Whether or not to leave IC MT job for unit secretary job at hospital???
Posted By: 10 year MT on 2005-10-28
In Reply to:
HELP, PLEASE!!! I am currently an IC, which I have been for eight years, and I recently applied for a nursing unit secretary position at the local hospital. I interviewed and who would have guessed it, they offered me the job. The position is third shift, 7pm to 7am three nights a week. I do have little kids to think of when considering this. My ultimate goal is to go to nursing school and I am thinking that working in the hospital will be good experience. I don't know if it will be easier to go to nursing school while working as an MT or as a unit secretary. I am having a hard time deciding what to do. I don't know if I would be better off staying put even though I have no motivation to sit down and type or should I take this chance to do something new. Like with any new job I am afraid that I won't like it but I don't particularly care for this current job. What do you think would be the better move? I know you can't make my decision for me but some input on what you would do in my situation would be helpful. Any advice is truly appreciated.
Thanks!! 
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Take at home transcription job or unit secretary job at hospital?
I've been an MT for 12 years and have worked at home doing MT for 10 years. Recently got replaced by EMR so had to find work elsewhere. I took a job at a local hospital as a unit secretary working 3-11 now I have been offered a job with a national transcription company. I'm not sure if I should go back to transcribing since the line count/money making potential has me worried. I've been assured that I will never run out of work but I'm worried that I will actually be working longer than the 8 hour shift in order to make the amount of money I need. I would love to be back home with my kids typing again as I miss not seeing them as much as I used to and they want me to be home. I am just not sure if I should stay in a job at the hospital which has a guaranteed amount of money per pay period since I'm being paid by the hour and not by the line where my paycheck can vary. Any thoughts/suggestions/opinions, recommendations out there? Any and all would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!!
IC MT to Unit Secretary - sm
Do you like to answer the phone? Do you like to file? Do you like to have people order you around? Are you neat and organized? Can you do three or four things at once? If yes, then go for it. The hours 7 pm to 7 am may not be as busy as when I worked during the day, but your hospital may well be busier, depending on what type of unit you're on. I learned a tremendous amount working as a unit secretary, one thing being I didn't want to be around people anymore, the pubic being the most obnoxious of them all. An doctors in person can be very arrogant too; a lot different than on the other end of the line. Don't know how you will do those hours with small children, but good luck to you.
IC to unit secretary
You brought up some excellent points! Since you have done both US and MT, you definitely would say that you prefer the MT over the unit secretary?
Thanks for your input!! 
I agree with Former Unit Secretary sm
Great job, learned a hell of lot, meds,diseases, etc., but I worked days and weekends, notoriously busy,busy,busy, and saw a lot that I just didn't like. Staff personalities are really much worse behind the nursing station than they are on the floor, believe me. Got tired of getting reamed by doctors who thought I was the nurse just because I answered the phone. I never had as much problem with IBS as I did then. If anything went wrong, a med order, lab order, whatnot, it fell on my shoulders. You need a tough skin to work days, nights might be easier, who knows. My skin thinned out faster with that job than 13 years of prednisone usage did. Good luck
MT goes unit secretary ... check out my story!
Ive been an MT for 13 years. I was an IC for 10 years, and a FTE for a local hospital for the last 3 years. I came back from vacation in June to discover my lovely boss was interviewing companies to outsource the MT department. He lied to us - told us not to worry - and then a month later our union received the '60 day notice' letter and we were out on our assess. I took a job as a unit secretary - and a $5 an HOUR paycut along with it, working 3-11 and alternate weekends. Am I crazy to do this. Well yes and no. I'm keeping my awesome union benefits, building toward being vested in 2 more years, and just landed an IC MT job doing guess what: MY OLD JOB. The company that outsourced us hired me. I plan to rake in the bucks in the AM and do the b.s. job at night. 3-11 is half the work as a day job - plus you get the shift differential. Wish me luck ! Joanne
Probably medical records or unit secretary
In my area the pay is about 50 cents less an hour than MT seems like a gravy job compared to this.
