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Well, not long enough, really. Only a couple of weeks. nm

Posted By: MT on 2005-12-13
In Reply to: How long have you been on your new accounts? sm - wondering

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It took me a couple of weeks...
had to get all those shortcuts in but once you get used to it, it is okay.  I always keep track of how many reports I do and I don't look at line count until I do so many.  I can get my required line count in 6 hours or less and when I first started it was a lot longer than that.  So, it does get better. 
Yes and no. Went through this a couple of weeks ago.,

Hired for new account that didn't come on-line as projected.  Extended training/staging time that at least we got paid for, but half of what I make transcribing and then when we went live there was no little work for week we were lucky to get 4 reports a day.   Other accounts were low so couldn't give us a backup, but looks like most accounts are back to producing again and lots of OT now. 


My situation isn't quite the same, but the result was the same and I sympathize with you.   When you have bills to pay you need to be making the lines. 


 


A couple of weeks ago some Keystrokes MT
were having issues with a system down and not being able to work.  I've searched the achives and I can't find the posts.  Can someone tell me if it was a Meditech account? 
A couple of weeks ago I worked

for Landmark for just a few hours.  On interview I was asked if I was familiar with a certain platform and said I was not.  I was asked if I was willing to learn. I was more than happy to do that.  After all, that gives you more employment possibilities in the future.


Got set up, and was basically just told to do the work.  I thought learning a platform meant there would be some training, at least a sheet of paper with some instructions.  I received zip even with asking.  I emailed the trainer 3 times which I guess was her limit because she only answered the first 2. I waited 24 hours for a reply.  With none, I quit. 


I earned a little over $40.  From what others are saying, I guess that is money I will never see. 


 


I have my first experience with EMR a couple of weeks ago. My
son had to see a specialist, first time seeing this doctor.  The doctor was so concerned with filling in the blanks that he paid no attention to my son.  My son, DH, and I are were very underwhelmed with the doctor and the visit.  Fortunately we have to see another specialist and don't have to see that doctor again, but the new specialist is part of the conglomeration and also uses EMR.  
I asked about these 2 companies a couple of weeks ago, just not
about rad, and I was told to go with Keystrokes.   Both companies seem to have 90+% positive comments, though I have seen more with rad about KS. 
They offered me a position a couple of weeks ago.

IC position and pay is low.   Can't remember any other details of their offer.  The first 2 were enough to know I wasn't interested. 


It definitely can be frustrating. I tested for Accupro a couple of weeks ago, sm

and there were several long reports to type, yet I never received the courtesy of a response.  They were great guns at first, sending me info about the company, telling me how impressive my resume is, etc., and after the written test, I heard back immediately, but then, after investing several hours into their written test .. *poof* .. nada.  I don't know that I aced it, but after 25+ years of being an MT, I didn't think I did so awful that it would not even merit a reply.   Such is life ...


On the flip side, I do realize that companies receive 100s of applications when they run an ad, and so I try to be patient and realize that I can just be lost in the shuffle somtimes.  I perhaps am not aggressive enough, because I do not email or call if they drop the ball.  There are lots of other companies out there.  


wow. I talked to one of their recruiters a couple of weeks ago, and she was awesome.
My experience was completely different from yours. Maybe we talked to different people.
You guys are scaring me as I start in a couple weeks :(
 Soon to be fellow Webbie
Read through old posts, discussed a few times the last couple of weeks. nt
 
I heard this a long time ago, (couple of yrs) NM
x
Yes, they offer I think 4 weeks at full pay or 8 weeks at half pay. Call the office
and talk to them about it. You wont lose your job. They aren't like that.
No problem :) No matter how long, it is too long for me - I am broke the day after payday. Kids wi
do that to you!

I know that they have worked very hard to make sure that checks are never late and I can say that in the past two years, I have had one problem (2 days late) and in the past 18 months, they have all been on payday and perfect.

I know that there are a lot of hard feelings in MT in general. I also know firsthand (and I am not mgmt) how hard KS has worked to get things going good.

