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I have a friend working in a hospital and she is looking for a company from home as an employee.

Posted By: js on 2008-08-25
In Reply to:

Would anyone care to recommend a good company?


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I work as a hospital employee at home
//
My last hospital did offer home-based employee positions. sm
They paid the employee positions by the hour with incentive and IC positions by the dictated minute.

It still was not as lucrative for me as my national position.

What works for one, however, may not work for others.

It is all about personal needs and opinions! Bully for you!!! :)

There's no comparison in being a hospital employee with benefits working rotating weekend and IC
Initially what made being an IC worth sacrificing benefits was having a flexible schedule. I have read the laws and have done research. An independent contractor is not obligated to a set schedule and this definitely includes holidays and weekends. So what if this is a 24/7 business? How many hospital workers do you know that work every weekend with no benefits?? Nada! I knew student nurses who chose 24 hours every weekend so they could go to school thru the week, but they were compensated quite well at 40 hours with full benefits.

A company may hire a lot of misinformed ICs for Sun-Th and Tues - Sat schedules, but by law they are pushing the envelope. ICs need to remind these companies what the legal definition of an IC is. I'm sure they remember that we don't receive benefits. They want it both ways. If I'm going to be an IC with the only benefit being flexibility, there's no way I'm giving that up!

A national I worked for, which I won't name (squid)tried that on us after taking over our company. They even used scare tactics. We still didn't get on every weekend. There was nothing they could do and they knew it.
Probably each company has their own rules, but when I was working in a hospital sm

generally, it was 7a-3p for first, 3p-11p for second, and 11p-7a for third, not including lunch breaks.


 


Hope this helps.


12 cpl editing; 18 cpl transcribing - not working for a company, but a hospital. nm
x
In the early days, MedQuist said working at home was a benefit, therefore at-home sm
employees did not receive as many benefits as those working in-house.  As I believe, it was something like at-home employees got 3 days off a year versus 10 days for the in-office employees -- WHAT?!!!  I told them it made no sense to me, since by working at home I was saving them money -- no need to provide office space, equipment, references, utilities, etc. -- yet I get shafted.  I was only part-time when they took over the previous company with their great policies, and I told them to kiss where I can't. 
Like I said - it depends who you work for. I work for a hospital at home - not a company. nm
x
Is my KS friend who also works for the hospital that is down there? (sm)
Wow!  Three days in a row now!  And this is my first week! ha!  It really helped me that you haven't had this problem for four months and also the director, I know I cant say names here, reasurred me too, and I completely trust her.  Well, you knew it was back up before me yesterday, so, let me know if you here anything! Thanks ----
Is your friend IC or employee?
I am thinking that may be part of the difference; company equipment versus providing your own computer...
Hospital at home now.

Please forgive me but I really need to vent.  I think  I am at my lowest now.  I have worked in local Hospital Radiology dept. for 10 years and was told I must work at home, or no job.  I must provide high speed internet and pay for it, I provide space in my home and desk and chair, must show proof that my homeowner's policy will cover their computer equipment, and must show picture of area in my home showing a door for HIPAA compliance, they say.  I get 9 cents per line, only what I type, one line each for headers and footers.  They won't tell me how they determine a line, they won't say if macros and normals are included. I went to personnel and they say my department head determines what and how she pays and they won't interfere.  I have a one year old mortgage so can't say no, and my pay is down to 8-9 dollars an hour, and that is before I deduct what I have to pay to work at home.  When I told my supervisor that the new program they put in is not Transcriptionist friendly, she said, no it's not, it is mainly designed for Voice Recognition.  I can't check my lines, they give me a paper with total lines for the last two weeks on it with my paycheck.  I feel abandoned and abused.  I called local labor board and they said if I was getting minimum wage and overtime pay as required by law, then I should be thankful I have a job!


