I think only for those who plan on an in-house job at a hospital. At-home options won't even be
Posted By: offered in the future or will go to India. nm on 2006-09-02
In Reply to: Is MT A Good Career? - Charity
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- Is MT A Good Career? - Charity
- I think only for those who plan on an in-house job at a hospital. At-home options won't even be - offered in the future or will go to India. nm
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are there no more in-house hospital jobs left?
it seems to me that way too many of talented MT's are settling for these low-paying companies. Is that all that's left out there for work?
doesn't anybody work in a hospital anymore?
Work at home or in house
What is the difference in training for the two? Can a person be trained in one and then go into the other right from the start.
Still lots of in-house jobs on the big job search sites. The at-home US MT is going the way
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If you're young and don't HAVE to work from home, then working in-house
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Unless you can work in-house somewhere, I feel the at-home MT who can make good money is a
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Try to get a job in a hospital. Don't try to work at home for a few years of doing this full-tim
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Not many other options for me
I realize that the pay isn't the best, but I am a single mom that is determined keep my daughter out of daycare. Last year I worked 14 hour days babysitting and tutoring to make less than $150 a week, minus the gas I spent getting to these homes. I honestly really enjoy transcribing and although I know its not a get rich quick scheme, nor will it allow me a ton of freedom, I see it as a way to provide something for my little family. Now, if I could only find some one to give me a chance and hire me.
My thoughts on your options....
I think it is great that you have TWO options available!
As for physical therapy - that option is quite limited. Transcribing PT notes would not give you much exposure to medical terminology, etc.
As for neurosurgery - that would be an interesting option to go for! More diversity than PT notes. But still, limited exposure.
So, you would have to decide if you want to make more money (doing PT) but limit your experience, or make less money and gain a more broad base of experience.
Still, I think the best experience would be a hospital. There you would get all work types, different dictators, and certainly the experience that would make you marketable to move up in the profession.
But you may find that you love PT or you love neurosurgery and want to do that only until you retire.
That is my opinion, for what it is worth!
Whatever you chose, I wish you the best. 
Seems like a wise plan. sm
only problem is it might be hard to get a PT job as a newbie. Mostly it seems like newbies get jobs with nationals if they can possibly test well enough but the nationals have a set number of lines you have to meet every pay period and as a newbie it can be difficult to get your speed up, since you will be researching a lot of terms and re-listening, etc. You MIGHT be able to find a job with a smaller MTSO, but then again maybe not. What would you do if you didn't find a MT job that fit your hours?
You need to plan ahead and
devise a pattern for creating shortcuts so that they are easy to remember. If you just create random shortcuts with no pattern whenever you encounter a phrase you want to shorten, you will find that you forget the shortcuts for words and phrases that you do not hear or type frequently. It will need to be something meaningful and easy to remember. For example, I try to use the first two letters of each word in a phrase for short phrases, just the first letter of each word for longer phrases, and the first two letters of individual words that occur frequently. You will also need to make sure that the shortcut you create doesn't accidentally spell a real word, which could create complications. It takes some time to create the shortcuts and some more time to get into the habit of remembering and using them, but before long they become second nature.
Plan on 4 hours - especially if you're
I'd also rather hear from a successful employer with a good plan for continued success
Success breeds success. When I look for a leader or mentor or someone to give me advice, I look for someone who has been successful. That person will have to be able to identify his or herself and have verifiable proof to back up their claims. There are ways to do that. Blind posts on message boards don't do it.
Here is what I did...I had a "grandma" come to my house...sm
two days a week to watch my kids while I worked. Found her by placing an ad in the paper, believe it or not, and she was an absolute gem. She loved my kids and my kids loved her. She was retired and just wanted to get out of the house and get a little pocket change so if I worked hard, I was able to come out well ahead. She was happy, my kids were happy, we were all happy. Then I worked around split shifts the rest of the week. If you have family that will gladly watch your 5 year old, why not share the love? It would be good for him to be with someone else who enjoys his company and can give him undivided attention, and you can knock out some big lines while he is visiting with them.
Same in my city -- nothing in-house
The Squid has taken over all the big facilities in my area. I never see ads for hospital MTs either in the paper or on their web sites.
I did go on an interview last year for an in-house MT in a GI practice. While they had upgraded their dictation system, they had no medical spell checker and their sole reference consisted of an old Stedman's GI word book, and this was a dept. of 6 transcriptionists. I didn't get hired. I think I just got called because the lead wanted to ask me questions on the DL about working from home for the Squid.
At any rate, I am leery of small practices as I used to be a legal secretary and had the most horrible experiences in the small legal practices, so I can only assume the doctors aren't much better.
Start in-house!