I would not want to walk in an MTSO's shoes for any amount of money, but that's just me. I like to finish my work for the day, forget about work when not working and get paid on payday. I never want the other things that go with mgmt or owning a company of any kind :)
They definitely rip you off with your line count. Figured this out long ago and quit long ago
x
What really sucks is that I looked for a LONG, long time -sm
before joining DRC - wanted a highly reputable, not-too-big co. that was LOCAL, and that treated its MTs humanely. I'm very happy with DRC & had planned to stay with them permanently.
Long, long history of not paying...and
similar posts have been made here in the past few months. Everyone thinks they will be different, and then they end up coming back here to warn others that they don't pay.
A couple

Lee Perfect I believe and TTS.  Try putting your resume up as well.  I got a ton of hits off of here and another transcription job board and another job website.  Not allowed to give you names of the sites though.


but those were long, long lines for
most of the reports. You could make more with a 65-character line count.
There are a couple of ways....
You can either use Alt+tab and that will switch you toggle you between programs or you can just keep a notebook and write down the acc#. I thought this was going to really hurt my production but after you get use to doing it, it doesn't really seem to be a big deal at all. Good luck!
A couple questions

Do they hire part-time?   Do you need a C-phone or are they internet based?


Thanks 


...couple more questions if you can...
Tested for radiology, but I can do acute care. Can you tell me about the rotating weekends? How many weekends do you actually end up working over about a 3-month period? Does the software have a built-in expander?

Thanks!
I have a couple questions
Do they hire part time?  The website mentions Word 2000.  Does it have to be Word 2000 or will a newer version work, i.e. Word 2002? 
a couple more questions
What is the minimum line count you need with them for part-time and if you need to work outside of your schedule or type earlier/later in the day, how flexible are they with that?  Thanks for the info!
Just a couple questions

How is the platform?


Is rigid schedule required for full-time?


Are there production bonuses?


Thank you!


Yup. Same here. Just started a couple
of months ago with promises of good accounts, never run out of work, etc.  I really regret going with them.  Now looking for something else.  What a disappointment!  Same thing with Medware in the past.  So don't look there either.  These companies over-hire and offshore, and this is what happens.  Ugh. 
A couple of questions for you...
What do you mean by acquired 3 private accounts through them? They are your accounts? You bill them, collect the money? Or they are small accounts that only you do? Not sure what you meant there.

If you have no benefits, are you an IC? If you are an employee with no benefits, I'd be looking elsewhere. If you're not being paid what an IC would make, you're getting the short end of the stick.

If you are an IC, you'd need to rewrite your contract at the end of the contract period.

If you're an employee, go for it. Ask for what you feel you deserve. If they value what you do enough, they should be able to meet your needs (especially if they're getting away with not paying benefits!).

Best of luck!
I used it a couple of times and liked it. nm
x
Thanks-couple more questions
This helped some.  What is their line count requirement and is it pretty attainable?  Also, is 40 hours considered full time or can you work less than that for full time?  Again, thanks.
There's only a couple of accounts that way....sm
the majority of them don't have that type of set-up with the client and there's generally plenty of work available between a primary and secondary account to keep you busy.

As far as communication goes, I've received at least 1 e-mail a day on my account advising what the status of it was and any additional information that needed to be passed along. If you use an e-mail service such as hotmail you have to check your junk folder as sometimes your e-mail system will think their valid e-mails are junk mail and filter them out.
A couple reasons
Their VR software isn't as good as eScription, which is what I really like. It doesn't put in any punctuation unless the doctor dictates it. While you train, you get 2 cpl with a max pay between 3 and 4 cpl after training. It sounded way too labor intensive for that pay.
A couple of questions

TTS does this to all of  ICs. She literally will call MTs and threaten your job because you are not on the schedule for your hours.  I was let go because of not working my set hours, yet I did my line count on a daily basis that I said I would do.  Who would you report this to?  Would you report to the DOL or the IRS? 