I am about to default on my mortgage, and have three kids to worry about too.  Can it get any worse than this?


hospital vs at home

 


i would love to work at a hospital again.  i've been working from home for not quite 2 years now, and the ONLY advantages for me are the hours that i work and being able to be close by in case of a family emergency.  and of course, the price of gas. 


other than that, i now understand why all the people i know who tried working from home went back to their in office jobs.  the pay was so much better, you have contact with people who will answer your questions, most of the time you know your dictators, or at least have the same few, and if you have questions you can actually walk up to them or call them and ask them.  at home jobs just leave you clueless and payless, basically.   thats just my experience obviously.  lots of folks love working from home. 


working from home is awesome but working for DSG is not...
horrible dictators, sound quality is bad, no answers to emails and they run out of work consistently...that is just my experience though...
I have a friend who is working for them and she also
makes the higher amount.  I guess it depends on your test score and the account.  They do not pay for spaces but .09 without is almost the same as .075 with so at .10 or .11 you are doing good.   Good luck.
A friend of mine works for a hospital that has hired a director from one of the hospitals in
Pittsburgh and she wondered if he outsourced a lot of work or what he did when he goes into a new hospital.  They have all at home employees now.  I believe it was Allegheny Hospital.
Hospital versus At Home

The hospital I work for has finally said I could work at home.  I am wondering if there are experienced people that can tell me the cons of working at home.  I am looking forward to it but need to know if I need certain things and what kind of books to buy. 


I work at home as IC for hospital...
Stay put.  After 10 years of working at home for this hospital with no raise, I decided to venture out and try other MTSOs.  Good thing I kept my hospital job.   I usually do 200-250 lines an hour with the hospital but other MTSOs I was down to 120-150.  Mostly it is the different dictators and I can't stand leaving blanks so I would listen over and over to try to get them.  Then the styles of what this one wants and what that one wants also differs tremendously.  Stay where you are and maybe talk to the hospital about possibly doing at least some days at home. 
At-home hospital jobs
Does anyone know of any hospitals that let you work remotely as a full-time employee with benefits?  Thanks!!
At-home hospital jobs
I have 12+ years of experience in most medical fields.  I am in the Fort Collins area. 
I work for a hospital at home also. sm
Fortunately, our hospital has the team approach. I am an IC for the hospital and my workload is the same as if I was an in-house employee. I see the entire work queue just as they do and we work first in-first out and abide by TAT. Not all facilities treat you like a second-rate citizen. There are wonderful people and well run hospitals out there to work for at home. You just need to seek them out.


I'm moving to Hawaii!!! Here in PA our hospital sent the MTs home but
they must do 100 minutes a shift. They also have to go to meetings once a month at the hospital which they do not get paid for, then have to go home and make up that time. Pay isn't that great either.
Is there really any way I can go wrong to accept at-home hospital job?SM

My national seems to be losing ground as we have had DD taken away effective August 1 and already had had our 401k discontinued about 2 years ago.  I had said I would stay with the national until I actually did not have a job anymore.  However, there is an at-home hospital job open fairly nearly to where I live.  I'm making pretty good money with the national (although not nearly as much as about 3 years ago for various reasons), and so I'm wondering if it is pretty much always a good thing to go with a hospital job working at home if possible.  I know they provide all equipment but I'm not sure abut the line rate.  Minimum production is I think 1275 lines per day.  Not sure about incentive (I know this will be a big factor here, as well as line rate) but all overtime is approved and has been for several years.  I talked with the transcription manager earlier when the position first came open but we didn't talk specifics about pay.  I also am pretty sure I could get a job with a national any time also - I have 29 years of experience and am a CMT.  Any comments?


