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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I just recently actively discouraged a person

Posted By: MJ on 2009-09-09
In Reply to: Just wondering - fatcat

It was a former classmate, and she sent me an e-mail via another venue and said she heard I was a transcriptionist, and did I have any recommendations.

I told her I would not recommend my dog getting into this field. I described stagnation in wages, off-shoring, voice recognition, point-and-click medical records, and the demand for higher production at the same or reduced wages.

Unfortunately she had already made the decision to go into MT, citing that she just didn't think ASR was catching on that fast. Sigh.

The irony is, I have never seen an industry so hell-bent on putting itself out of business. Transcription companies merge, acquire, and buy out other businesses, only to turn around and either lose the clients or terminate contracts because they will not be profitable. Then, they make their MTs so miserable that many quit yet claim they cannot find qualified MTs. They use voice recognition and point-and-click systems, yet a human being is still required to proof through reports and make sure they get where they want to go. However, said human is expected to do that job at one-half to one-third of their original pay rate. Add to that the fact that said companies then resort to off-shoring in their claim of being unable to find competent work state side, and it's any wonder that there are functioning U.S.-based transcription companies at all!

A good friend called all of this cognitive dissonance. The state where your brain cannot quite reconcile two opposing situations regarding one topic. Most of us, through our transcription years have been told that we are to be fast yet accurate, to care about the quality of what we churn out, that patient safety and care are of utmost concern, and finally that we are generating a document for which both we and the physician can be held legally accountable. Now, with the advent of voice recognition and off-shoring, crap transcription that is inaccurate and possibly dangerous is okay so long as it is cheap. That's where the cognitive dissonance enters: It's okay to have sloppy work so long as it is cheap? My brain just can't handle that.

To answer your questions: I have been doing this 20+ years. I make less than I did even 10 years ago. I have zero respect for this profession, and I would not advise anyone to get into it.


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discouraged, also
I have been with the company for 5+ years. I feel I am less valuable today than I was yesterday. My OA dropped to 93% and no pay for No-work down time, plus a $4 per hour drop in base scale. Very upset with this. There must have been somebody who never sit down to type that came up with the new policies. I have been searching for other companies that offer close to the same benefit package. The only thing I will lose my 3 weeks paid vaca. I am very discussed.
So discouraged

Are there no decent paying part-time, IC jobs available anymore?  I have over 25 years experience (acute care, clinic, psych, general).  I am continually sending resumes and either receive no response whatsoever (even with follow up emails and phone calls) or the pay is a totally ridiculous for a seasoned transcriptionist/editor.  Are we expected to give away our skills? Not to mention, starting with a company, spending countless hours training, going through the QA process and then to be told we have no work.  They overstaff and then expect the MTs not to be upset or move on to another company when there is no work?  What is going on with this profession?  I realize there is a tremendous amount of outsourcing, but there are posts every day which say they do not outsource.  What's up?  Am I asking too much?  Am I making sense?  I'm so frustrated, I don't know what to do anymore.  MTSO's, I beg of you, give us a chance to prove ourselves (even if we are part-time).  When you have experienced, dedicated, loyal MTs.....treat them well, pay them well and you will not encounter half the problems you do.  I know I will be flamed for this but sorry, I just needed to vent!    So, flame away!  I'm a big girl, I can take it!


Discouraged
And I'll bet they didn't even give you a kiss with it, either.
I became a little discouraged with my company, MQ, when...
I made a chart and compared what I make with ASR 5 cpl to regular dictation, 8 cents. It adds up to 100s per pay period. That is a little discouraging when you have a family and children to feed, buy clothing and try to keep up with the bills. With 11 years of experience, I have not received a raise since starting at MQ in 2003. As much as I didn't want to believe anything I read on the board about them, I have decided to face reality, and I now know it's all true. It's not people whining or complaining for no reason at all.
Newish at Webmedx and very discouraged

I am struggling to get those 35 hours in. It just feels almost impossible to get 7-8 hours of only typing in every day. If I ease up a bit and don't clock out for everything that's not strictly transcribing, then my lph goes to pot. I don't feel like I can win!

Are all of you actually getting those 35 hours?

The other thing that's killing me is I'm on multiple accounts. I do everything. I can't seem to get above 130-150 lph here. And being on several accounts I have still run out of work every week that I've worked.

I'm very discouraged with Webmedx. Can you tell me how to get those 35 hours in? I'm literally working ALL day. I don't leave the house. My day is spent clocking in and out. I start work in the morning and have to spread it over the day because it's so tedious with all of these accounts, lousy dictators, and work that runs out.

Please, any advice from current Webmedx employees, on how to get those hours in, and anything else would be HUGELY appreciated.


Actively looking!
Everyone I know from the former Warminster office who works at home is actively looking for either a full-time replacement for MQ or, at the very least, a supplemental part-time job.