Meryl, I can't believe no one answered your post! If you are new, I highly recommend that you start in-house, as a lot of us did. You can get the help you need starting out. Benefits are usually good working in a hospital or doctor's office.
If you don't see any jobs in the newspaper locally, put out some feelers. I got my best job, one I have been doing for 13 years, at my daughter's oral surgeon's office. I mentioned I do transcription and asked who did theirs. Turned out the bookkeeper did it when she had time.
It is difficult to work at home just starting out due to the lack of the support you need.
Good luck, Meryl. We all wish you the best.
No In-House Jobs In My Area
Dont know where you live but in my area, there are no in-house MT jobs.
New MT, Can't find In-house work
As a new graduate everyone keeps telling me to start in-house instead of trying to get on with a national company. Sounds great except that the local hospitals around me all outsource to national companies. I have checked everyone. So where am I supposed to get my experience? Even though I know starting in-house would be the best place for me to learn as a new MT and have other MTs around to help and answer questions I can not find anywhere to work. Frustrated!!
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.
Don't forget...new episode of House tonight!!!!
Definitely more jobs available to those that want to work in-house somewhere. Any services local
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Not the profession. MTs in house at hourly pay do great. The world of the
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Would the place that interned you hire you? Local out of house experience would
nm.
hospital pay
I inquired in my area (Southwest Michigan) and one of the hospitals told me they pay $11 - $17/hour.
I want a job in a hospital sm
Do they usually post their help wanted on their websites, or do you need to know someone to get in?? I see ads all the time for work at home positions, but what about office positions?
Starting pay in hospital
Any ideas of the pay for in the hospitals?
RE: Starting pay in hospital
Depends on what part of the United States you are inquiring?
hospital transcription
Ok I have looked at hospital MT jobs in AZ and all of them want experience and almost none of them pay well or even list pay in the ad, your best bet is to look on monster.com or try the specific hospital site. for example a big hospital group in AZ is Banner Health, they have their own website and job listings, so try that direction.
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I don't live where the hospital is looking - sm
I actually have two hospitals to recruit for - one in NY and one in Maryland. I will have another soon in Minnesota after I fly up there on Wednesday to find out their needs and look at the surrounding area. These would be for people wanting to relocate. Relocation would be paid.
depends on the hospital
There is hospital near me who will take on beginning MT's who have typing and medical terminology skills. They work with you for up to a year before you go on your own. They pay about $11.75 an hour to start. But, then there is another hospital that requires years of experience. You need to check with you local hospitals to see what their requirements are.
No, it's not your job - when I worked in a hospital (sm)
I was paid hourly with bonus for production. Therefore, we could occasionally do other work (like the charting) if the clerk was off, answering phone, etc.; but being strictly on production, I would say, no it is not your job.
working in a hospital
I work for a hospital and have for 20 years. I am an at-home MT.. I am a full-time employee just like anyone who has to physical go there everday. The pay is much better and benefits too.. There are some still out there.
VA Hospital transcription
Does anyone know any MTSO who has VA hospital accounts? I ran across a great ad looking for MTs last year, but did not have enough MT work experience yet to be considered and was told to reapply when I had more experience. I don't recall who this company was, but was intriged by the ad for MTs and would like to follow up and at least apply. I saved the ad, but can't find it at present. One of the things that interested me most was that the company sounded like it really valued its MT workforce. I am looking for a company to move to and stay with for the long term.
I would appreciate any information anyone can give me. My experience thus far has primarily been with hospital accounts and I am currently doing ER editing and standard. Thanks.
If work @ hospital is low SM
and they have their own transcriptionists, they are probably saving the work for their own people. In the priority list is making sure the hospital transcriptionists have work first, then the service. Probably if you are fairly new and their are other MTs working on your account at the service, they may have priority over you as far as work distribution goes.
working in a hospital
If you have the opportunity to work alongside another MT in a hospital, TAKE that opportunity. It will be much easier to learn with someone available to help you right when you need it instead of waiting on e-mails with corrections or using IM.
in-hospital positions
You may have already, but also check out indeed.com. They have sometimes in-house positions also.
So I'm still not sure ... but the MT is a hospital employee, sometimes they will "weight" m
dictators so you get a little extra credit for unusually bad dictators. But that may not be a common practice everywhere.
If you are an IC, or at least once you are experienced, you might be able to negotiate a better rate for a particular MD if nobody else can or will do his dictation.
But have faith - some dictators who sound just horrible the first few times will suddenly be a breeze once you "crack the code." You will probably do that much more quickly if you have an experienced MT helping you out, listening to the difficult spots.
Have you tried your local hospital or physicians?
I work for my local hospital and my supervisor hired "newbies" all the time. However, some clinics or hospitals require you to do a little onsite time before going home, at least mine did. I had to meet a certain productivity rate and QA rate before I was "turned loose".