I went and got my own hospital account, at home, IC status. nm
x
Diskriter - Anyone go from their employee to hospital employee with them?
Thinking about giving up on being their employee and applying for a hospital employee position through them, they have one in PA right now that looks good.  How is it for scheduling?  Do you keep your line rate or get whatever the hospital pays? Who manages those accounts, is it the same PM and DR that are on the other ones?  I have DR and feel like she doesn't have a clue what she is doing and it is so annoying, but I just don't have the guts to let the company know she needs to step it up a notch because the transcriptionists are not happy under her.  Are QA the same people or through the hospital.  They have 1 QA that is constantly asking us questions on doctors and format, things we should be asking that QA person.  Annoying that new people move up to QA but people who've been there 2 or 3 years get treated like dirt and jumped account to account.
I have a friend who makes $48/hr working in NICU. nm
xx
I hope your friend has stopped working for her.
 
Anybody work at home for a Louisville area hospital?

Would you mind saying who and what it is like?


 


THE absolute best job for me was at home hospital empolyee, production. sm
If they only knew the money they would be saving cutting out the MTSOs and hiring direct with, like you said, one or two in house to supervise.

I predict (okay, I'm praying, or meditating, or universing, or using the Secret for) the day to come through some major MTSO/OFFSHORE FUMBLE that will cause this evolution in our favor.

Oh, antie Em...health insurance again!
A friend of mine very recently started working for them
I'll try to get ahold of her and see how it's going so far. She just started about a week or so ago.

If I hear anything, I'll let you know :-)
I was paid by the hour to work from home for a large hospital. nm
x
The only difference is we are at home and doc is hunted down by the hospital/client's staff
after we or our QA submit it with a blank.

It is a phone call away at times. This is not as anonymous as ADHI would like. Doctors these days need assistance by qualified MTs as it appears to me there are many with ADD. That is time consuming when dictating. And errors are deadly.
Thanks. I am used to working at home
and not having to deal with this.  This hospital has opened up a new surgery center which is its own entity and that took away a lot of our transcription plus a good majority of our radiology has gone to templates so in other words we are now very over staffed.  They pulled some of us in-house to work on other stuff when transcription gets low which it frequently does so when I work on other things I get paid an hourly rate.  I make more typing.  Some of the other transcriptionists refuse to do anything else but type and one of the supervisors made a comment that that is not the right attitude to have.  I have considered the nationals mainly due to my pay cut and gas prices and of course this coworker doesn't help, but am afraid of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.  I have read horror stories on this board.   Its hard to decide what to do.  There is little opportunity for transcriptionists around here.  The ones that have a job are holding on tight.  One of the local multispecialty clinics outsource to India  and another one of our big multispecialty clinics do voice recognition and templates. They still have transcriptionists but let a lot of them go.  I live in a remote area also and never thought I would have to worry about India, templates, VR since big city people claims we are soo far behind but it has happened.  Oh, well thanks for letting me vent.  I feel like I did this on the wrong board though, probably should have been on the main board.  Sorry.   
Working at home
If you compare working at home to having to get up and go into an office somewhere, rain or shine, that is a big plus. The only drawback to this profession is the declining line rate. Guess thats really up to the MT I guess. They will pay what you are willing to take. Just have to keep shopping around until you get what you want. Much better alternative than getting all nasty about the company you work for, there are plenty more out there, and they all pay different.
working at home
I work for a local hospital that has been promising us to go home for 7+ years and still be employees of the hospital.  We have Dictaphone and recently got speech.  We are in the learning phase.  We were told they (hospital) cannot decide if we will use their equipment or your own equipment.  I and another co-worker also work for a service.  That threw up a red flag for us both.  Our own equipment - independent, no benefits or possibly every thing outsourced and then possibly lose the job.  We both figure with the speech recognition coming and possibly having to use our own equipment, it would be easier for a service to take over.  Any thoughts to that?
This is why I like working at home - ALONE. nm
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Why are you working from home?

If it is so expensive, why are you doing it?   Some people will complain that the sky is blue.  No wonder you can't make any money with that poor wittle me attitude.   Boooo hooooo!


