Have you tried local hospitals, doctors, small MTSO's
Posted By: LinK on 2008-01-23
In Reply to: Giving up - Michele
That's how I started out working for a very small local MTSO, then I went on to become an employee of a small local nephrology group where I still am today with great pay and benefits. I had no experience when I stated but the small MTSO decided to give me a chance. Don't give up.
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- Giving up - Michele
- Have you tried local hospitals, doctors, small MTSO's - LinK
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Why not try local MTSO's or local doctors' offices
That's how I started out when I first became an MT. I found a very small local MTSO who gave me a chance and now I work for a local company and have been there for two years. It might be worth it to take a look. I basically trained at the MTSO's office for about a month so there was no testing involved at all. Just learning along the way. Good luck whatever you decide.
Have you tried local clinics or small MTSO's in your area?
That's how I got my first break. Good luck.
Local hospitals
Have you checked with your local hospitals? There is one near me that will hire you with or without a formal training program behind you. They work one on one with you to train you. The pay is good too. It might be something for you to check out. You also might want to send resumes to local doctor offices.
check with local hospitals
I contacted a local hospital (SW Michigan) and was told that they hire MT students and graduates. But they also said that all you really need is physiology, medical terminology, anatomy and typing skills. Seeing how you have a strong medical background, you might want to check into something like that.
Check with your local hospitals
Sometimes they offer training if you have the basics. There is a hospital in my area that will work with you for up to a year until they feel you are ready to be on your own. Definitely worth checking out.
check your local hospitals' job boards
You might find MT jobs posted there that aren't ever advertised anywhere.
My coworker had no experience, but took a job in the secretarial float pool at the hospital while she was finishing her online MT schooling. When a swing-and-evenings part-time slot became available (posted on the jobs board, but never advertised elsewhere), the MT manager was willing to give her a shot and roll her out on easy stuff first. Two years and a bazillion questions later, she's turned into quite a good MT, I must say, and just last month she began working from home. :)
I also had to take the bad (weekends and swing and all holidays) shift to get my foot in the door when I first started. It's the nature of the biz.
Also, I would highly, highly, highly recommend you work in-house, sitting pretty much knee-to-knee with a seasoned pro who can mentor you... as you both are paid hourly. A newbie working on production all alone at home will be making less than minimum wage. I hope I'm not crushing your dreams; just giving you a dose of realism. You need a mentor.
Best wishes to you all.
maybe a small local company
might be worth a try. My first job was with a company like that. I did not have an MT course or experience. It was relatively boring transcription (mostly insurance exams, worker's comp exams - tons of neck and back sprains) but it was a start. I trained in their office for a week or so and then they let me do it at home. After a year or so I worked for another small company and started doing clinic and hospital work. So if there are any small companies like that still around... check it out.
Have you tried local clinics or doctors' offices?
I went to a local community college and decided I didn't want to work for a large national so I sent out resumes to local offices and I got a job working for a Nephrology office with great benefits. I can be done, just send resumes everywhere and test when you can.
I work for a small MTSO. They aren't hiring - sm
I've been with them for years, and they still have the same group of 10-12 MTs. Very steady, but they rarely hire new people.
Work for a small local and do PT for the nationals when I find a good one to stick with...sigh...nm
s
Just do it. I work for a small MTSO and recently asked for myself - and got what I asked for. nm
 xx
Don't forget your local papers and local Temp. Agency or Manpower office. nm
s
If you want to work local, take local course. Otherwise, online is the way to go.
Most msjor national MT companies will not be familiar with what kind of training you get locally, but they are familiar with Andrews and M-Tec training, and will waive the 2-year experience requirement for grads of those schools. A local hospital or doctor's office would be more familiar with a local MT training program than they would with national online MT schools.
The "expensive" online options really aren't all that expensive in the long run when you realize what an excellent education you get, not to mention help finding a job afterwards.
Pay in hospitals
I sure it depends on the area, but in California I was
making $18.00/hr in a doctor's office.
Hospitals
I did some research in the surrounding areas where I live and I found one large and well known hospital that will train for medical transcription. They pay $11 an hour to start and they work with you for up to a year until they feel you are ready to be on your own. So, there are some larger hospitals out there that are willing to train you.
None of the hospitals around me
do on-the-job training anymore. In fact, some of them are using VR already, or outsourcing.
Any hospitals nearby?
