Where have all the doctors gone?
Posted By: Long time agooo... on 2009-06-15
In Reply to:
Gone for AMA meeting every one...ohh when will they ever learn? When will THEY ever learn?
Okay, joking aside. The AMA is meeting in Chicago. Obama is addressing this convention to push his new health plan, something the AMA doesn't support. They are afraid, as are we all, that this will "save" money by cutting compensation to doctors and hospitals. They seem to have record numbers in attendance to show their numbers and power.
So, this might be why work is low all around right now. Bully for them! If they can stop Obama on this, I'll be low on work for a bit and I don't mind in the least. I don't believe that nationalized health is the answer for this country.
GO AMA
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Only 30 doctors?
Your line count sound great anyway! Maybe some day I will get there. I will keep working on the expander thing. But only 30 doctors? I am sure we work for the same national. I have only two accounts, but have 97 doctors! I have been meaning to ask my friend who works for the same company if she has as many. She has 4 or 5 accounts, but I don't know how many doctors. Sometimes, when I see the 'no jobs' screen, I am tempted to call and ask for another account, but I never do since I am afraid of what I will get. One of my accounts is my 'dream account' because there are few doctors, and they are WONDERFUL. The other account has about 90 doctors and I never know what I am going to get!
Doctors
I used to type for a doc who said sh*t at least once in every sentence. He always told "the typist" to delete that but it was a laugh just listening to him!
You may be right that most doctors
do not read their reports, but a lot of other people do, including coders, nurses, insurance companies, attorneys, and possibly even the patients themselves.
CERTAIN DOCTORS.
I work for a small MTSO, and I have been asked to work on a certain doctor. It happened to me because I was getting his work done on time and how he wanted it done. So, yes there are good reasons for this to happen.
Thanks!
So....how do you think these doctors who
And some of them KNOW about offshoring (lots of them do), feel about people going overseas for their medical care? How does it feel? Not so much fun, huh?
One of my doctors...
is wonderful about saying A-B-duction or A-D-duction instead of assuming I will know. He's got a slight accent, too, so I really appreciate it
Doctors as MTs
I can't help but wonder why someone would go to med school, then decide to become an MT. Even in India, I would think an MD does better financially than an MT -- which is why I bet while they may be good MTs, they must have been inferior MDs. JMHO.
Do you ever wonder how much doctors would
keep patients if they talk to them the same way they dictate? I have transcribed some doctors that I wouldn't go to (no matter how "good" they are) simply because of their dictation. If they talk as fast, slurred, etc. to patients as they do when dictating, no wonder people are sick. 
Doctors
Does anyone know where doctors post that they need a transcriptionist? I have looked through many websites but only find companies and not doctors.
doctors-ha
I am frustrated beyond belief at doctors who do not keep up with dictation then the office blames the Transcriptionist for being behind. Dictating a week's worth on Sunday afternoon does not mean they will get all the dictation returned on Monday! And of course they are asking for "stat" reports on one particular patient, then claim they have "missing" dictation. Well I don't get paid for my time going through and finding one in particular. I've been an MT for 15 years, but never have I been so frustrated as this afternoon when this whole situation came up for the upteenth time in the month of May. Sheesh.........why don't they talk to the doctor about keeping up?! gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  Sorry, just had to vent..... but I was wondering if anyone has a spare tazer I could borrow.
doctors
Isn't it sickening?! Funny how they think they know everything and are always right, then can't even dictate all of one day on that day or can't remember what patients they've dictated on and blame us for losing them! It's actually the doc who has the problem, but they can't/won't see that. If I didn't need the money so bad, I would certainly quit this guy. He's a major royal pain in the buttocks!
Maybe it's just normal "rigors of transcription", but this has been a consistent problem for months and months and especially for the last couple of weeks. Maybe his allergies are frying his brain! Whatever it is, the staff has the same problem!
They are now quoting me what my contract says and claiming I'm not fulfilling that contract!
gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Getting new doctors
I was wondering if any of you can give me some idea on how to get new docs. The last two accounts that I had I just fell into them. My friend was working for an office when they needed a transcriber. And the second were my ob that I had been seeing when I was pregnant with my twins. Unfortunately, I lost the first account to a lady who was going digital and she was was to come in and cover for me while I was out on maternity leave. And now the ob docs changed over the a new system. They are actually using a piece of paper that they check off everything and if there is something abnormal they make a note of it directly on the paper. I had been transcribing for six docs, but now I am only doing 1 and he is probably going to be retiring soon. I don't know what kind of information I would put on a flyer, or should I send out a letter to doctor's offices. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have never done hospital dictation, so I am strictly looking for office work.