I'm an employee and can take home office deductions. You
have to have a $$ amount equal to a certain percentage of your income to be able to claim expenses if you are not an IC.  I don't claim home office because it only made about a $50 difference in my report and I'd rather not claim it than worry about an audit since my office isn't 100% office use, my internet service isn't 100% work related, etc.   HR Block does my taxes too. 
Ahhhh! Okay...work as an employee at home with
very good work habits. I have a great schedule and very rarely interrupted. I use the expansions in Word and do have many. I've been doing this for 10 years and leave few blanks but I do think I spend too much time on referencing. Maybe I just don't type fast enough but my hands sure do seem to fly on my keyboard! I just thought that maybe there was a secret I did not know about how to format expansions or something on that line. Thanks so much for responding:)
You all have a point. I forget how this at-home thing works. I used to work in-house at a hospital.
and... we got paid extra for working holidays and even weekends and evenings. I am new to this at-home thing and it's pretty disappointing. I think I'm back to the hospital..
Happy working at home

I love working at home for a hospital.  I don't have to share work station, books, equipment with anyone.  You have to teach family and friends that you are really and truly working, and to leave you alone during work hours.  It's easy to allow intrusions but set rules from the start. 


I had to work in the hospital med rec/MT department for a month and while I enjoyed the people, I hated being there in a windowless dingy room.  At home, you create your own work environment.  My two coworkers at home are two cats who keep me company.  Good luck!


Exactly! When I first started working at home
with only 2 years clinic experience (no acute care at all), I was offered .075 cpl. Six years later, with that much in acute care experience and with the very same company, I was offered .0725. Something is just so wrong with this picture!
working from home question

I have been working acute care hospital, clinics, and doctor's offices for the past 7 years.  All done from the same hospital, which handles it all.  My favorite thing to type is op notes, but can and do everything. 


I would like to work from home, but live in the wilderness with no possiblity of high speed except satellite or dial up.  I have heard that dial up is impossible to make any money. 

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to use dial up and make good money and how good is satellite? 


What is the best way to go about finding a good work from home job?


Is it safe to put a resume on the internet?


Any other suggestions?


 


Working at home is very important to me
But keep in mind we HAVE BEEN working at home in this industry and making GOOD money for years now. It is only recently that this downslide has occurred. It is as much a benefit to the employer as it is to the employee to work at home. Think about all the money they save in office space and utilities and more and more of them do not supply equipment anymore. They want us to keep thinking the way your post reads and forget that we benefit them by working at home too. The working at home is a wash when it comes to which side benefits so we need not even go there
Interruptions working at home
You have to be very stern with everyone, especially family.

I told mine long ago, This is my room. I work in here. When the door is shut I am invisible to you because why? I AM WORKING. hehehee.

I don't answer the phone. Let them leave a message. If it is too tempting to stop and answer it, unplug it.

Put a note on your door for ding dongers - Day Sleeper. No Solicitors. That keeps them away.

The problem is MTs because we work at home have this wonderful life of freedom. Sure. It means that we can pick up everyone else's slack, or have them angry at us because we don't do it. Or we end up doing for everyone and working while those 8 to 5 folks are sleeping to make up for what we could not get done during the day. Or for those who call and ask you to pick up their kid from school, or take grandma to the doctor/pharmacy - call them once at work and ask them to do the same for you. They think it's ridiculous. That's when you can point out to them how untrue that is.

My favorite expression when I am interrupted is, OH SURE! I CAN DO IT, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!

It makes them feel bad and away they go with their interruptions.

Lasty, if you have a headset on when folks try to talk to you, pretend you can't hear them. :) I heard one of my nephews tell the other one who was trying to interrupt me, Don't bother, she can't hear you she has that head thingy on. hahaha.
I love working at home...

I agree that there are those out there that think being an at-home MT is a piece of cake and anyone can do it and they are sorely mistaken...I have an 8-1/2 year old and a 14 month old and I take great pride knowing that I am able to do my job and take care of my children....I have never used my children as an excuse not to get work done and I don't plan on it...my job as an MT is very important and I do it to the best of my ability....I do wish people would take more pride in their work but we don't all have the same work ethics unfortunately...


