Totally ELOQUENT post! This should be sent
Posted By: to every member of Congress, etc. - nm on 2008-08-20
In Reply to: please rethink this... - banshee
.
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
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. :'(
That was an extremely eloquent post!
.
The above post totally correct
IN the 80s I made almost 60 thousand but not anymore. Some will come on and say they make that much but just with a 40 hour week, not anymore.
I like your post and totally agree
My wanting to do my job, make the money I want and my loving to work at home now (althought plenty of years in work force before allowed to work out of my home) gives me the get up and go that I want and need to work like I do. I am amazed at the people who take care of everything else around them and then wonder why they are not grounded, able to focus, making a decent salary and the list goes on. I could care less about outside interference- does not bother me and never has. I am much more grounded, I guess, than lot of these posts.
I totally agree with your post...
It takes someone with terrific grammar skills, and even those of us who have been around a while still take an initial period of growing pains when put on a new account, new platform, etc. So, I say dive right in. What has this OP got to lose? Nothing.
I would again as above recommend just sending those resumes with a cover letter that is personal to that particular advertisement.
The rate of pay has gone down, but the technology has come such a long way that I find myself making more money now than I ever have and I've been doing this for 20+ years. It is a very good field for me, and I am happy with the part I play in today's healthcare. I feel accomplished at the end of the day. I really do. 
Your posts are some of the best and most eloquent -sm
on this board. You could take everything you've written and put it into one letter, and whoever received that letter would most likely find it impossible to ignore.
I think we all got into this situation partially because in the past we never questioned it. Who needed to? 20+ years ago there wasn't much that needed changing. I remember in 1980 a union-organizer-guy walked into our office and tried to get us to unionize. And we turned him down, saying, "Everything is fine here.. we don't need a union!" Boy, how times have changed.
What the Indians are enjoying today in the MT industry is where we were in the mid to late 1970s. They're all, "Oh, wow! What a great job! Look at all this money I make! [-compared to scooping sacred cow manure off the streets, perhaps-] Now I have a middle-class income and lifestyle!" But just wait, it'll happen to them, someday, too. Their companies will get greedier, and the hospitals they currently type for, who are already greedy, and only care about how cheap they can get it, not how good it is, will find someone else who will work for even LESS. Meanwhile, the cost of everything in India will have risen, as those with more money are able to pay for it. And if India's work is then being sent to yet another country - Thailand? Kenya? Somalia? maybe Iraq?, then their payscale will start to decline, as well.
I can just see it now: By then US MT companies (if they even exist by that time) will be scrambling to underbid each other by offering 15-minute or less turnaround for .00053 cents per line, and the hospitals will be complaining that they can get it for .00048 cents in Somalia. All the while, soaking their patients for $300 apiece for tampons.
I totally agree with your observations and post...sm
Did anyone else see the movie "Wag the Dog?" If so, you will share my strong doubt about the validity of a lot of the information coming from the Bush Administration in general. I'd also like to know what happened to bin Laden after that conveniently-aired video the week before elections wherein he threatened the safety of every state who voted for him. Not that I want any more attacks, but it does seem "strange" that nothing ever materialized from that, don't you?!!!!!
That was a good post! Totally agree.
x
totally agree with this post by noyb
very well put - a voice of reason !! :)
Excellent post. I totally agree.
nm
I totally understand your post, and the fact that
the fact that you (and the rest of us) are paid so little for high expected volumes of production, that absolutely ANYTHING that happens to slow us down, even a tiny little bit, is often a financial disaster for those of us living paycheck-to-paycheck and just barely getting by. If we were FAIRLY COMPENSATED for the work we do, instead of being continually CHEATED, UNDERVALUED AND UNDERPAID, then minor glitches like new software, new accounts, ESLs, would be just a bump in the road, not potential food stamps and/or homelessness.
I, too have plenty of work. And I, too am appalled at the fact that no matter how many hours I work, how much faster I try to type (without compromising quality), it seems like it's always SOMETHING. Right when you're clicking along and the income is starting to go up a little bit, they will:
A. Hit you with harder accounts, ESLs, or scratchy, fuzzy-sounding files that even a bat couldn't hear clearly.
B. Have a huge push to get absolutely everything in TAT, right before a holiday or long weekend when you KNOW it's going to fall off, and half of us will be scrounging for work.