Unit secretary will help somewhat with terms, meds, and learning the flow of the shift, but it won&#
s
Hospital Unit Coordinator/Clerk
Anyone know what this kind of job would be like? One of the local hospitals has a few of these positions open in various departments. I'm wondering if it's a high pressure/low pay kind of thing, if only because they seem to be hiring from the outside. When I worked for a bank many years ago, they hired "outsiders" only for the crap jobs. I'm tired of MT and want to explore my options.
Don't leave the hospital job
You will never make hospital wages with benes on the outside. Never. Stay put especially if the hospital provides everything to you like office space, desk, chair, computer, etc.
JOJO - DON'T LEAVE THE HOSPITAL - SM
Especially since you live in NJ, the cost of living is pretty high up there, and working for a national or even small MTSO is not going to cover your living expenses, unless of course you are a supertranscriptionist, wearing a cape and fighting the offshore criminal mistakes - but I digress ... There are quite a few New Jersey hospitals that are hiring for transcriptionists to work at home, as well as inhouse. Try Virtua Healthcare system in Marlton or Voorhees. They have been advertising for awhile. Also, I believe there was a hospital in or around Ocean or Brick, NJ that was looking for transcriptionists. But if you already work for a hospital - PLEASE STAY THERE. You are far better off!
Depends on what kind of hospital? Large urban hospital or small community hospital? SM
Also, is it a large teaching hospital? If so you have to consider there will be A LOT of different residents dictating, usually a lot of ESLs at teaching hospitals, and the residents rotate out and new ones rotate in every summer. So you can't expect to get the same dictators and build up your macros because the dictators change all the time.
I would say 9 cpl would be a pretty good offer for a small to medium community hospital where you will be doing the same dictators on a daily basis. But for bigger, urban or teaching hospitals I would want at least 12 to 15 cpl.
IC to medical secretary
 Thanks everyone for your input. I have a lot to consider and you all have been a great help.
Look in your area for medical secretary jobs
get a chance to transcribe. You have to understand that a lot of MT's are wanting to work from home. The ones with the experience are the ones that will most likely get the positions before someone fresh out of school. Even though some students do better than others, this field still takes the experience. You can't really blame the companies, it is their loss when you can't produce because of lack of experience, and I do not mean this in an unkind way. Think about it though if you were offer a job with benefits... who would you choose? The one with the experience right? I know it is such a catch-22, but I guess the training institutes do not clue you in on this part. I agree with the other posters, try to get a small local account for yourself and do not set your expectations too high at first. You'll gain experience and self-confidence.
33, Medical Secretary Degree, graduated in 1999
nm
In MT ads on the net, more and more I see ads for combo positions - MT/front desk, MT/secretary, etc
b
Another one from back when it wasn't an insult to be called Secretary
I actually went to a secretarial program at the local technical school. AND I learned Gregg shorthand, but haven't thought about that in a number of years. Boy are you all bringing back memories.
Now everyone is an administrative assistant. Secretary is much easier to say.
Need transcriber unit
You need a transcribing unit that has a pedal that comes with it. Your digital pedal will not work. Depends on size of tape -- micro, mini or standard.
