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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Not staying back in the dark ages

Posted By: l man's on 2009-05-23
In Reply to: no you haven't done it longer than I have sm - just wondering

VR is definitely the thing of the future and I am already there, which most of the others on here, like it or not, will be before long. I can just see it now, the ones going kicking and screaming, or like the 1 about a month ago, jumped ship because of VR, got another job and OMG, the new job immediately went to VR. I am keeping up with the latest technology, I will welcome others as they have to switch.


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"Holiday" pay went out with the dark ages even in hospitals.
Most places, except for businesses who close on what they elect to call paid holidays or weekends, have gone to a leave bank, where all leave is put into a large pool and you can draw on it as you wish. This pool includes sick leave, holidays, and vacation time. this eliminates problems with those who feel legal holidays should be other than the standard Christian holidays that most of us celebrate.

Your best bet is to request the day off as PTO and get over the feeling that you are entitled to be off every holiday. If you want every weekend and every holiday off, then go to work for a private doctor, although most of the doctors where I live now are open on Saturday.
She is stuck in the stone ages and wants to
send everybody to India who prefers the internet to books.
In the dark
Ask very specific, not general questions that can be answered vaguely like last time. Pay close attention to the answers. Are they really addressing your concerns or do you hear corporate-speak? Above all, put YOURSELF first. Be proactive.
you are ignorant and stuck in the Middle Ages...
VR is not always bad, the bad is that the pay is much, much too low. It should pay the same as straight.
Why would a co. stay in the dark
ages of C-phones and land-lines - when the internet is in full-swing.  Even for one account - that makes no sense to me, but that's just me.  As a Transcriptionist - I don't remember the last time I used a C-phone - and I don't care to use one again - things are so much better with the internet formats. 
Dark TT Shadows (NM)
x
I'm on salary and looking to leave for ages, guess there is no perfect job.
.
That's the most dehumanizing thing I've heard in ages
Okay, I don't have any intention to going to Transcend even BEFORE I read this piece of information. I immediately bailed and am happily already working somewhere else with another PT lined up I start Monday 'just in case' (the old eggs/basket theory here).

But THIS???

That is dehumanizing, demoralizing, and REPUGNANT behavior on the part of ANY employer. I am sick to my stomach reading that, OP.

Vile does not even begin to describe the attitude of ANY company that would have such an attitude toward an employee having a family problem.

I WILL give this to MDI-MD, and I do not believe my sister MTs will argue. Those people were WONDERFUL when an emergency arose and we were called away, whether it was for a few hour or a few days. Never a word, except words of encouragement and to say they hoped things worked out well and to keep them posted. I, to this day, believe they honestly did have compassion in this regard.

But THAT is what those staying have to look forward at Transcend?

I am SO grateful I immediately jumped ship. I could never work for an organization that treated people that way.

I'm so sorry for your loss and for the extra unnecessary and INEXCUSABLE stress you were put through during your time of need.
In the dark, naive, have blinders on. ER is going down fast. nm
no msg.
Personally, I'd rather be left in the dark than to be bugged to death every
//
I assume some of you see the dark cloud in every silver lining, eh? nm
.
There's a lot more staying than going,
and plenty that have come back after finding the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence after all. They are good to me! and i make more $ than ever elsewhere.
Why are you staying?
You obviously hate it. You are spewing venom everywhere. So why are you still there?
I'm Staying at TT. (sm)

I went into this job KNOWING I was not getting paid for headers and footers. I don't know any company that does pay for them, so it's no big deal to me.


I am also disappointed in the insurance hikes and am waiting to hear something, BUT the costs are still LOWER than the insurance I have now and with very low deductibles. I would only be saving $100 a month by going with TT's insurance as it stands now, but a $500 deductible is way better than $2000 we have now.


BTW, I also must foot the bill for this insurance. I am not sole provider for my family but pretty close to it, at least for 6 months out of the year. I don't think the grass is greener anywhere else and I'm staying.


Too many MTs look for the perfect job. There is no such animal. So, all you guys that are leaving just because of the above 2 reasons, go right ahead. It just means more work and $$ for me, and I appreciate it.