C. 'Upgrade' the working platform, (which translates to: )
D. Put all these obstacles and hoops you have to jump through in your way, which are big time-wasters: Meetings, 'training', and various PC and program tweaks.
E. Decide to take their server down for maintenance, and it's always during YOUR shift.
F. While you're midway through a l-o-n-g, 1 hr, 45-min. dictation, which has a mushmouthed/ESL dictator, is very technical and requires a lot of research on drugs, procedures and equipment that is too new to be in the references yet, and during the entire dictation, a loud going-away party for one of the nurses is going on just a few feet away from the dictator, who is eating and while dictating, and occasionally turning away from the microphone to watch the tipsy party attendees, all the while continuing to dictate. The report was of course STAT, and was 30 min. away from TAT when you downloaded it. Then your supe calls you in the middle of all this and asks you what you're doing, and where the report is.
The above is one of the most eloquent posts to date -sm
about the state of affairs in the Healthcare industry and the MT branch of it. You're right about lobbyists, and I thin we MTs need some right about now. Back in the beginning of AAMT, we all naiively bought into their organization, thinking that support, lobbying, and maybe improvement in pay & working conditions (i.e., not having to work a 12-hour day in order to make 8 hours' pay, and having benefits and health insurance like other Americans) were going to be one of the benefits. Boy, were we ever wrong. AAMT turned out to be right there in bed with all the shady CEOs of national companies, and top administrators of the hospitals, that only cared about one thing. MONEY, and lots of it. (For themselves, of course.) Other companies and industries in this country have been called out on poor treatment of workers (Wal-Mart) and customer fraud (Enron), and both of those evils exist in the MT business and even many parts of healthcare as a whole. We already know we're getting the short end of the stick wage-and-compensation-wise. And maybe now it's time for every MD & hospital in this country to get a chance to either FIND OUT (if they don't know their patient information is leaving the U.S.) or to be OUTED (if they do know it, but don't tell their patients, MDs, etc.) Above all those of us whose medical records are being written to and stored in an electronic medical record should not only have the right to KNOW if our records leave the U.S., but we should also have the right to say "NO, not MY records."
Bravo! Good post. I totally agree. sm
I too have been in this business for a long time (almost 20 years). I also have a good friend who is an RN who will ask me questions about certain things that she hasn't read up on because it is not in her field of "expertise".
If someone I know says something like, "I have this pain that won't go away. . ..", I say, "you need to make an appointment with your doctor. If someone says the doc put them on a drug and can't pronounce the name, I can give them the correct way to say it.
But in my experience, I can tell (in my areas of expertise) when something is wrong. I would never say, "I think he has this or that." I would say, "I really don't like the looks of that and it might need to be looked at by the doctor. Even if I do know from experience what it may be.
In the case of an NP ignoring the MT's concerns, I find that disturbing. That seems to say that personal objections are getting in the way, which should never happen in the medical field, regardless of what level you are at, if there is even what may apper to be a valid concern.
Oh, I totally agree, but go up to the "Good Morning" post. I'd rather have your input.
v
Totally Special, totally HOT! NM
z
Should just post all their open positions in one post and only be allowed to post one of those a day
nm
NOTE: The above sticky post prize changes as someone wins. Inside that post is
/
I don't understand what your post has to do with original post of TIMED tests. NM
x
Post deleted -- Do not post e-mail addresses. (NM)
Goldbird
Ignore my post. I finally found the post on how to do this. nm
n
Yes, I tried to post same last night about 10 times, and it won't let me post.
