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A frriend who was there ran out of work all the time (within the last 3 months) & the techs screw

Posted By: ed her system royally. nm on 2006-03-02
In Reply to: wrong - AJ

s


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Wait until you start dealing with their Indian techs, in India!, and run out of work. nm
s
Awful place for a newbie to start! Indian techs, uneven work load, very little help along the way.
s
Accustat Carolinas pays some 2 after they work for free for six months...just crazy.nm
nm
put your time to work for you
If you're with a company and you know what Expander program you will be using, you can spend your free time working on that.  Look up sites on the Internet that give free lists.  Practice with them.  If you have any reference books like Stedman's with sample reports, start building your program from them.  Most of what you type on every report is common English phrases -- you can concentrate on entering them into your expander now while you wait for work.  When the work comes, you'll be able to do it faster.  Don't worry about what medical terminology to enter now.  You'll type "the patient" and things like that many, many more times than medical terms.   Enter phrases that begin with the words "was, were, in the, on the, over the, below the, into the, under the."  Make shortcuts for blood pressure, pulse, temperature values.  You'll get ideas from the Internet sites.  In the end, it will really pay off when the work comes.  Just practice condensing words and phrases into their least amount of letters and work on developing a system that works for you.  Train your mind to think in "expander mode." 
part time work

I graduated from U.S. Career Institute in December and have started nursing school.  I did this to work from home part time while in school.  Does anyone know of any jobs out there for part time work. I have been a phlebotomist and CNA for 9 years and have a good medical background.  Thanks for any help that you can give. 


 


 


Part TIme Work
I'm in the same boat as well, just got done with school and have certificate. Don't want to over commit myself and things not work out.
I like to know if work is available 24/7 or if it's assigned each day? If full time, sm...
are you restricted to 40 hours on your time sheet? (some places have labor laws against more than 40 hours) Are you working in a compatible time zone? (There used to be no work available for me at 6a when working certain Calif. and Az. accounts because I started too early on EST.) Are you required to keep a log sheet of patients that gets submitted? Do you get paid for this log sheet? (some places will say NO as it's not "work" being turned in.) Is your invoice automatically created by their software or do you need line counting/invoice software of your own? Is faxing of anything required??? (some places will still fax you patient lists for that day...ugh!!) Can you use your own Expander and is what you're using compatible with their software? Is there docking of pay for errors? How many blanks are permissable w/o turning a file back in to QA? Do they want phone calls, emails, or IM messages if you suddenly need to take off for the day? Do you have to clock in and out whenver you leave your machine? Is there tech support available for software issues? ...I think that covers it now. Good luck to you!
I only work part time but it takes me...sm
all day to do the work. I have one at home and my other two are in elementary. I only do about 500 lines per day, but I it takes the whole day to do it because I stop and play, read, and BE with my little one. She just turned 5. I used to work in the evenings or at night when she was younger, but now I do it during the day. She has a desk beside mine and she does her "work". But then she wants to be held or read to or played with and that is when I stop and do those things with her. IF I needed to make more money or if I was needed to work more then I would find someone to watch her or work when she is sleeping. I would never expect a child to sit in front of a TV all day by herself (which is what it is if you are not paying attention to her) and be okay and well behaved.
I work for Focus part-time
I work for Focus and have posted many times recently on them. They are a great company but I do not feel that the extra shift differential always makes a difference because they have a lot of ESL dictators which can slow you down. They also have very large accounts and you really do not always have a chance to become familiar with the docs. You can get health benefits around $75/biweekly if you meet the line count and permanent employee, but there is no pay for time off.

On the other hand there are some positives. There is no set schedule if you are a contractor and they are very nice people. I ususally log in whenever and there is usually always work. There are times when they run low, but I have another company I do full-time which has better benefits. I would not do Focus alone, but they are a great 2nd company. They started me out when I was a new graduate, so I will always have good things to say about them and have not found much of the negatives posted about them to be true. The only thing is they hire a large volume of MTs, so you need to protect yourself from running low on work if you are going to work for them full-time. I have worked at least 4 different accounts when I was full-time to ensure this did not happen to me. Maybe you could work for both companies---one full and the other part-time.

Good Luck with your decision.

Sue
part time with a national will put you at the end of the line for work sm
and give you the crappiest accounts. Only way to work for a national is full time. Good luck!
Time zone difference & work load are what I ask about first as I'm on the east coast. Get up too
s
Newly graduated MT - is it possible to find part-time acute work?