Yup, I am staying put
at TT! 
I'm staying...sm
I've decided to stick it out.  I know they said we would keep our same accounts, but I also know that those words are just that, words, and aren't guaranteed.  I will stay for now, but am keeping my options open just in case they decide to switch me to a crappy account where I cannot understand a single doc.  I just got used to these docs and would like to stay with them (and, they aren't the greatest, but at least I'm used to how they dictate and can understand them now).
Why I am staying with MDI
I have one of those high-ESL dial-up accounts, too. When I first started, I did not think I would ever round the learning curve, but I did and now can easily do more than 1200 lines per day. Be patient with yourself. Bayscribe is a wonderful platform that is elegant in its simplicity and is easy to use. The liaisons are really wonderful people and the QA are intelligent and kind people. Tech support is great, though I seldom need them. I have been in this business for many years (was an MTSO for a while and handled huge hospitals for the State of California before the state went belly-up) and I can honestly say I have never worked for a company that has the integrity and goodness MDI does. Hang in there! I am betting it will get better for you. Again, be patient with yourself. MDI is extremely picky about whom they hire and if you have made it onto the team, you doubtless have the right stuff.
I would recommend staying away from
That is all they do, lie and run out of work! Have you tried Keystrokes? I think they might be hiring. I do not know much about them but it might be something to consider.
" plan on staying right where I am and see it through the end"
Well, you do have staying power.  
Staying at home
Hi: Our children are grown and gone and I still choose to stay at home. I like the flexibility that I have working as an IC. I like making as much or as little as I would like to. I like being off when my husband is so that we can spend time together, go see our children, travel. I even take my laptop with me when going to see kids so that I can work if I am scheduled. I could not do that working in an office environment. I agree with the other poster. You take the good with the bad. You pick your battles. Also, after working at home for so long, I'm not sure I'm a candidate for working in an office environment! That would mean wearing a bra every day! Hope you find the answers you are looking for.
Well we aren't staying
a very large portion of the MQ staff is leaving, the majority of which as I can guestimate have been with MQ for many, many years, made them what they are. I myself have 12 years in with MQ and am done in 3 weeks.  Don't get snotty with us...
The reason for staying
The reason I continued to work for D&L was not because I was making it rich, they never paid any of us well after years of working for them, most of us were still at starting wages of .06 cents a line.  I worked for them because along with about 12+ girls we were trained and brought into them through an individual, knowing nothing else.  When asked for references, D&L refused to give them, we were stuck and unable to move on because of no records of our work history.  I did not work for the Big Account that they lost and nor did most of the girls that I know, but they are still not getting paid and desperate to move on.  Most of us live out in the country area and do not have access to big city accounts.  We just have had a difficult time moving on.  That is why we put up with the constant cons of where our checks were.  D&L is in big trouble and for anyone that is out there still working for them, keep all of your work records and when applying for jobs, just tell them the truth.  Hopefully, some of these companies will give us a chance.  If you have a lot of work to do for D&L and they still have not paid you, GET OUT NOW.  File your complaint with State Labor board, filing with check fraud will only work if you have a bad check.  They have been making up all insufficient funds checks because they know that is a criminal offence.  They keep changing banks, and that is concerning.  Good LUCK to all of you, this has really been a tough few weeks for all of us.
I NEVER said I was staying or would never leave -
but my wanting to pursue other companies has nothing to do with the holiday pay policy (since I'm PT, I don't even qualify). I'm just saying, if you want to log on, get your work done, and get a steady paycheck, OSi can be that place for you - it has been for me for the past 2 years.
Vonage residential - staying away from anything
x
Is there really an advantage to staying local? Most

It doesn't seem there's any more guarantee of stable work from local MTSOs than the national ones.


If you do want to stay local but work at home, also try Southern Transcription Services, located in Taylorsville, I think.  They have a good reputation. Google them for their web site. 