Thank you in advance,
Cheryl
Doctors
Thanks. I did work for a doctor who stated that doctors are always looking for transcriptionists, but I could never find where they advertise. The doctor I got was from word of mouth, but he recently moved out of state so I am looking to do work for another doctor.
doctors lie
 What do ya'll think about doctors who lie in their dictation. I have come across this twice within the year - so I am sure it happens quite often. Once was my own personal MR - doctor came in and told me I had a coronary spasm but when I got my records there was no mention of a coronary spasm or anything else having to do with coronary - he basically said he didn't know what the problem was - other than my blood pressure was 220/114 - which I had to take my own medicine in the bathroom to get it to come down -
then - a friend of mine had a bariatric procedure and developed a stricture - he then had an egd under conscious sedation (he is 21 years old) and he became combative on the table. The doctor came into the RR and told us all about how he had been up and down on the table and how he was not able to do a dilation because of this - then when we got his records - the report said that he had used 3 different balloons and dilated the stricture successfully. However, my friend was not able to keep anything down - so the doctor went in and did the egd again under general - and could not even find the anastamosis site - he was sent to a specialist who did an egd using dye and fluoroscopy. Another stricture is forming and the specialist is going to place a stent which is not approved for bariatric patients - it is something they place in people who have esophageal cancer which allows them to eat until they die since the cure rate for esophageal cancer is so low. I wouldn't let them touch me again - but this is a young kid and he doesn't know any better. I might also add that the anesthesiologist and the nurse that was in the room on the first EGD came to the RR and told us how bad the situation had gotten before the doctor gave up.
long story long - do ya'll think this is common? can we no longer trust doctors with our lives? I realize they are scared of malpractice suits - but, as with my friend, we know that the doctor messed up his tissues - and the specialist told us how bad the tissue looked - like it had been "stabbed through with a knife, inflamed and beginning to scar up". But do you think that they lie in all of their reports where something goes wrong - or that they color the situation so that they come out smelling like a rose?
doctors
I like www.healthcarehiring.com/
Can look up doctors, clinics, and other things by state.
Doctors --sm
are so used to dictating certain ways that he may not even know he said the word comma. I have a doc that uses "comma" for every punctuation, including period at the end of a sentence. My transcription training drilled it into my head to use as few commas as possible and we were graded on that, dinged if we had too many. I transcribe what I feel to be right, not what the doctor dictates as far as punctuation goes. JMO
I take this seriously; however I know doctors
My mother's surgeon is one of them. Sometime during one of his visits, mother's medical records were brought up and somewhere in the conversation transcription. Well, he said all the x-rays were transcribed by a facility in Australia and he thought it was wonderful because they were ready the next day since their day is our night, etc. He just had a big 'old smile on his face. When I asked him didn't he realized HIPAA rules could not be enforced, he just shrugged as if it were no big deal. This is a guy that has been around a long time and he doesn't even care about patient records, and this would go for ALL the other doctors in his group practice as well. The x-rays are sent by a local hospital, so if the doctors don't care, and I know the hospital knows where the records are, I find it hard to believe most don't know what's going on with our records.
The bottom line......MONEY.........and not the patient.
I take this seriously; however I know doctors
My mother's surgeon is one of them. Sometime during one of his visits, mother's medical records were brought up and somewhere in the conversation transcription. Well, he said all the x-rays were transcribed by a facility in Australia and he thought it was wonderful because they were ready the next day since their day is our night, etc. He just had a big 'old smile on his face. When I asked him didn't he realized HIPAA rules could not be enforced, he just shrugged as if it were no big deal. This is a guy that has been around a long time and he doesn't even care about patient records, and this would go for ALL the other doctors in his group practice as well. The x-rays are sent by a local hospital, so if the doctors don't care, and I know the hospital knows where the records are, I find it hard to believe most don't know what's going on with our records.
The bottom line......MONEY.........and not the patient.
my doctors!
or the nurses or whoever else, but as i just said this IS being implemented April 1st!
dont think it will happen super quick for everyone, this is an eventual process, how can you deny that?
Doctors will not like to have to
put all that data into a computer. They are doctors not data managers. That work will pile up on them and because of their busy schedules and become a real pain.
They will always in the end have to dictate/narrate some sort of personal profile on the patient that does not include vital signs,lab values and imaging results.