I think if you want hourly pay a hospital is a good bet.
I think there is a national that pays hourly for the first few months or so, but I am not sure who.
Well, that depends. Some hospitals have in-house sm
and others outsource. I have found it depends what state you live in due to the large corporate health systems.
In my state, there are hospitals that hire for at-home positions after 6 months to 1 year of being in-house.
Other hospitals are hiring in-house only, and others only outsource.
Most of the larger national teaching hospitals...
with residents (on 6-week rotation), PAs and RNs and ESL docs are already using VR for at least the last 4 years. Don't delude yourself. About 80% of my work was VR for multiple national accts...The only straight transcription I got recently was the worst of the ESLs or mumble-mouth English speaking docs... I've done acute care, basic 4s (op notes, consults, H&Ps, ERs) procedure notes, multiple specialities, rare clinic notes for one company for 14 years.
It would be nice to work for one small docs ofc with a coupla docs in it and do just clinic notes again...Those were the days!  Cat
foreign doctors
Should I make more money for foreign doctors transcription? What is the going rate for nephrology transcriptions for a foreign doctor??
In the few doctors I have done that are verbatim - sm
they want it exactly as they say it, even if it does not make sense to you. That is every comma, period, new paragraph, etc. On others, my QA mgr says we can clean up grammer as long as we don't change the meaning of the sentence (as he says, as long as it is not going to kill them). We NEVER guess on drug names or doses if we cannot make them out clearly. As for the BOS or keeping with the style of the company, most doctors want it done their way no matter what the BOS says, it is not their handbook. Every company you work for does things differently, some do p.o/PO, q.i.d/QID, q.d., q. day/every day, mL/ml instead of cc, etc.
i know that ahp uses ESL doctors on their tapes
because they want you to get used to listening to accents. my original question was asking if there was anyone on here who is taking course 5 of AHP because then we could help each other, but mostly so i could get some help on a particular report. hahaha. i hate sending in reports with so many blanks. i actually really like ahp and they do send your reports back with corrections and tell you what they think your weak areas are.
my intention when i get done with ahp is to get a job working at a hospital and then when i have experience work from home. is it harder to get a job with a hospital than to get a job with a company like MedScribe or ProTrans?
tsk tsk- small minds
I'm not trying to promote the Big 3 or Little 3. I'm talking about an economic change we are all currently dealing with.
I'm not attacking the Big 3. In fact, Career Step probably better represents the trend in terms of price of tuition. If they add Job Placement full time, they will be tough to beat.
Obviously, all companies are going to be squeezed because the consumer is being squeezed. Thus my prediction- just a prediction- and I'm not attacking the Big 3; I think tuitions will come down. AND I'll go further, I think job guarantees will become much more prevalent because this is what the consumer wants.
I know from dealing with MTs all day that I have to be very accurate as MTs naturally search out the smallest details, have to do that to be any good at the job. I wasn't the best MT. I'm better in management. So I try to be accurate so I don't get knit picked. The important messages can be lost by trivial criticism and small minds.
My prediction is not accurate in every sense. How can a prediction be entirely accurate? It's an educated guess. If I am right, we should start to see tuition prices falling. It will be so slow that we may not notice it. I'm guessing the consumer will demand lower prices as the economy continues to suffer.
I'm not criticizing Andrews or M-Tec. No need to beat on me again. I'm talking about something bigger than the Big 3. Banks failing, dollar dropping, oil going up, food going up, CC debt on the rise, savings down, real estate falling, record foreclosures, etc. This will all snowball over the next 2-3 years. Issues like these are interlinked with one affecting the other. The consumer will seek solutions. Schools will have to adapt to changing economic forces. We all will.
Peggy take a chance and say what you see happening! Offer something that will give us your insight. Students are a part of the cash strapped population and can use any insight they can get. Put a bunch of opinions together and we can better form our own bigger view.
SMALL MT COMPANIES
Hi,
Does anyone know of any small MT companies?
Thanks,
Newbie MT
Doctors' offices pay little or nothing anyway. see message
I've seen this happen before. It usually turns out to be a mess and they go back to a classic transcription system. As far as coding, they use a Superbill anyway. They don't need a coder. They just list the codes and check off the appropriate ones for each student. They don't get paid as well as if they had an actual certified coder, but they won't or can't afford a real coder. That's nothing new. As far as the transcriptionist, most dermatologists don't hire transcriptionists anyway. They scribble the notes in the patient's chart. Even if they use some voice recognition system and get poor results, it may be easier to read than the scribbled notes. I've also noted that doctors who do have transcriptionists who know what they are doing are not willing to replace them with a machine. Others are easily replaced. That's just what I've seen and I have access to small and large organizations.