right; and I did not quit my old job, ended up staying with my old job.
nm
And how would you like staying at the office 10, 12, 14 or more hours trying to get in 8!!
I for one have probably vented enough about this subject, which is the very reason I got laid off from my previous job (because I was challenging this treatment).  I do not think it is legal, but when I asked to have a third party brought in on the matter I was laid off.  It is awful to make an MT feel like THEY are not doing their job if they are not meeting minimum requirements when it is the company who is causing it in the first place due to mismanagement.  And FYI to you management people out there, we do have a separate life besides sitting in front of the computer for hours on end.  Just because we are at home does not mean we are necessarily available after our **shift.** How would you like to have to go back to your office night after night after your workday?
Saw on paper that pay was only 6 - 8.5 cpl. Is that what you guys will be starting at, or staying
m
The Ops could be staying in-house with the rest of the work being done by MW. nm
s
Last week we were staying caught up with TAT so I guess
you could consider it a slow week, this week we are out of TAT again, so things are back to normal. 
Seems like the good ones are staying a long time
I know many who have been there 2, 3, and some 4 years. Volumes are up right now, and we've had several new accounts go live in the last couple of months as well.
Yes. I think a lot of my problem is staying focused. It's hard.(sm)
Starting tomorrow morning, I am going to really try to keep my behind in my chair and stay off these boards.  I could improve my counts a lot too, I'm sure.
Same theme, staying at home with the kids
This is just the most idiotic thing to write. I joined up with this profession before mothers only went into it so they could wear PJs and stay at home with Jr. That is a sorry reason to go into this job in the first place. I don’t find my job grueling, never have. Apparently you must be in the wrong place because your spouting off is wrongly placed. Discrimination against women and children. Please spare me from this. I am going to throw up in a minute.
LOL!! DVD player for staying more than one week!!!GOOD Grief!!!
Must be really awful!!!
This is the thing that concerns me about this field. Pay is staying the same not increasing!

Every OTHER medical field, nursing, therapists, techs, etc. are all experiencing the yearly salaries going up.  Transcription compensation is not increasing. 


While they may increase the RATES the ability to make the more money is not there because of VR, taking away the header allowances, more difficult accounts, more ESLs, stricter QA, etc., etc. slow platforms that require information inserted that you don't get paid for and anything else that lowers your salary.  If hospitals are looking to slash their transcription budget, they are going to pass that onto the service and the service will pass that onto to the employee. 


I know transcriptionists that were making 45-50K in 1987 working 40 hours and now they are making 35K and often times working more than 40 hours to make that lower amount.  Or I hear people say I can make the same money but I must work much harder and longer hours.  I think wow...you have to work harder and longer to make what you made in the 1980s. 


Other occupations have gotten consistent raises without the need for more hours and I don't think employees would put with up it.  Imagine a well qualified R.N. being offered a 1987 salary?  The hospital would have a hard time hiring nurses.  But the transcription service environment is so competative if they can offer the work cheaper and cheaper while guaranting accuracy they will get that contract.  So in order to stay in business they have to find a way to pay the Transcriptionist the least amount of money to see their profits which they need to stay in business. 


Of course if transcription is all you know and you don't to work in an office or get a job at Starbucks you keep going and accept the pay because we really have no control.  You have to work with what they offer you. 


9 months and it is not worth staying a year to get the BIG .002 cent raise.
Working for OSi will burn you out quick!
I DID give my notice, but got talked into staying "until the new accounts came on." nm
nm
Did you ever consider staying with them part time? I dont know if I should leave altogether or not.
And other days I just want to throw in the towel totally. Ugggg.. this MT business!
I worked in QA for Transcending back in 2000-2001. They were paying hourly back then. SM

The accounts weren't too horribly bad.  The reason I ended up leaving was because slowly but surely they began to inch closer and closer to paying QA by production.  When I first started, the quota was something like 30 reports a day.   We simply had to make sure that we QA'd all reports that were close to being out of TAT first and then do the rest.  Then, my supervisor left and they hired a new one who immediately called a big teleconference meeting and said we had to up production to 60 reports a day.  Then, they started counting lines.  Which was fine because they were still paying hourly.


Next, there was an MT who used VR software because she was blind - yes blind.  Again, when I first started, I was told we had to edit her entire reports because she used the VR software and we had to make sure that everything was correct and made sense.  Then, we are told only check the blanks.  I wasn't comfortable with that and I continued to completely proof every word.  Then I was called on the carpet not because I wasn't meeting the production quota, but because I was ONLY meeting the production quota.  I told them I was proofing all of the MT's work that used VR, I was told that no one ever told me to proof every word of the VR reports and that I needed to fill in blanks and move on.  When I voiced my concerns, I was told that was my job, to fill in blanks and I should move on and strive to product above the standards.  Next thing you know, rumors abounded about changing the QA staff to being paid on production.  So I left. 