I'm not sure if you are wanting to work for a national company or not from home. Since I have no experience with that someone else may be able to guide you in that direction. I just know around here, having tons of experience isn't really needed to be hired locally.
Only if this hospital will employ you when you're done. That
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The "affilation" with the local hospital may or may not....sm
...hurt you for future employment with other companies. Make sure you check out whether this school is reputable with other employers. I do not think the price is too high, if you consider it as an investment toward future income. Good luck! :)
It's hospital work. The basic four.
because the larger companies can handle the larger hospital accounts. Acute care just means hospital work as opposed to clinic, which would be physician offices, i.e., family practice, cardiology, nephrology, etc.
I had to start out in the office of a local hospital sm
for a year, then went home. I didn't want to go home to be honest, too many distractions and my twins were babies at the time, but they were sending everyone home. I really don't know what to tell anyone when I see these posts. There are lots of companies out there needing help and you'd think that if they are willing to send their work overseas to people that don't even speak English as a first language, then they would be willing to hire a new graduate. I would be a little more pushy, offer to do 30 days at a lower cent per line then have a review, something like that. Keep pushing, someone will see potential and take a chance on you. Honestly, these companies that don't hire new graduates I just don't get it. I work for a small local company that is always behind on their work and I always suggest they hire some new graduates from the two local schools, but they never do it, they just sit and wait for people to apply. Good luck!
To clarify, the dictation is likely recorded at a hospital...
and all the C-phone or Lanier does is access that system. Any hospital that uses a Dictaphone system can be accessed by a c-phone. Seems to me there are some electronic units on the market that can be either Lanier-compatible or C-phone compatible though you would have to ask around about that. Yes, their only purpose is to access dictation that is stored somewhere else...though you could use the C-phone as a regular phone, if you wanted :>) So there are two types of data format nowadays, .wav files (or .dss files) which the file can be transferred via internet and dictaphone/Lanier format which the file has to go through a phone line. And perhaps a few microcasettes are still kicking around. Any other old-timers have anything to add?
Our local hospital group has a few people in
radiology and pathology, but the rest has been outsourced for about 25 years. Hospitals are looking to cut costs where they can. There are still MTs who work for the hospital, just not in-house.
If you need a job you do what you have to do. If the US MTs don't take the jobs guess where they will go. I make more working at home per line than what any hospital pays that I have seen. I don't have insurance (because it is outragenously priced), but I do have some benefits. Also working at home you have fewer expenses, so it pretty much equals out.
Try hospital accounts with psych units
The only psych reports I've ever were through hospital accounts that had psychiatric units. Whether the psych report come through the ER, a consult or the unit, I find psych notes are always interesting. Good luck. I hope you find a great psychiatric account.
local hospital versus national
Hi,
I was with a national company and, like you, only did about 1200 lines per day at 7.5 cpl with 18 months in. I felt like I was never going to make the big bucks!
In May, I resigned from the national co. and went to work locally. After a short 1-month in-house training, I am working from home again. This hospital has some great normals to use and yesterday, I did 2200 lines!!!!!
Finding a good fit is the hardest part. Thankfully, I think I have found mine!!!!! Just keep in mind that there are other options out there. GOOD LUCK!!!!
since you already have a little experience, go apply at a hospital. They have benefits, mentoring,
etc. In a few years time, you'll be on your way to really cleaning up.
Well, all I can say is the Board of Labor Statistics should visit our hospital where
an entire radiology department went to VR with Dictaphone's platform and within 30 DAYS were dictating their own stuff without ANY MT EDITING. Including the high-speed dictator, the Pakistani dictator who doesn't even WANT to do it, and the lazy slurring dictator. I think in light of my own experience, the Labor Board is behind the times. The statement below is no longer true.
"In spite of the advances in this technology, the software has been slow to grasp and analyze the human voice and the English language, and the medical vernacular with all its diversity. As a result, there will continue to be a need for skilled medical transcriptionists to identify and appropriately edit the inevitable errors created by speech recognition systems, and to create a final document."
Mostly inpatient hospital dictation - H&P, DS, Consults, Ops, some include ER
and progress notes. Acute care is usually inpatient dictation from hospitals.
Hope this helps.
Local hospital pays hourly + production incentive
I was lucky enough to find a job that gives me the best of both worlds. A decent hourly base and then incentive pay on top of that.
GOOD LUCK!!!
you have to call the hospital/clinic line to connect with the dictation machine on their end
so you get a dial tone, that means it is working. Next you dial the number of the dictation system, and it says something like "welcome to bla-bla hospital. Please enter your user ID followed by the pound sign." Then you enter your ID and it starts giving you work in your queue or asks for job type or whatever.
Hospital work: Op notes, Discharges, Consultations, History and Physicals. nm
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