Unit Coordinator
That was my first job in a hospital, although I had worked as an insurance examiner for an ins. company and had medical terminology. It was actually a job I loved. I answered the phone at the unit desk, called for missing reports needed for the patient to go to surgery. When I did it I transferred all the doctors orders onto a cardex and filled out the necessary lab/x-ray/PT, etc. requistion slips. I filed the lab slips and x-ray reports on the chart when they came to the floor. When a patient coded I had to respond and take notes of when CPR was started, all meds given, who responded, time ended. If the nurses were all busy I often answered call lights and relayed the patient's needs to the nurse caring for that patient. I loved it because at the time my boys were little and I worked part-time 3-11. I only needed a baby sitter for two hours till DH got home and I got full benefits for my entire family at no cost. So besides the small check I was bringing in I was furnishing my family's medical coverage. Every job now wants you to be certified in ACLS (Advanced Cardia Life Support) they want you to often times be able to monitor patients if they are in CCU or ICU (that is be able to tell when something out of the norm is showing up on the monitor). I wore scrubs, so no work clothes expense. If the pay works for you go for it...it is totally different from MT and often times there are opportunities for advancement to other positions once you get your foot in the door. I loved it, it was a great job. Just be aware it is a 7-day a week position, so not every weekend off and you will work holidays, Christmas was always the worst but at least it was 3-11 so I had Christmas morning and early dinner with my family.
TENS UNIT
I have used in the past all day.
Could also be life support unit. nm
Anyone work with a Lanier VTI unit?
Just started today for a new service. I have plugged in the Lanier VTI unit and have checked the connections; they all seem to be correct. I can dial in to the hospital system and access a report, but the foot pedal won't work. My MTSO is calling in a technician but I hope it's not something silly I'm overlooking. Any suggestions?
Lanier is a digital unit
There is a screen on the front of the unit letting you know the job information, number of minutes, dictator, etc. The unit itself utilizes a phone line. The dictators call the server and record their dictation. You access their dictation through the Lanier.
Your still have to have software with the handheld unit
that allows upload to FTP. Without that, FTPVoyager is useless. Make sure you buy handheld units that have the software capability to upload to FTP otherwise you'll be stuck.
If you find that handheld units with the upload software is out of your price range, consider the EZ-Voice solution.
Good luck!
Long-term skilled unit?
ss
There is a small microphone on the front of the unit
If you look on the front panel beneath the volume slider, below the button labeled 21, you will see a very tiny hole. It is a microphone hole. I have used the stick from a Q-tip to fill it in and it lessened the hum quite a bit. I left the swab tip hanging out as an extra buffer. Looky weird but it worked!
Try this and see if it works, but unplug and replug the unit first
Programming Dictaphone unit:
1. Press the "Program Key" key (far left button under the display screen) and you will see the word "Keys".
2. Press the "Keys" key (same far left button under the display screen).
3. Press the first button on the left vertical row of black buttons (remember this marked button as it has been programmed for the display), and put in the following: # * 1 8 (to program the display).
4. Then press the "select" key (look on the right hand side of the phone keyboard itself and press "x" where it says "Dictate" aka the multiplication sign), and the display window should clear.
5. Lift receiver to get original display back and hang the receiver back down. You are done programming.
To get a job, dial the hospital phone number, enter your ID#, and press 6. You will hear the prompt say "at start". To get the demographics, press the "programmed key" (or the button you programmed on the vertical row) twice. You should hear four rapid tones and it will start giving you the demographics. If you miss any part of the demographics, you can press the "programmed key" again twice, and it will start the demographics again. Every time, you sign off a job and get a new job, you will have to press the "programmed key" twice again for the demographics.
The code to program the display button on the Dictaphone is # * 1 8. If for some reason, your Dictaphone will not give you a dial tone or seems locked, trying reprogramming the Dictaphone as above.
What model is the unit? I used one a long time ago..sm
However, the doctors called into it to dictate. There was a hard drive with it that was connected to phone line. I would log in on the machine and pick up the jobs to transcribe. Is it similar to that? Or is this something else? There is also a Philips call-in station that hooks to phone line, but that's only for the docs to call and dictate.
How are you using the Philips to get work from your friend, that's what I don't understand? Does the friend have the same system? Just trying to figure out the setup and how to be more helpful. I know I once tried to use the Philips call-in to re-record dictation from a microcassette and it wouldn't recognize it and just timed out. It would only accept an actual voice, and that was using landline phone, so I think they do have certain parameters set up. It might be that the Vonage isn't compatible. Maybe you could call a Philips tech support person and ask. There's a tech number in the manual and on their website.