There just seemed to me to be too little concern for quality and more emphasis on quantity and I just didn't want to be part of company who would take money out of my pocket just to line their own and that's what they were doing by putting QA on production.  I also am not comfortable with the job of QA being thought of as a blank filler.  There is much more to the QA profession than just simply filling in blanks. 


I don't know if Transcend ever did start paying QA by production, but I could see that the idea was being floated there.  Maybe there was a enough protest that they didn't change from hourly. 


Good luck to you!


Phoenix Medcom- Another apply a few months back, ask to take a test and never heard back??
I applied a month or two ago, received an email from someone asking if I would take a test and said she was getting ready to go on vacation for a week, so I hurried and immediately and told her I'd love to take the test. I never heard back. I waiting thinking she went on vacation and would contact me when she got back to do the test but nothing...very strange..Just wondered if this happened to anyone else.
Has everyone heard back from Keystrokes yet regarding the email we received a while back?
Just wandering why I haven't heard any response yet.
I sent them an email back in August and never heard back sm
Is this company on Long Island? I checked out their website and even tried calling once. Were you successful in contacting them? All i know is that the company is owned by some doctors.

Hopefully, you will hear back. Unfortunately, I immediately heard back from MD-IT
but somehow with over 16 years of experience, I blew the test.  I was soooo disappoionted and yet pretty stunned.  I am by no means perfect but I haven't flunked a test in years.  I expected it in my early years but not this far down the road. I was so confident and they will not tell you which part you did not pass and why so it really just blew my mind.  I must have been in shock for like two hours after I got the email. Oh well, someone will want me....hopefully.  I was thinking about OSi but I don't think I could take another rejection if I never heard back. 
I had the same thing happen, went back to MQ, went back to KS and could not be sm

happier.  I am on a different account then the first time and it is as if it is a different company.  I have a great lead who leaves us alone most of the time but is there when I need her.  It showed me that you can have a different experience within the same company.


I have to say that in the few weeks since they have the new office, it is much more organized probably because there are a lot of people there all the time.  I had the pleasure of speaking to the new HR manager who was HR at a hospital, got my questions answered about insurance as I am going to full time and had a live voice pick up the phone.


Not all change is bad.  This is one company that has changed for the better. 


I was reading about the back up help. I would like also to have some back up work.
I am not getting anywhere near 12,000 lines this go around.  My goal is 12,000 lines each pay period.
Back away from the hoops!! Back away!
I worked for them about 6 months - same mess to get hired - FBI check is right! It was unreal. I was so excited, though - they promised me the moon, and I really thought I had found my new home after centuries with that other company who shall not be named.  What a disappointment, to say the least. All around horrible experience, and I would NEVER recommend them. Certainly they were not worth the hoops at all. Total waste of effort.
Been with Keystrokes staying with Keystrokes

I was there for the promises and guess what Keystrokes is making good on those promises. 


I get vacation time, 401K, and even AFLAC.  My pay is great, always on time as well as accurate. 


I have my main account and have been given back up accounts for which I have been fully trained and am comfortable typing on.  I have great leads, great tech support and plenty of work.


Am I biased???  Yes I am biased.  I am grateful everyday that I was given the opportunity to work for Keystrokes and their team.  I am grateful that my company's owner is a fellow Transcriptionist that goes home at the end of the day and works like the rest of us so she knows what a hard job I have and I know that she is working to make things better for me because unlike other companies I have worked for she understands what it is I do.


Please accept my apologies that you were unhappy with Keystrokes and chose to move on before all of the promises came to fruition but don't begrudge those of us that stayed loyal and are now reaping the benefits of a GREAT COMPANY WITH GREAT BENEFITS, LOTS OF WORK AND THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THERE ARE MANY MORE GREAT THINGS TO COME!


I just want to say Thank you Lee, Jeff, Becky, Karyn, Martha, Annette, Paul and everybody else in the office for all that you do.


Back to ya!
--
Thanks for getting back with me!
x
Has anyone gone back
to Transcend after receiving letter asking you to come back?  If so, how are things this time around?
I'm not looking for a pat on the back and
I know it is like that everywhere but I'm sick and tired of cleaning up after this person, getting phone calls begging me to fix this or that because they can't count on this other MT; I mean the list goes on and on. I know that in this field flexibility is everything but I'm also not bending over and taking it anymore, I'm flexed out!