I did this a couple of years ago--SM
Hospital benefits were great.  Acct managed by Diskriter staff.  I had a decent acct manager but I have heard some of them have not been that good (the person I worked for has since left).  I used Chartscript, I like that platform, but the lines were tough to come by.  I normally would do a good 1500-1600 lines a day at my previous job (and at jobs I have had since Diskriter) with about 6 good hours of working and for some reason it took a full 8-hour day to get 1300 lines with Diskriter.  That is why I left.
It has been a couple of years since I was there
.
It took a couple of months
I got behind on bills and had to move on.
Couple things (SM)
#1 -- All caps is considered shouting.

#2 -- Spheris has been discussed here extensively. Do a search first -- you might find all the info. you need.
Couple of advantages
No harm in doing your own - but I have been audited and it was not fun. This fellow is my new accountant I do believe. If after 20 years of IRS management he has no clue how to do my taxes, then I am dead in the water. You might have a CPA do your taxes one year and then use it as your guide. I just feel far and away safer from my own experience than having to worry about it. He also said to save all records for 6 years. The IRS can go 3 years back on one audit.
I did a couple of years ago.

If it is the same company, they pay weekly (nice), and are such nice people.  Everyone in the office was readily available to answer questions.  The only downside was they did not have a platform at that time.  Work was received and sent via FTP files, and I prefer to work on an actual platform.


 


 


Yes, a couple of ways (sm)
The reason you are being told that is because ExText (WordClient) must be installed in the C directory. There are a couple of ways around this. You can have your computer set up to dual boot or you can set up a virtual machine on your computer. As long as it thinks it is C it will allow a second install (or more) on one computer.
a couple questions
Also, how do they calculate VR lines, and can you get a good line count?
I have been with them for a couple of years-sm
and I say they are great. Don't know anything at all about bait and switch - could be happening but it did not happen to me. I am with Shirley on the 9/10 because come on- it is a job. Probably account, account managers, things like that make a lot of difference but I say the management right up to the owner of this company are top of the line. Every issue I have ever had with them has been addressed fairly and settled fairly. I say talk to them.
A couple of years ago...sm
I had KU as a back-up account when I worked for MedQuist. I don't know if they outsourced all or their work to MQ or not.
Diskriter does, or at least did a couple
xx
I agree with QA. There is no way a couple of sm
commas are dragging your score down that low.  As a matter of fact, on normal QA scoring, you're not actually deducted the full amount for each instance of punctuation.  You'll have the full amount for the first one or two (and it's not a hefty amount of points) and the others will be repeat errors.  For a score that low, you're either omitting dictation or have incorrect/misuse of terminology.  Those are the items that drag your score down.
Couple More Thoughts
i choose as an ic to have my own set schedule for my work hours and tell a company when i am available, which is a lot different than agreeing to remain there if there's no work. of course, i usually do just that, keep checking for work, but there is a very subtle difference between saying i will work these hours on these days and saying this is when i'm available. along with that comes the mental shift in informing people of one's days off/vacation time, etc. as an ic, you don't request the time, you say that's what you'll be taking off (i might offer to help find coverage, but no guarantees). you don't ask for a raise; you propose a line rate increase b/c your business expenses have risen. likewise, if you carry it to the extreme and are never available, a company might not need your services! but yes, IC vs. employee status is a subtle distinction and mind set, but an important one!

whether IC or employee, what you do is worthwhile and for me, i've truly found my occupational bliss, even with all the downsides to the profession and how it's evolved in the past couple decades.

a nice day and weekend ahead to everyone :)

-t
You have a couple of problems..

...If you deposit a bad check, you own bank will probably charge you a service fee for having to handle it.  I was charged a $38.00 (same as their bounced check fee) fee when I deposited somebody's bad check.  This is one of the reasons stores have a policy of charging you a fee if you pay with an NSF (insufficient funds) personal check.  They get charged a fee by their bank for depositing it. The banks get cranky about the bookkeeping involved, posting the amount, debiting it out again, etc.