Handheld unit software question. sm
Is there a software for the Olympus WS-100 and other units with USB ports that copy from the unit to FTP or designated site for file transfer, store a copy onto computer, and then delete from unit?
If so, please advise. Thanks.
TENS unit inquiry minds want to know:
Just wondering if anyone has a personal experience using a TENS unit they could share. How long do you use yours for, if you find relief that you forgot you could have, etc. As a chronic low back pain sufferer, I’m looking forward to getting mine on Tuesday!
Thanks
P.S. The temperamental Sony unit was a bargain at $100! Ouch!
Anybody want to sell me a bridge?
Maybe you local Cancer Society unit would have suggestions? nm
s
Which hand-held unit is simplest for doctors? sm
Need a handheld unit, but need to know of simplest one for doctors to use. Also, is there a program that uploads the dictation as soon as you connect the unit that sends it automatically? Thanks.
Also plan on getting a cooling unit to park laptop on
they run anywhere from $30 to $100 depending on features. Worth it definitely to run a laptop for 6 hours or more to keep the unit cool.
I am lucky for the most part, my only hard ones are in the Trauma ER unit, where it's crazy but t
just love to dictate while on the spot there, talk about noise. But the name spellers are the worst, as suggested below that will spell "Smith" but not "Teona" (1 I had earlier). I do several divisions that are supposed to supply patient lists (but tend not too), but I guess they get their jollys seeing how bad I can butcher the names. 
This happened to me once. I had bought a Lanier transcribe unit from someone advertising over on SM
MT Daily. I sent her a money order for $500. She sent me one email after she received the money order saying she had sent the Lanier and of course I never received it and she didn't answer my emails for a week. Then she finally emailed again saying she had asked her daughter to send, but she hadn't and that she was going to ship the next day. Still I didn't receive it. At that point, she stopped answering my emails and eventually blocked me from being able to send me emails. I had her mailing address and phone number. Of course, she screened her calls and never answered the phone.
One thing people should know about MT's, we do our homework. I immediately researched what my legal options were and here is what I did:
1. I contacted the adminstrator of the website on which the original classified add appeared. They attempted to contact her to no avail.
2. I contacted the police departments in both her city and mine and filed a fraud report.
3. I then contacted the Attorney General's off in both her state and mine and immediately filed a report with each office. I was told that the claim would be investigated, but more than likely nothing would not come of one complaint, BUT if they received more than one complaint regarding fraudulent practices by the same business or individual, then they could file charges.
In the end, she made the mistake of forwarding one of those chain emails to everyone in her address book and mistakenly sent it to me. So, I had the email addresses of her business associates, co-workers, employers, friends, family. I promptly sent an email to everyone of them telling them exactly what she did to me and that they should be very careful in dealing with her.
I got several angry emails for people asking me not to include them in my email war. I apologized to those people and took them of the mailing list. However, three of the email contacts emailed me back and said they had bought stuff from her and never received the equipment. And finally, I received a very angry email from the perpetrator's other daughter. Apparently, her mother was freaked out about the fact that I had reported her to the police and the attorney general's office and I also let her know that I had made three other contacts ready to file with the attorney general's office which would probably get my case more notice. The daughter Western Unioned me my money within 24 hours.
Casey, I say break out the big guns and start shooting. That's what I did and it worked for me. You probably have the person's mailing address, so you know where he/she lives or at least what city and state he/she lives in. I wonder if we dealt with the same person? Is this person from Texas?
a phone/transcription unit with foot pedal and earphone...
dials to hospital dictation system for reports to transcribe.
If Google it - might find a picture of one.
Hospital. I wish I'd never left my hospital job.
They'll only take me back if I start off working nights and weekends again at the bottom of the totem pole.