Some companies that have been mentioned by my friends are: First Choice Medical, Medware (FT), MDI, and DSG. Hope that helps.
Me too, now actively looking for another job NM
NM
Yup, they actively post that they
Please do not hire on with them.
Yes, it's true. I am actively looking for another job.
xxx
I'm actively searching......
TT used to be one of the best companies to work for, not true any longer. They seem to be all about making money for themselves. No more yearly bonuses, no matching 401K, nothing for MT week but thanks from lower management. There are companies out there that pay 70% of your line rate for speech, that's reasonable. This whole thing is going to backfire on them in the end. I've had several interviews but haven't made a final decision yet. It's not that I want to find a company that doesn't do VR, in reality they all will eventually. I want to find a company that realizes their MTs put bread on the table for managment, sadly that is no longer TransTech.
Actively seeking another job
in the meantime. :)
They are not actively hiring right now. One of my ex-coworkers had me ask sm
and I was told that they are not hiring right now but will be in a few weeks for some new accounts. They want to make sure that everyone has an account that they are happy with before taking on additional transcriptionists. Yet another reason I love working for Keystrokes: I am appreciated and not treated as a number.
Because they actively OFFSHORE and sell American MTs down the river?
That's ALL the reason I need NOT to give them a chance.

Glad it's okay for you, it's an individual thing, apparently, but MY skills and my patriotism are NOT FOR SALE.

AT ANY PRICE.

Thanks for your post.
I think it is one person. I had a few print outs from a few weeks ago and this person even capital
I have had a positive one. I have been with Keystrokes for 3 months and am very happy.

I printed them to show my manager but she told me that there are few bitter people out there and no one can do anything about them. My manager said that everyone can tell that it is the same few over and over again, for Keystrokes and a few other companies as well. Time to move on Ms. Anon. I cannot think why a company would go through the trouble of getting IDs and getting you installed just to ignore you after that. Doesn't make sense, does it? Are you sure that't the whole truth? You keep saying truth but it sounds fishy.
Exactly what I'm talking about RUDE! You are a very unhappy person. A happy person does not
respond in such a way!  This is the reason SS has such a bad name.
I am not a hateful person but that person screamed at me for 45 minutes. sm
She said all transcriptionists are idiots.
Has been down a lot recently, but..
only for very short periods at a time, not sure if they're doing upgrades or what.  Could also be weather-related with the terrible tornadoes this week in parts of the country.  You just have to be patient and adjust your schedule slightly when it happens. I love the BeyondTxt platform, it's the easiest I've worked on.  IMO, MDI-FL is a very good company, and I can't say that about many out there these days, so was worth it for me.
recently went to an HSA
and went IC.
Actually some of us are ICs. Recently ...
MDI was only hiring ICs with SE status after so many days or months. So there are some ICs that were with MDI.

In my meeting CB said that Transcend had IC, SE and employee and the usual case by case. I think she wrongfully mislead the person who asked this question because that was the first I had heard of their being SE status at Transcend.
I have not had issues until recently and
with you I would; however, I don't! FYI, I am dealing with my issues and if they are not resolved to my satisfaction, I will leave. Thanks for your concern and have a great day! DVW
Recently started too
Flexible schedule but you need to decide what your hours are and commit to them. Benefits granted at 32 hours. Plenty of work. Really good, patient and supportive people. Training with guaranteed pay. Smooth, easy and fast startup. Good, high-tech platform.
There was recently a big campaign on
to try to get MLS who were smart enough to quit Transcend before, to come back to Transcend because of all the recent *improvements* the company claimed they made.  I wonder how many of those did come back and how many are happy that they came back did versus how many have quit again or are ready to quit again.
Hired recently for 0.825 cpl.
:)
Duh..I until recently was an Ochsner MT and still

geez... get your facts straight


I see, yea, happened again recently with someone in QA and
today with a wonderful coordinator, seems very unstable.  I just don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire.
Well, I started recently

and I'm only getting 8.5 c.  I'm FT, acute care and do the weekend.  And I have 18 years experience with acute care.  That totally sucks. I'm so depressed now. I wish I would have never read this whole thread. 


Have been postson it recently. I know you have to
train in house for a week or two - I believe two? Which was totally not part of my game plan anymore! Yuck!
As recently as 2 months ago, they are SM
still selling you that foot pedal (that you pay full purchase price for and then in the contract it says you must return WHAT YOU PAID FOR when you leave them) and they have the same pay scale they did 3-4 years ago.  They still tend to prey mostly on new-ish transcriptionists who don't know any better.  Other than the person recruiting, nothing has changed about Medscribe in Jacksonville, FL.
Yes it has happened recently, and sm
people have been posting about them paying late & shorting checks for 2 years now. How they are still getting away with this?
We hav recently answered these
Look on page 2,3,4,5 etc...
Try Breitner out of N.Y.- ran ad recently
xx
Took that test recently
and it did not require a foot pedal.  The test I took was pretty much multiple choice and spelling corrections.   But yours might be set up differently. 
There was talk about them recently, but again (sm)
They are notoriously bad about paying and have been for years. They misrepresent whether they pay for spaces or not, and they pay when they feel like it.  I waited months for payment back when I worked for them a few years ago.
Started recently

Lots of work.  Very nice people to work for! Platform is easy to work on.