No, because the doctors will not want
to listen through an entire dictation of sometimes meaningless stuff to find out what they need.
if the doctors in the USA really REALLY sm
knew why their work is of such bad quality, they would bring their transcription back into the US and hire EXPERIENCED US MTs to do it. I see it happening already, albeit very slowly!
Doctors
are the worst at spelling. I have one doc that consistently spells words wrong. I spell them correctly and leave a note letting him know. He continues to spell them wrong (the same meds). I think he just cannot admit that he is wrong(-:
Doctors have bad days too!
Guess SHE was having a bad day. Once during the dictation, she screamed it ou because she could not find the medication list! This foreigner had no trouble learning that word, obviously! 
Cheap doctors
I remember one specialist many years back who complained when the hospital I worked for put in a new dictation system which required pushing the buttons on the phone to put in patient ID, etc. He came to the department in person, ranting and raving because "now he would have to pay to have a push button phone installed" in his office. This same doc came in the department on a Sunday afternoon and was using the hospital department copy machine to copy EACH AND EVERY PAGE his JAMA because he had DROPPED IT IN HIS POOL at home. Can you say, "cheep, cheep, cheep"????
They sound just like my doctors! (sm)
Something more fulfilling, most definitely. At least I won't feel like a doormat. I am starting to think I am really being stupid to make sacrifices like this.
After all, this is just a job. We all need to have a life, not be irritated all the time.
One transcriptionist, three doctors--HELP
I work from home as an independent MT and presently, I am working for three doctors. Anyone else out there working for a few doctors. I am beginning to think it is impossible for one person to do this, as I am working 7 days a week, long hours. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! 
Doctors are definitely their own breed.
I used to type for a doctor who I swear had his own dictionary. He was always making up words and also using really big words that nobody ever uses. I guess it made him feel smarter and above us lowly transcriptionist. He was a very nice guy. He just insisted on using words that were not words. When you typed him, you worked for every single line you got. Your situation is exactly why I hate verbatim accounts. We had one doc that wanted us to type his reports exactly as he dictated them. He never once used a verb. Terrible-looking report, but docs get what docs want.
That is true for SOME doctors but not all - PLUS (SM)
think about it - we need doctors and they are the ones who have gone to college and earned the degree so of course they should benefit. If they weren't going to make more $ at it then who would go through all of those years of school and sacrifice to do it???? You also have to calculate in their expenses for help, the patients who never pay, the ones with insurance who don't have to pay much, their employees, their equipment, their office expense, college loans, malpractice insurance, which is sky high, plus all those hours that they are on call EVERYDAY that they don't get paid for. I worked in the office for a doctor and did hsi transcription and he was in private business and barely made as much as I did doing transcription. He charged high too but after all the expenses he just didn't see as much as everyone thought he did. There are others that are definitely benefiting more but not always how it appears on the outside and I say that for the most part they have earned it and deserve to make more after all of those years in school than someone like me who went to school for 9 months to get my transcription certificate.
I have a couple of ESL doctors who say
"full stop" instead of saying period at the end of a sentence. The first time I had one I didn't know what he was saying because he wasn't clear. After QA told me what he was saying I could hear it, but still drinks me crazy.
I also have an ESL doctor who says "paragraft" instead of paragraph.
Most doctors do not abide by. . .
the BOS. It was created by AAMT, who is the only entitiy to profess its acceptability as the standard in MT. It has been a moneymaker for them. Period.
Actually, only the AMA Style Guide is the "official" standard for any/all medical writing, including transcription. There is a new version of it coming out soon as well.
RE: Most doctors do not abide by. . .
You did not answer the original question. Your personal feelings were not asked for in this instance.
Some American doctors . . .
aren't that much better. Example - patient lives several thousand feet in the air - translation - the patient lives in the mountains. I kid you not.
Doctors are SO inconsiderate
Just need a moment to vent...why are doctors SO inconsiderate??? This one doctor, which I happen to have been working on ALL morning, is so inconsiderate. She mumbles, shuffles papers with the phone in her hand, and generally just cannot be still while she's dictating...and to top that off, she will not dictate in any reasonable order. She never indicates when she's changing from history to physical to assessment to plan....UUUHHH...I am literally  !!!
Doctors Cursing
I've had plenty of doctors curse during their dictations. The first time I had to ask whether to transcribe it or not - the answer was no - I have taken it to be no from that point on unless it is a direct quote from a patient - which happens a lot if you transcribe psychiatry - anything goes there.
Stiffed by Doctors. What would you do?