If you work for a hospital - how come no one from the hospital
called you?? Were they in the dark, as well?? How sad, that no one in your hospital communicates with the at home staff.
Are you still there or did you have to leave?
nm
Why don't you leave?
I wonder why you don't leave? I know all companies have their problems but isn't this a deal breaker for you? It is getting to that point with me. It is very hard to go on faith that everything will be correct. I'm struggling with the same question. I know they pay a good line rate, but if you don't get paid for all your lines is it worth it?
Please, just leave them alone.
This person's posts aren't bothering me and I'd rather this just peter out and die.
best to leave this one alone
Have you ever heard of patient privacy? What kind of motivation did you have for Googling a patient name in the first place? There is no way you would know if you spelled it correctly from a Google unless you matched it with an SSN.
If I were your boss and you told me, I would fire you instantly just for being irrational enough to be Googling patient names. You have no business in this matter. Your physician knows something is up, so it is up to him what actions he takes from here.
We are not to judge which patients deserve privacy and which do not. You wouldn't be having this problem if you weren't doing something as questionable as Googling patient backgrounds using PHI you are only supposed to be using to transcribe the record.
Keep your mouth shut before you lose your job.
then LEAVE
if it's so bad here LEAVE. Bubbye "hon"
Leave it on...
I was told by a very savvy computer geek to ALWAYS leave it on because your computer is most vulnerable to attack by hackers/viruses etc... during the first few moments of "boot up" before your anti-virus and spyware stuff have a chance to start up. That is when they "get in" - during these first few seconds without protection.
Leave her alone! Why does everyone
here always want to pick everything apart! She made a simple mistake.
Leave MQ, duh.
Complaining is not the only way to know what it going on, just look at every other post and you will see what is going on. I agree you need support but that is why the group of you need your own blog, to have a place to go where you can get that support. Your beating the dead dog is having the opposite affect on most of us non-MQers. Instead of having sympathy, it is to the point where we are thinking," What is wrong with these people? Leave MQ!" You can only feel so much sympathy for people that aren't helping themselves and getting out of a bad situation.
Leave us alone
This has been our point all along. We have NO WORK, thus we have too much time on our hands so we can be on this board.
We are not perfect and we have great attitudes. At least we can laugh at ourselves when we want to cry.
She just needs to leave
Actually, I think she just needs to stop harrassing people.
Leave the board Tammy, you are just trying to start trouble.
Leave MQ?
Why would a reduction in pay make anyone leave this lovely company? I decided a long time ago to stay to the bitter end, but the bitter end came for me in June and I said adios amigo and KMA MQ. A lot of nice people in work flow, tech support, really great people, but there was no work to begin with and nice people don't pay my bills. I'm not sorry I went with them but sorry I had to leave because they are such a sorry company now. I had been there for seven years on the same accounts, first with YOG and then with these meatballs.
the only way i'd leave
Is if I were offered a position I couldn't refuse. I'm looking, believe you me, but for the most part, its the runaround fast talk I can see right through over the phone with these job offers i'm getting. They tell you what you want to hear, etc., to get you in the door, and once they have you, who knows what they will do to you. I do not trust these MT companies any longer. At least MQ, I can see when i'm getting screwed, I know the reputation. They have messed with me a couple of times, but I try and keep in close contact with them, keep my lines up, work my shift, just to get treated fairly, until they slack off and I have to give them a phone call. I'm on the same account now for three years, get over 9 cents a line...so I haven't had it so bad.
The only way i'd leave is for an Editor position that pays 18+ an hour with guaranteed cost of living raises, full benefit package, including PTO days. Until I find that, i'm staying put. I feel I'd be stepping from a hot bowl of soup right onto the oven burner if I leave. Its scary being so remote, you cannot trust these people running the show anymore.
I would leave it alone
As long as she remains a good student, etc. etc. as you stated in your post, I would just leave it alone for now - unless something changes drastically. Pick your battles wisely.
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