I just recently left
They changed accounts on me all the time - they overhire and then we ended up with no work. 
What do you mean "until very recently"?
They haven't done ANYTHING to prevent it!!!!!! In fact, they encourage it!!!!!!!!!
I do too, and they helped me recently
when I had a low-virtual memory problem and I wasn't savvy enough to know what to do. Busy as they are, they didn't make me feel stupid for needing help with it.
Who is the too? I've seen ads recently for JLG. They
do disappear for a while and then pop up again.  For a while they had recruiters, maybe they hired from the posted resumes, maybe the hired locally. 
I worked there very recently
I worked for Precyse for 6 months. In the beginning, workflow was great. I don't know what happened between then and now, but I was lucky to get 50 hours for a 2-week pay period. When work is low, you usually can't work on your secondary because their work is low also and they don't want to take away from the primary MTs. That leaves no room open to make up time. Every pay period, I had to use whatever was in my PTO account for the missing money.

I actually had 4 different accounts I was doing at one time to keep busy, so I should have been considered on the SWAT team as far as that goes...lol.

It is a very nice company with wonderful people, but my main issue is feeding my kids and helping my husband with the bills, so I took my 10 years' experience elsewhere and am very, very happy.
Recently purchased . . .
They were also recently purchased by Nuance/Dictaphone. Strangely enough, while some of the accounts are with eScription, Nuance is the company that created Dragon Naturally Speaking so I wonder if there will be some sort of marriage along those lines in the future as well.
How long ago was that, recently?NM
nm
I just recently interviewed with them.
This was for acute care: Base pay was 8 cpl, 65 character line with spaces, goes up to 8.75 for 1600+ lines a day. There's a $1000 sign on bonus, paid at $100 per paycheck. You have to be there a year before you get any vacation time, which is 2 weeks. No holiday pay.
If you just did this fairly recently..
Please be patient. Management is currently moving into a new office and it could be disrupting the phones/e-mails. I would give it a few more days. I work for them typing radiology and absolutely love it!
Just started recently as an IC (sm)
I recently took an IC position and needless to say am very, very impressed with the way they operate.  The training was excellent, communication with them has been excellent.  If an IC, you send your availability and it can change from week to week.  Pay is comparable to other companies out there.  They seem to be a very straightforward and honest company.
I recently started a new job and was getting (sm)
almost exclusively consults. I do enjoy them, OPs are my first love though. I just asked them if OPs could be included in my pooling and they did. I also get other work types. Only fair that we all share. I wouldn't appreciate you walking into this company and taking all the OPs off the top.

I know there are some people who don't like OPs or have had so little experience they aren't very quick at them. If that is the case and they want to skip them (with the companies permission) GREAT. More for the rest of us.

Bottom line is, you type what they need and when they need it or they may not need you anymore. Unless you had an agreement before hiring, this is only fair.
Sorry I don't know about recently. Just what I've
s
I just recently accepted...
A position with them.  Did you interview with them, and ask these questions?  It is supposed to be a good company to work for.  Their QA is supposed to be good; I heard their strict, but you will learn things quick.  There line count is a daily 1200.  As far as the hours worked, they expect you to work your full shift; this is very important to them; they strive on dependability and quality.  You can E-mail if you wish.
Worked there recently, not know.
People are very nice, though disorganized.  Frequently having to resend work.  Pay average to maybe a little better than average.  Chartscript platform.  Download work via DVI and then can work off-line so for now dial-up okay.  QA  very tough, not rude, just sticklers.  I felt like I would never get it right and it wasn't so much I was wrong, just wasn't the way they wanted it so some adjustment there. 
I have only recently heard of them
A couple of friends started working there and it sounds like a good place. They are on escription platform on an account in Oregon at the moment. They are allowed to cherry pick the reports they want to do. Pay is reasonable for escription.

If my current job does not pan out, I am leaning heavily to checking out employement at Proveros.
Recently hired (sm)
They were slow with me too, but I just kept calling every day and letting them know I had to work - Becky is the best person - She will always answer your emails and get things done. she did for me! They are great but you have to be proactive and it works! Good Luck! I'm completely content.....Hope this helps!!
Nuance just recently
purchased Focus Infomatics.  They also purchased Dictaphone a while back.