I was wondering if anyone has had any success finding part-time, IC, acute work as a new MT?


This is what I have talked about time and time
and time again and somehow the MTs get completely out of joint by just my saying it. I could not believe this "newbie" said she could not leave her home, she had to work from home. I did not get to start working from my home until 1993, hello!! This has not always been a stay at home job and then we did NOT ASK to go home, we were sent home because the hospital needed our space. We never demanded a job at home. Apparently you sound like really don’t want a job at all. If I were employing someone, I would certain run very fast away from you. The first little nosebleed from a child, you would stay off from work for 2 or 3 weeks. This again, folks, is why our profession looks really bad. These posts and yet people are highly inflamed when I call it to their attention. Same story, again and again on these posts. I cant work, junior is bothering me, gotta do the housework. Wake up, everyone! Do not ever expect to gain any respect for the job you do when you have someone like this tearing it down as just a reason to stay at home, oh yeh and I guess I might throw in a little work on the side. Enough said!!!!
Going on three months...
I am new also and just started working for an MTSO about three months ago. The first month I was only making 100 every 2 weeks, but I am now making 350 every two weeks on part time. I think when you get into two and three different MTSO or whatever, it would just get way to stressful and hectic. I would personally try and find one company that had enough work for you or another company that just needed a fill in, then together you should be able to pull of at least the &500.00 that you need.
Thanks Camry
GOING ON 4 months though..
I take too much time out to research because I want my reports to be blank free. I also feel like I just am not getting the speed I should be. I am starting to wonder if its because mine are short dictations and it is taking so much time to load each one and then do all new demographics. I have found I am faster on longer dictations.

Lets just keep on truckin!!

Good luck though!

That's exactly where I am at after 8 months.
x
40K? IN 18 months?
I have been an MT for 9 years . First year made 30K.  Second year 33K.  Last year, my 8th, I made a whopping 36K.  Full-time.  Lots of normals/expanders.  You definitely are NOT going to become rich in this field.  If you want 40K within 2 years, you are going to have to do something else.  If you can wait several years, you may be able to do 40K, if you are lucky.  The pay for this field is actually going DOWN not up .
Me too, they said I could try again in 3 months.
I took my time with the test and got through the entire thing. I don't see how I was that bad. I'd like to know what my shortcomings were too. They said I could try again in three months. Good luck to all of us.
MT for 6 Months....sm
I have been working as a MT for about 6 months.  I guess I am still considered a newbie.  I make $.09 cpl and I am an IC and currently transcribe for 4 different CRNPs.  Some days I may transcribe for 2 of them and then there are days that I only transcribe for 1.  When I have 2 of them to transcribe for, I would say that I average 800 to 1000 lines for that day and it ususally takes me most of the day.  If I have just 1 to transcribe for then it would be between 400 to 500 lines a day and it only takes me a few hours.  Does this sound right for someone that has only been working for 6 months or should I beable to do more lines in an 8 hour period?
I began at 65 LPH. At 18 months, I am at 350.
.
I've been at this for 6 months...
I'm an IC getting paid per MB of dictation, but it averages around 6 cpl. I've been trying to decide if I should stick it out until I can put 1 year of experience on my resume or get out of there. The problem I've seen is that none of the companies are paying newbies worth a toot. Right now, I have a dream of a dictator. I'm the sole MT on this account through a national. Is your work easy at least, to counter the lower pay? That's what I keep telling myself when I'm tempted to run for the hills. You never know what you'll get with another company. The work may be awful.
6 months and still searching!
;) So, I've taken the ball into my hands, and I must say, it hasn't helped!

I've applied to numerous companies that were willing to hire a "noob" but heard nothing back from any of them.

Does anyone know of a few more I could look up?

I graduated with a 97% accuracy, so I'm not worried there. Let me know! Any help is appreciated!
YES! 37 complaints against the company in 36 months.
THAT is why they changed the name and the website address.
Congratulations! I have been looking for months, but am not giving up.
.
In the first 6 months of this year. I'm not new to this, though, so I moved on. nm
s
did it in 9 months of about 35 or so hours a week
Worked HARD those hours too! :-)
You can collect unemployment for three months. NM
"
6.5 cpl for acute care and then to 7.5 within 6 months - NM
xx
I think I posted this same post 3 months ago....
and today I look up drugs every so often but still NOTHING like I use to!! It does get better trust me. I have been doing this for 3 months and loving it.

