I have been watching the "NewbieMT" drama-sm

unfold and I am more than a little miffed.  I spent a lot of heard earned money and a lot of time to go to school and get educated to be an MT.  I worked and studied my butt of and learned as much as I could so that I would have the best shot at landing a good job with a good skill set.  And that is exactly what I did.  I have not been an MT for very long.  A little less than a month actually.  I got a job working from home making a good line rate, and I'm proud of myself.

I will admit that I have had times that I have had difficulty understanding what a doctor is saying.  We all know they can be mush-mouths.  But I listen, and I slow down the dictation and I listen again...and 99% of the time I get it.  I utilize reference materials that I have and I also use the internet quite a lot to help me.  I am amazed at what Google and yahoo can do sometimes when you put in a s/l word.  I have only asked for help with a word one time on this board and that was because I had exhausted every resource that I had, and I was spent.

So, I am angry that when I may interact with someone on this board and tell them that I am a newbie, they will associate me with someone with the utter lack of couth as NewbieMT.  Never in a million years would I dream of posting an ENTIRE report in a public forum, even with the confidential information removed.  Never would I in one breath bash my employer and publicly state that I was looking for another job (after naming said employer); and in the next breath recommend them to others as a job possibility.

I am just apalled.  I can only hope that those of you with experience will not categorize all of us "newbies" in the same category as Newbie MT.

Thanks, just had to get that off my chest.

• I have been watching the "NewbieMT" drama-sm - Upset and Disgusted
  • Reply - manda
  • Quite Down - MAD MT
    • You mean QUIET down? LOL - ROFL
      • HEHEHE - MAD MT
        • Assumptions - sm
      • Thanks, I was going to say it, but you saved me from it. - LOL
  • trust me, we can tell the real MTs a mile away! - Oldtyper
  • employment - Amy
    • Re: Recent Grads - Original Poster
  • just curious - upset and disgusted
    • I went to a Community College - Upset and Disgusted - nm
  • You have a great future ahead of you! - go newbie! (nm)
    • Thank you - :-) nm
  • For what its worth - sm
  • And then I go and spell - off wrong in the first
    • 'heard' should be 'hard' also - nm
      • Thanks, I said I was tired... - Upset and Disgusted - nm

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and have seen a definite trend afoot. Let me say I have over 20 years experience in health care and MT. I also own a transcription service. I spend a lot of time networking with other people in this field. This is what I see.

1) Nearly all the major transcription services have gone to Voice Recognition platforms.(See Company Board) When they did this, they chopped the wages in half, with the idea that you should be able to produce twice as much edited work as transcribed work. However, this penalizes the fast experienced transcriptionist. It was nothing to be able to make $30-$40 an hour if you were good. As an editor, you make approximately $12. It is very difficult to increase production as an Editor - there are just not many tricks.  In addition, they also have gone offshore, nearly 100% of the big companies. We are not talking small change here. We are talking about a major shift.

2) A significant number of medical offices are switching to electronic medical record systems (EMR) which often have a computerized charting component that would replace medical transcription. We definitely are seeing FREQUENT posts about people losing accounts to EMR.

3) Every year, the physicians coming out of medical school are more and more comfortable with technology.  They live and breath with their laptops. They pay their bills on-line, they get their music on line, they find houses, cars and dates on line. They can type faster than I can. They will certainly be even less resistant to technology.

4) The AAMT which could have been the unified voice among MT's to deal with these challenges, has sold out for getting more members overseas - an untapped market to buy books, training, and equipment. $Cha-Ching$! And they ditched us.

So, say you have 150,000 jobs in an industry and 1/3 are lost to off shore and 1/3 are lost to voice recognition and EMR. What kind of competition do you think is going to be left among the remaining 1/3?   Do you think you, as a newbie, are going to be able to compete? Do you think wages are going to go UP if there are more than enough transcriptionists, all competing for the same job?

So you can be scared and upset and deny it's happening...or you can adapt...Me? I enrolled in nursing school. When MT collapses, which I believe it is on the verge of, I will be ready.