The doctors should dictate better, but it is our job to decipher
whatever they are saying, flying, mumbling, eating, etc. I recommend typing what you can and then go back and relisten and see if you can get blanks. If you still can't hear listen a few more times. With experience you are able to decipher. You can slow down the dictation and that may help.
I had about 6 years' experience before I started doing the difficult ESL dictators and I was not very good, mainly because I was majorly stressed out with the whole job. I've got about 18 years' experience now and can pretty much do any ESL without any blanks. Sometimes I do have to listen 2 or more times to a word though. Sometimes when I hear it first I swear they aren't speaking English at all and a couple of times that has been the case.
Doctors speaking too fast!
Ok i need some help here, i can not understand what some of these doctors are saying because they are speaking way to fast!! I have tried slowing down their voice and speeding them up but it is not helping me at all. Please please help.
doctors speaking too fast
Well thank you for your response. I am really worried about this issue...... especially if there is a whole sentence I cant understand but I guess blanks are the only option.
Small claims court (sm)
You should be able to take her to small claims court. If you have proof that she owes you, it's a fairly straightforward process.
You shouldn't need a lawyer.
MT Moms w/small kids
Hi!
Yes, I just read through a lengthy thread that touched on MY question in a round about way, but... I was just curious what hours MT moms with small children work and (just as importantly) when do you sleep!?!?
I have no problem with daycare and I have family that would glady watch my 5 y/o but I choose to keep him home to save everyone trouble and myself money! He actually entertains himself quite well, better in fact than my husband when he's home during my work hours!
I had considered working during the hours that my son is sleeping, but I don't see how that would work well, at least not for me. Even if I were to begin work at 8 PM and work until 3 or 4 AM, I would barely get to sleep before he wakes up, which is normally around 7:30. Three or four hours of sleep each night would get old QUICK, not to mention that by the time I begin work I would be tired and ready for bed and unable to think clearly, be productive, and would likely have trouble staying awake.
Right now, I'm working 32 hours per week with 2 half days and 3 split shifts and it seems to be working somewhat well... but can be rather hard to concentrate and be productive with the bustle of spring and summer daytime activities around the house with a 5 y/o.
Although a lengthy post, my question was simple: what work hours and sleep hours have you MT moms of small children come up with that works for you? And sure, any advice or tips would be appreciated as well. 
The fee (very small) is for their watching all of your work and
Honestly, the MT education programs are horrible. They should be providing this but they don't.
No one is going to spend their time/effort looking over a newbie's work, giving them constant feedback, etc., without charging some type of fee.
I wouldn't do it.
Doctors generally won't just contract with an IC from an ad-- too much risk...sm
pretty much all the docs rely on word of mouth to find services or transcriptionists. Can you imagine turning your office transcription over to someone brand new? As an IC, not only do you have to still get the work produced when you are out sick or on vacation (do you have a back up plan?), you also have to troubleshoot file transfers, etc. all by your lil' ol' self. Yesterday, I went into the office of an internal medicine doc who had dropped our service. He moved and decided to just try to keep up with the charts himself - but after 3 months finally called desperately saying, what would it take to get set up with you again? I walked into the office, programmed his Olympus recorder, set him up with a user ID on the FTP site, and then installed an program that would allow him to place his recorder in a docking station, press OK when the "Do you want to import?" window popped up, and the software is automatically going to upload his file to the ftp site, and download the completed dictation. Then I showed him how to print it, and made some recommendations as to how he could archive his work. So you see... handling the account for the doc isn't as easy as it seems, is it?
So you can't do the ESL doctors? Your skills may be what's limiting your success
Your skills may be limiting you. Do some work on them. See if you can bring your work up to the level necessary to do well. You can do it!
Mumbling doctors cause major frustration!
Why can't someone just speak clearly? Grrr. Sorry, really needed to vent to someone who understands. I have re-played and re-played and it doesn't make it much better. This doctor clearly mumbles. 