It gets better. *hugs*
Worked for Spheris for 6 months.
there are better places to work for that pay much better. For the new MT, they have a great training program and mentoring, but I did not stay there longterm as the pay was very low and the benefits were awful. I only wanted to be an employee for the medical benefits, but their medical was more expensive than if I purchased it on my own. The account I was on was also horrible (mostly ESLs). I was stressed day after day trying to make my line count. Since being away from Spheris, I have never had an issue with meeting line counts and actually do 2x the amount of lines each week working 10 hours less. I don't know what it was about there, but I just couldn't get over 120 lph. I would never go back there, but I did learn a lot while I was there.
10,000+ dictation minutes in 6 months.
I went to Career Step so that is all I can compare it to. According to the eSmartMed site, Career Step has 1320 dictated minutes to transcribe (not sure if that is accurate as it has been so long since I went through the program, but it is probably close). It took me 7 months to get through Career Step doing those 1320 minutes, so I don't see how it is possible for a student to do 10,000+ in 6 months. If I had had to 10,000+, it would have taken me years to complete the course, not months.
It only took me a couple of months to get out of unpaid status!
Great to get my foot in the door!
took me 9 months to graduate from Premier Program with M-TEC
Worked at it 5 days a week, just like a job.
What are their expectations of an MT with 4 months of experience?? What company?
Geez
We only hire a New Graduate with 8 months experience or more
We no longer hire new graduates right out of an MT program. We recently did away with our Apprenticeship Training Program and only hire new graduates with 8 months or more of MT experience.
Career Step only give you a year, so at M-TEC you have 18 months and will learn a LOT more.
Your post made it sound like you would rather take more time to do the course, but there's a reason M-Tec requires it done in 18 months.

You can't really learn if you drag it out longer than 18 months. You have to keep doing it, working at it, familiarizing yourself with it, in order to learn it. That is why they push you to not drag your feet, either do it or don't do it!

Good luck to you.
I've seen awful work from "experienced MTs and good work from new graduates
I've seen awful work from "experienced MTs and good work from new graduates.

Training and education really does make a difference. Some people just have 15 or 20 years of very bad experience. They may be fortunate that one employer was willing to hire and keep them, but if that one closed, they would be in trouble. It all depends on the person. some new graduates are a better bet then some experienced MTs. I would prefer to find an experienced MT with great skills and a teachable attitude, but many experienced MTs know everything and are only willing to do things the way they've always done them.
most psych work is included in multispecialty hospital work..sm
contracted to a medical transcription service that requires multispecialty experience because of the hospital work. Unfortunately, very rarely can a medical Transcriptionist these days be given only one specialty when working for a service or hospital. We have to be well versed in multi specialties. The Turn Around Time on demands have increased, and thus the service or hospital gives the MT many different types of work. Learn as many specialties and gain as much experience in different specialties, which in turn will make you a more valuable MT and more apt to gain employment.
Just be sure not to pay for work. There is an MTSO below who apparently charges to work for them (sm
It might be tempting when you're getting desperate for work to pay someone so you can work for them, but don't do it. You can buy software and a foot pedal on your own, so don't let them fool you. If you are approached via e-mail from this site by an MTSO saying they have work for you, please read the posts below before making any decisions.
so you've been MT'ing for 6 months and I've been at it for 25 years but I don't know
what I'm talking about...that's a good one. The purpose of this board is for experienced MT's to give information to new MT's. One of the developments in this field is its recent downturn. We have a responsibility to be upfront with what we see, know and any conclusions we might draw. With less than 1 year of experience in the field, I hardly think you're in a position to give an educated answer regarding things like job markets, global influences and technological challenges. But then again, people like to only listen to things they like to hear...so have at it!
I do believe its time....

Peggy


Thanks for the push.


I was sitting in the auto shop today, contemplating how I can afford to put the money down when I have all of these expenses this week:  $100 tune up and oil change today, plus $600 for new tires for hubby, guestimate (my own) of $400-800 for 150,000 MI maintenance and fixing of a leaky tranny on my 93 volvo tomorrow, when I realized I CANNOT afford to wait. 