How many independent contractors here ever been stiffed by a doctors' office when you didn't have a written agreement? Just did business on a handshake? What did you do to collect payment or did you ever collect payment? I'm being stiffed and know I won't take this sitting down. I worked too long, way too hard. Invoice is teetering 7K. Any help/advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
What to charge doctors.
About 10 years ago transcription services were charging 15-16 cents a line. This was in PA. If you are going to pay your employees 8-9 cents a line this could work out, as you should plan to keep 50% in order to pay for your expenses. Cost per page - services were charging the hospitals avg. of $4.00 a full page, $2.50 half a page.
Let your doctors worry about this....
You'd be an utter fool to buy sticky paper for them. It is far to expensive, and they would not pay you enough per line to charge for your work plus the sticky paper. Remember, doctors make about 30 times-plus what you do. If they want to use sticky paper, don't be "used." Let them buy it, or you buy it and add the cost of it to their invoice, plus your time and travel costs involved. If you keep buying things for them, next they'll expect you to buy their other office supplies, computers and digital recorders! You're running a business, not a year-round Christmas party.
Don't know of a website, but new doctors
usally had an ad in our local Sunday paper. It will probably run for a month or more.
Happily just five doctors- NM
NM
Gifts to doctors
St. Jude's Childrens Hospital sends a nice card if you donate money in their name. I think it would make the doctor feel wonderful and you are doing a great thing, everyone benefits. That's what I think is a great gift for someone who is a professional. Look them up on the Web.
The difference: Doctors are not always the
If Hometown Hospital agrees to offshoring, it won't matter what the docs at Hometown Hospital think. Docs are drawing good pay and have their patient base hospital needs taken care of there. The docs are not leaving just because they don't like it. LOL Besides, if it gives them more money in their pocket, they're not changing either.
This is about money, folks. Not what you or I wish or want.
most private doctors...
I speak to say that they went to the bigger companies because they were assured TAT - however it is explained to them that the same people working for the Nationals are the same ones that would do it as an IC, I find that my clients came around. Sometimes common sense is not the easiest thing for a busy mind. They also like the idea of not paying the rates a national charges, knowing we do not make it - so drop the rate a penny and they get a break too. They wont pay us what they pay nationals because they do not feel we are the same thing - if we cut out the middle man for us, they want it cut out for them too.
You may not believe this, but doctors are working for less
xx
Doctors do that all the time
Doctors get on a dictation machine and start dictating under someone else's name/login - all day long sometimes. If they don't state their name (many don't) and you're a newbie on the account, you'll never know the difference.
I've had to correct over 50 reports at a time when I worked in-house and the doc showed up before I did. They're not all that embarrassed or sorry about it, either.
Templates from doctors
Really need your thoughts. One of my doctors has about 50 templates/shells. When doing combined procedures he will tell me to just combine the 2 or 3 or 4 shells he has for the individual procedures without taking out whatever is redundant or conflicting. I have to do that. Several of these individual op reports are 3 pages long, so can end up with a 6-page final report.
On his follow-up notes, he will use a shell and then say "add this to the physical exam" but he does not say what to take out of the standard note.
Many of his op notes have numerous variables. He oftentimes does not tell me which to use and/or which to delete.
For "risks" he will dictate some and then say "and add whatever Dr. X uses."
I am requesting a meeting with him and with the office administrator, but would like to know what you think and what you would do.
Thank you
Two different doctors suggested it to me.
I tried it for a while but found myself slouching anyway. It is fun sometimes to sit and bounce or lean while typing. My office is just really small, so I had to put the ball in the living room when I wasn't using it. The kids would play with it. Really annoying because they're teenagers and their version of "playing" involves throwing the ball at each other across the room. I deflated the ball and it's in my closet.
I really think doctors think MTs are beneath
them. I don't mean so much that they disrespect MTs, just not something they consider good enough for their wife to be doing. We used to live down the street from a doctor and his wife and she wanted to learn MT. She and I talked a lot, she was very interested, she knew how much I made doing MT (uh...more than he was making as a resident) and he adamantly told her he did not want her being an MT. Once he finished his residency and went into private practice, she bought and opened a clothing store and he is fine with that. He just wasn't fine with her being an MT.
Really does not have to do with the doctors dictating
because I have found eScription for so reason seems to hear the ESLs much better than the English speaking dictators a lot of times. Having said that, I think the system you are using has volumes to do with it from what I read on these posts. Which system do you use, if you don’t mind me asking?
Actually, in ANY situation, doctors usually think,
x
Where I used to work, 50% of the doctors never
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