Second, I am assuming you work at home and the company is not in your home town.  Therefore, the crime of writing bad check will probably be considered to have occurred where the company is located.  Good luck dealing with a bad check across state lines. 


I'm assuming the check is for a few hundred dollars.  In my city, there is something called night court which is an after-hours service of the city prosecutor's office.  It basically is a small-claims/arbitration court and you can go talk to an assistant prosecutor about the problem.  They may send a summons to the check writer, but it really will not require them to appear.  Some people are frightened to get such a notice, but if they are in another state, what can be done to them for a relatively small check?


You might have a mail fraud angle on this, since they mailed the check to you. I don't suppose you saved the envelope?  Postal inspector might be someone to contact.  Just a thought.   


 


Here are a couple more you might find useful
I had saved these links in my Favorites in case there ever came a time to present our case.

Here are 2 other links where you might find some useful information for your article.

1. http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/17/1548054.aspx

2. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/22/MNGCO2FN8G1.DTL

The second link is about the Pakistani MT who was trying to blackmail UCSF with personal information.


A couple of days
You should hear back in just a couple of days.  Be ready for a long telephone interview.
This was a couple of years ago

and I really am over it.  Went through a false start with a company that looked like it would be a long-term home for me, but wasn't.  (This time, I was the one who said good-bye after a year.)  Now I'm with a company that I really like. 


Have you not noticed that the trend with employers nowadays is to fire you and have security escort you off the premises?  They do this so that discgruntled soon-to-be-ex employees have no time to mess things up on their way out rhe door.  Sure, SPi (a Philippine-owned company)  knew that the plan was to dump all of us when they acquired CyMed, but it was just  'good business' to play their hand close to the vest until they were ready.  They wanted us to want them, until they no longer needed us.  They needed us to work during the transition to offshore.  Then they were through with us.  At least I got unemployment.


This happened to the employees of the local branch of a national restaurant chain.  It was my favorite breakfast place and the company was closing restaurants all over the country, but the locals were assured that this was a profitable shop (it was always crowded) and they would be okay.  Right up until the morning they reported to work to find a sign on the door that the place had closed.  Had the corporate office given them notice, many would have found other positions prior to the closing.  What would the company have done then?  They weren't quite ready to close and needed those people to keep the place staffed until they were ready.  Dog eat dog world.


So I'm a lot more proactive now and at the first rumblings of a problem my resume goes out there.  This is what happened with my last job.  Things started to seem 'just not right' and so I found my current job.  But if I become uncomfortable here, I'll start looking again immediately. 


I said only for a couple of doctors
x
Couple of comments.... sm
First, if you are IC that means independent contractor. Mandating how and the ways you get your work done is getting very, very close to toeing the line between the employee/independent contractor relationship. They hired you to do X amount of work, and it is up to you how to get it done.

If people are making mistakes, they need to speak directly to them, but this blanket statement is just a lazy way of trying to solve the problem without really getting involved and servicing the client.

However, I think companies nowadays are also guilty of hiring people who aren't necessarily qualified. For example, on the account I work on, we have people who apparently didn't take 6th grade English. There are basic grammar and syntax errors such as no comma after the year when the day and date are given; no comma after the state when the city and state are given; and run-on sentences are rampant. We can copy/cut/paste from prior reports and are frequently told to do so; however, I avoid doing this if at all possible because of the glaring mistakes that I've found in others' work (using sats instead of saturations, for example).

People are going to make mistakes even when straight typing. Instead of discouraging or forbidding people from using Expanders and macros, what should happen is that people are encouraged to read over their reports before submitting.

Finally, I strongly suspect that the transcriptionists are being pushed to meet a tight turnaround time and that is coupled with a relative lack of consistent inflow of work. When that happens, people are going to rush through reports, quality be damned, because they need to get their line counts.

Yes, there are sloppy MTs, but when this happens, instead of punishing the whole lot and bringing morale down, the company needs to look at their OWN contribution to the situation, and try encouraging people instead of just throwing down mandates and pissing off the people who do care.