I used to breed lab puppies (please no activist flames)! I had a champion female white Canadian lab, and people would be on a list for years if by chance I bred her, which I did twice, and so that I could continue her line. Anyhow, she's my sweet Skye who passed away 2 months ago? At any rate, we had the same problems with kids in the "hood" who wanted to come over and play once the puppies were old enough to be exercised daily and played with. At first I thought, how cute, right? Puppies and little kids - what better picture! Well, the majority of kids were adorable, but there were always 1 or 2 sick ones who would smack the pups, smash and hold their heads in the dirt (a real common thing, but I don't know why - psychiatrist anyone). At any rate, I finally had to ban the whole group due to the 1 or 2 creeps, had to call the police, the whole 9 yards, and that's EXACTLY what the police officer told me - next thing is there will be poison meat or a donut in the yard. He told me to always go out and patrol my yard, especially alone the fence line every day before I let the dogs out, particularly at night. I went out with a flashlight. It was about a month later, but sure enough - poison meat. Because there were so many kids involved, we obviously couldn't pin point the exact family, but the police went and read the riot act to them all. It would stop and not happen again for a year or so, but every now and again we would find something. My dogs were NEVER out and barking, so it was nothing like that - it was just over the puppies and the cruel kids.... Not trying to freak you, but that's the way these kids and their families are. You can really judge someone's character by ill treatment of a PUPPY, of all things. And the parents?? They sound whacked. Please be careful.
Sorry, I posted this post under the wrong post
Sorry
The job post has been removed and they are unable to post further.
t
my post did not all post in the subject, my apologies...
I think you can get the idea.
thanks.
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
Because my post was deleted in reference to the above post, sm
Ladies-once again, I apologize for coming across as a witch in the above post. I appreciate the links and the time spent on posting them.
OOPS. Post for magnent post below...nm
nm
Ah, I really meant to post that under the original post
Though it was gourdpainter's post which inspired me to post that suggestion.
Ah, I really meant to post that under the original post
Though it was gourdpainter's post which inspired me to post that suggestion.
Here's an URL for the medical transcription division of PRN Funding, BTW:
http://www.prnfunding.com/medical-transcription-factoring
what mean post made you post your post
 Which mean post was the straw that broke the poster's back.
You are totally right.
You are totally right. It would be nice to be paid hourly for what we are worth but that probably will not happen but it is the Transcriptionist first priority in my eyes to make sure the report is accurate before how much they produce in one particular hour. I would never just put anything because I did not know just because I wanted to make more money that hour that is why it takes experience in this business to make any real income. I know when I started out, I made more money babysitting than I did transcribing but as you gain experience there is less and less you have to look up and then you begin to make a real income.
I totally
Some people just don't know how to leave well enough alone.
This is totally different than having
Many prisons have work release however, they would NEVER allow an inmate to handle the US mail. Sheesh!
totally....
I have been at this only two months and am bored already - its the isolation and the repetitive work I have. I have a clinic account with a small learning curve, so now my blanks are for the most part garbled words or medications that are unrelated to the specialty area. I'm still building up speed of course, but now getting distracted/bored/daydreaming is slowing me down. I count my blessings that the work is not that difficult but its a trade off.
I KWYM about short vs. long. I usually have 1-2min reports and that keeps me going but when I get a 7 minute one, especially if it is the person who talks very softly, pop goes the Diet Coke can!
I thought I would like working alone at home but now realize that I like to be around people. Funny the things you learn about yourself that fly in the face of what you think you are like.
I think I would be able to do better in house, but what I really want is contact with other human beings and a little more variety in my duties.
Empathizing right there with you.
The first one I get totally
My BF of one year does that. He does things that he knows irritates me because I have told him and then wonders why I get so upset with him. He might pinch me and I say stop about 5 times and it continues and I get totally ticked by then. Then he wonders why I am so angry all the time. Well DUH!
Totally
My worst experiences have been with Mom and Pops MT services...
Not sure totally following? sm
Just in case I'm not understanding, but seems okay to say ALL MTs; probably programmed so they can hit one key and it automatically goes to all MTs entered in this particular email function. Just like they have a feature where when on vacation you can have email sent "i'm on vaction, will return such and such time.
Using own email, I think we all do?? At least thought so.
totally
would like to know too!
i totally
understand where you are coming from but I also understand their point. They have burnout!