HOW IS WORKING HOME A BENEFIT???--sm

Like Judge Judy said in her books, Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.  Who benefits the most (financially) from MTs working at home?  Who doesn't have to provide an office?  Who doesn't have to provide a PC (except for a fee)?  Who doesn't have to pay the electric bill to use this equipment?  Who doesn't have to pay the MT's phone bill?  Who demands the MT have high-speed cable internet connection?  Maybe your definition of benefit is different from the rest of the working world, but I/we count a benefit as something we can take to the bank, i.e., insurance, PTO, etc. (FT only, yet). 


Yes ago I was working for a home health
care agency and they tried to initiate EMR.  This was 15 years ago and I didn't know what EMR was at the time.  It was a no go.   Recently had an appointment for my son with a specialist we saw for the first time.  He was so busy filling in the blanks, that he barely even looked at my son and sort of having a limb missing or having green skin I don't think the doctor would have noticed any issues.   If they want EMR I don't have an issue with that, but why not just have an MT transcribed document uploaded into a databank?
I hear ya! When I first started working at home...sm
I felt pressured to the max, but what I finally did was to put my bills in date-due order and placed them where I could see them at all times while working. It sounds silly, but it caused me to discipline myself like I had never done before - and after awhile, it became habit to work as if I were in house and actually helped me to increase my income! It is really nice not to deal with the office politics and a supervisor at the next desk, too! Good luck to you!
I make more working at home that I ever did on site
the most I made as an MT on site was 8 bucks an hour.
I figure working from home is worth at LEAST sm
an extra $5/hr for me right now (maybe more). Had offers to work in-house. Ability to work from home is the ONLY reason to do MT. Absolutely no point in leaving the house to do MT work.
Working from home/office work

I feel I need to speak up. I understand that the industry is going backwards in pay and for all of the more experienced MT's this is really degrading from what I hear from some. I understand and I would probably feel the same way. This is a craft. Not everyone can do what we do. It is a very hard craft. We should be paid what we are worth. There is no doubt about that but I also know how it works in an office in this industry. Being in an office is awful! I did it for 15 years. I worked at 2 different companies and both took advantage of the hard worker I was. I had MULTIPLE jobs and was not compensated for it. When I hear MT's complain about how bad they have it I want to scream. Yes, the pay is an issue. Yes, the belittling emails from managers is ridiculous. I completely agree and all of those managers should be let go but you do not know how awful it is to be in an office setting dealing with those belittling managers.


Trust me everyone in the company you work for or wherever that is not a VP or CEO is going through hell on a daily basis and not getting paid for it. You are making a lot more money for the time you put in than the people working in the office mostly. The people in the office are probably working on salary. When you figure the hours they work and the amount they are paid that are probably making about $5.00 an hour or less. They also have to work nights/weekends etc. from home. They also are having to listen to all of the MT's daily when they have a problem, they call in giving a excuse as to why they cannot come to work and trying to scramble to get the shift filled when the MT is really not sick as she said, problems dealing with the clients and their complaints about the work or turn times, problems with MT's and editors fighting via IM or email, problems with the Sales guys telling potential clients...oh yeah, we can do that...when we CANNOT.


I could go on and on. Being in an office is a lot more work than you would think. I would be greatful for what you have. I am not bitter at what I have gone through in an office setting. It got me to where I am today. I just want to let you know it is not easy working in an office and it is a lot harder than being an MT when you can type and then stop for the day and not have to answer to others and deal with their issues. Being an MT is a craft and it is hard...just be thankful!


Have a HAPPY HOLIDAY! Be joyous! Feel Blessed!


What is your problem with moms working from home?
It sounds like you have some kind of bias against moms working from home! What is wrong with that? Just because an MT is a mom working from home does not automatically qualify her as someone who puts out crappy work. I am sure there are tons of moms on this board who put out quality work. I put out quality work now and once my baby comes I will still put out quality work. Quit bashing moms working from home.