Small Service transcriptionists in Birmingham, Al
Does anyone knows of a small service transcription service in Birmingham, Al? I'm about to graduate and will hopefully be able to get on with a transcription service?
Yeah, I know what you mean. I tried to do it all for years with small kids,
schooling, learning a new job, handling the household and finances. Something's going to suffer, and most likely, EVERYTHING will suffer. We can't do it all by ourselves and we shouldn't be expected to. Unfortunately, smacking someone upside the head with a 2x4 is considered assault, but smacking them upside the head with a legal document outlining child support amounts and visitation requirements is quite effective.
Guess what, it's not just the testing. MANY doctors are terrible dictators.
Sometimes the dictation they use for the test is from the actual doctors they are hiring MTs for. If you can't do it on the test, you can't do it, period.
There are small-sized medical dictionaries, too, instead of the huge
s
Just highlight and hit that combo of keys again to make it all small letters. nm
m
MTSO?
Please excuse my ignorance, but what is MTSO? (obviously, I'm a newbie)
MTSO
Forgive me for being so ignorant of the abbreviations, but what does MTSO stand for?
Thanks.
MTSO
I know what it stands for. I've read the posts about MTSO's. But I can't find a straight forward answer. I've read that for newbies, a good bet for getting a job is with/thru an MTSO. I've googled it but no good info pops up. Where in the world do I find an MTSO?
So who is your MTSO
I have a friend that went to Allied, having trouble now finding work. Who is your MTSO??
There used to be a lot of $$ in being an MTSO, not
anymore. When you are competing with single-digit line rates from off-shore companies you can no longer charge 18 cpl. In most cases it isn't corporate greed, but trying to be stay afloat. Medical expenses are through the roof and everyone is looking for a way to cut expenses and MT is one of them.
I agree that companies that went offshore long ago did it for greed, but now it is mostly for survival.
People go into this business lured by working at home and making $40,000/year. They don't investigate to see how realistic that is. They go to one of the cheaper schools because the better schools are too expensive, yet the cheaper schools are pretty worthless and don't equip you to work as an MT in the real world. If potential MTs would do their research on the front-end they wouldn't go into this field to start with.
Meaning of MTSO
Could someone tell me what MTSO stands for? May be a dumb question, but I wont know if I don't ask.
Thanks
hate to tell you but yes I most certainly am an MTSO
as attested to by my corporate annual report to the Secretary of State, my notice of acceptance of an S-corporation by the Internal Revenue Service, my certificates of shares of the corporation, my quarterly payments to the Department of Employment Security for my employees and my portofolio in a corporate 401K. The OP said "sensitive information" which would hardly constitute your name and address which people even write down on blank pieces of paper at the supermarket to try to win a Caribbean cruise at the supermarket. And if I were you, little Miss Cop of the Internet, I would keep my fancy little fingers off this board. According to your own logic, how easy would it be for a hacker to get ahold of YOUR IP address and start stalking YOU down? The OP probably even has a site on MySpace for cryin' out loud. So go ahead and dispense your advice, i.e. panic, via the MTSTARS board. I'm sure that since you found this site it makes you an expert in all matters. LOL.
MTSO - What are you afraid of?
,
As an MTSO owner.....
I will just let you know that in response to an add I ran for 2 MT positions, I received 50+ very good, qualified MT resumes...that is why no one will hire a newbie! I actually have 3 newbies that I am working with now on a small clinic account that I have. I will not put a newbie on an acute care facility due to the amount of QA that goes into that, but I will start them on my small clinic note facility to begin with and let them work up to the QA. That is my position on this subject...there are too few jobs for too many qualified experienced MTs out there, and there is a deficiency of work due to Nationals outsourcing work overseas..that's that, IMHO.
Bet MTSO is tickled, also, to get an MT for 5 cpl.
x
Can somebody tell me how to find an MTSO?
I've tried google, but MTSO seems to be a common acronym for lots of things. Is there some key term I could search for that would point me toward potentially hiring MTSOs?
Thanks.
National MTSO
I really have no experience with a national MTSO, but I think it depends on where the MTSO is based. So, if the MTSO is based in the US, you would be paid dollars, and if it is based in the UK, you might be paid in EURO, and so forth and so on. However, while checking around on the net, I found a company based in the Philippines. You might want to check them out, the web address is, www.peoplesupport.com. I don't know what their money would translte to US currency, but it may be easier for you.
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