Totally
I totally agree with Kyrie
it totally seems like they try!
like they know i'm in here (trying to be) working and they rev up the leafblowers on purpose! i think they might have heard me yell SHUT UP GO AWAY!!! one day
We Must Have Totally -
See, I don't equate "great pay" to "great company." I've made more money at other jobs yet been completely miserable for one reason or another. I've found that I would much rather make a litle less and actually enjoy what I'm doing. While I do consider salary when accepting a position (obviously, otherwise I'd be a total moron), I put a little more weight on benefits, flexibility, communication, my level of interest, and other areas rather than excusively on salary.
I never look on it as a threat to anyone's job security, mine or my colleagues, if I praise an employer and suggest someone apply there. I figure if that person can get past the resume and interview process and ultimately land a job, it's up to me to be at the top of my game to ensure my job security. I expect my colleagues to all be at the top of their games as well.
I am, however, one of those annoying people who politely declines to give any of my friends a job reference unless I know first-hand that they're 110% qualified for the position and share my work ethic and dedication. I'm always fearful of recommending someone and that person, no matter how much I may think of them on a personal level, turns out to be a professional disappointment, then my credibility would be questioned in the eyes of my employer. I guess I'm just as paranoid in this particular area as you are in the area of sharing OP reports or the name of your employer.
That's what keeps life interesting, all of us having different attitudes, perspectives and expectations.
Thanks for the conversation...I always enjoy seeing different viewpoints.
I use ones that go totally over the ear - sm
I cannot stand anything else, and as I have the hearing of an owl I can hear just fine what is going on around me, obviously muted somewhat, but this way I can hear my doctors just fine. I use Maxell NC-II, about $30 at Wal-mart or on-line. First pair lasted a couple years, my next only about 6 months, on my 3rd set now. Very comfy though, though get ear zits now (4-6 a year) and then, guess from the sweat, etc. of having them on a lot, that part sucks.
I totally agree
This is a 10-year-old girl, not a mass murderer. She is in a lot of pain, having suffered a most significant loss, and is trying to reach out, not always in positive ways, but the flowers are wonderful. Where they came from does not matter. PLEASE do not read anything nefarious into her actions.
She needs help, and smiles, and maybe a hug when she is ready.
Fear is a terrible thing, particularly when it turns normally rational folks into masses of paranoid jelly. I despise that we have come to this.
I agree with you totally, thank you!
Not when I'm totally concentrating....sm
But if I get to the end of a report and realize my mind has been wandering, I'll go back and read the report. It's usually fine, which makes me realize that after 30 years it's rote. But I wouldn't take a chance.
You are totally freaking me out.
Same name, same lettuce, same wine, same seafood for dinner. Are we living in a parallel universe, or are you stalking me? Don't tell me, you grew the lettuce in your garden yourself?
I totally agree with you..
I have been editing work that would just BLOW YOUR MIND. On top of mispelled and misused words, we have bad grammar and punctuation and then typing something different than what the doctor says and if you read it, it doesn't make sense. For example, I cam across this yesterday, "which was done when he was very-very young apparently a ditch is inspected." He actually said "which was done when he was very, very young. Apparently, it did get infected." I come across contractions, etc. This gal actually argued that her scores are always 98%. There were so many redlines on her work, I might as well have scrapped it and typed it myself. I don't know if this is due to schools or not, but when I was a newbie, I don't remember making that bad of mistakes!!!
Thank you, I agree totally
Get over it already. They cheated you, are cheating you. You MUST like it if you stay and continue to be treated that way. How many other MTs have had a bad job???? Trust me you guys at MQ are NOT the only ones. There are TONS of jobs out there. Go get one, that is what the rest of us do. Go do it.
I so totally agree sm
I posted my resume on MT Stars a couple of years ago and, like you, I was flooded with calls. The company I selected, I didn't even know existed. I have been a very happy camper for 2 years, plenty of work, decent pay, great tech support, wonderful people who make you feel like "family." Best move I ever made.
I think maybe the reason why people keep allowing themselves to be used and abused by companies with sporadic work is the known versus the fear of the unknown factor. Believe me, the stress of starting a new job is small potatoes compared to never knowing you will have enough in your paycheck to cover the bills!
I totally agree with you!!
I have stuff come up on my screen that just blows me away. Most of it could be fixed if they just read over their work and saw that the sentences do not make sense.
|