My kids' school is not going to waive my tuition because I haven't gotten off of my butt to go to school and get a job.  My car is not going to miraculously run forever on routine oil changes and tire rotations.  Life is going to get more expensive and I am going to have to work at some point.  Why not do it in a field I love (medicine) in a job that will give me the flexibility I need to work 5am-630, then 830-230, or something like that?  Its either that or work 8-5 as an admin med assistant/receptionist for $8.50/hr and deal with all of the fun stuff that goes along with that.  OR, even worse, work at Starbucks or Walmart because they are the only places that I can work "mommy" hours (ugh hate the term). 


Plus, it seems there are a lot of MTs who have 4 year degrees so I don't think I will feel like my education was wasted because there are plenty of other MTs out there who have the same level or more and love their work as an MT.  But I digress.


This time next year, I can be starting a job as an MT for a national company, but only if I start.


Time to go finish the paperwork and clean the house.


So much to do, so little time

I think I must have posted on the wrong board earlier...I got 55 views, but no responses to the following message..if anyone can help with info, I'd really appreciate it.  I'm sure I had too many questions, but any answers will do just fine. Thx


*************************************************************************************************


Hello,


I am really hoping to get some detailed information about anyone's RECENT experience with TASK as a transcriptionist.  Are you working steadily?  How long does it take to get on board with them -- I returned the contract to them recently with no results yet.  Just a little concerned.  Also, I only found posts here on them from 2003 and 2004 which didn't sound great...how are they handling the growth spurt now? Have the checks been submitted in a more timely manner?  Sorry about all of the questions, but I really want to start working on a full-time basis and want to know who/what companies to contact that will get me started and paid as soon as possible.  Thanks for any help everyone!


Q & A time

Hi all!


Does anyone know anything about Allstate Transcription and the mentoring program through AIM? They are telling me that I would have to take this mentor program and that it would be $99. I am newbie and wanted to see if this is legit or just someone trying to scam me outta $$$$$.....are you hired on there after the mentor program? Someone please.....give me an A!!!


Thanks, Sher


not all the time

Thanks, Keri, for sharing your experience.  The unsettling thing is that I *do* find myself missing the occasional word--not all the time, but enough to make me feel that I need to be re-listening to the file.  I am always surprised when I've missed a word because I am listening so carefully.  Sometimes I feel like a dog with its head tilted, waiting for the crunch of the family car's wheels in the driveway!  Any advice on how to be a better listener??


Can you share where you work that the work is plentiful? nm
s
Doing MT Part Time

I work 8 hours per day, 4 days per week, at my job outside my home.  I'm doing transcription on Fridays and what I can fit in on Saturdays and Sundays.  I'm an IC.  I love doing the work, but you really have to discipline yourself to sit there in that chair and do it.  It's very easy to get up and wonder off or take off somewhere and say "oh I'll finish this later.  Before you know it the weekend is gone and you have to hustle to get it done.  Luckily the company I'm working for has a QA person that is the greatest and she knows my schedule and time limit and sends me work accordingly. 


The company I worked for before would send me work all during the week, and I was busting it trying to do that and work during the day too.  It was tough.  Best of luck to you.


She's been trying for some time to find
someone to tell her she can take the $1.95 MT course, then get a job making big bucks working only when she wants. She's been told the truth, she just doesn't want to hear it. And I don't care what you think of me, Carol.
I don't have to time or patience...
for people like her! MAYBE she needs to find a new career!
I have a FT job (not MT) and do MT part-time.
It's worked for me for over three years. I drop off the previous day's work and pick up my new work on my way home from my FT job. They want a 24-hr TAT, so that works out all right. Of course, it wouldn't work with a shorter TAT. It can work if the logistics are acceptable. The fact that I can do the MT work at home makes it easy to fit in with the rest of my life. If you're organized, it can be done.
Get another part-time to go with this one if
it is full-time. Don't wait for the work to come in. Do you have set hours or can you work when you want. I mean are you employee or self-employed independent contractor?

If you are an employee, you could get unemployment or partial but I doubt that you are an employee.

Do something soon. Don't sit and wait till there is no work.

There are typical times when there is not enough work but I don't think this is particularly one of them.

time with hubby
On the weekends..lol. He usually leaves me alone during the week, and he knows if I don't get my work done that I need to do, I'm not in a good mood anyway.