didn't have a 3.5 GPA, you didn't get in. But I am doing really well in school - after I got past the shock of the first 6 weeks - tons of work- and I am at the top of my class. My husband, bless his heart, is doing all the cooking and we are basically kind of ignoring the dirt. My house will be clean again another day. I am finishing up my second semester, have 3 more semesters for a BSN, and then another 2.5 years to get my masters and be an advanced practice nurse. 41 is definitely not too old! You will have to work smart to save your back but it can be done. Also MT is starting a slow slide out...you would be smart to start your second career now while you still have a job... IMHO

good luck!