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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

read sticky message "embracing..." on

Posted By: main forum page on 2006-01-29
In Reply to: Do I have this right? MT Stars now supports offshoring? - U.S. MT

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Read the Sticky post at at the top of the Main board that I posted and that will explain it.

/


Sorry, I just read the message
0
Has anyone here ever read the message board
It's pretty interesting in that some posts have been made in regard to stocks being valuable based on the MTs.  One even said that As long as there is cash in the bank and transcriptionists transcribing it remains a viable opportunity.  I wonder if they know all the problems with keeping transcriptionists transcribing there.  I also wonder if that post came from Transcend management.
Read sixth message down!!
!!!
They do offshore, read message below.
s
Daphne, please read my message to you
I take great offense at your post!!! I am a perfectionist in my field. I have excellent grammatical skills. However, when I post on this board, I do not expect for my message to be edited by others. We all make typos, transpose letters, leave off letters, etc., when posting! If you cannot handle reading these posts, perhaps you should not do so. IMHO.
Sorry about that... didn't read the full message!

You can block your e-mail so no one can contact you privately; some people like to be contacted via e-mail, others do not.  I am not sure how to do that, but contact the moderator.


Even if you had posted the article, that is fine; I love working for a company that is the #1 publicly traded company in Georgia.  Mr. Gerdes just sent out an e-mail stating that we also were ranked highly in Forbes.   With all of the horrible economic news, I am glad I work for a stable company.  It's not for everyone though - to each his/her own.


Medware please read message before glowing reply

I've seen glowly replies everytime anyone asks about Medware, but on looking into it I find a few things to be not  so great and am wondering why everyone who replies says they're wonderful?


First, top line rate 0.085 cpl doesn't seem really that great to me for someone with quite a few years experience in acute care.


Second, incentive pay only has one tier, so essentially anyone who can produce 150 lines per hour gets the same pay.  It seems like 150 lph should be able to done by even a newbie.


Third, the way to get a raise is to leave transcription (become an Editor sounds like).


Fourth, they obviously offshore!


Last, insurance while lower than some is still not really good.


With all these added up ... how does Medware still end up being AAMT top employer twice in the last five years and why does everyone on here rave about them? 


Sorry. You're right. I guess I should have read that message more closely.

offshore sticky ad on your site
The advertisement you have for Quality Med Transcription that links to Talisman has offices in India and they offshore work?

I understand the importance of advertising on the site - but should be mandatory to note that offshore is done by company as part of their description in the ad. Just my opinion.
We may not have had to type on sticky paper
but MTs breaking into this business have their own set of challenges. I am a little tired being looked down on as a new MT, only 5 years, because it is so much easier. I beg to differ.

I went to school to be an MT. I have under my belt a 2-year Associates degree in Medical Transcription and a CareerStep class. I was hired by a national company who promised me a constant account with 2 backups, and I did not lie about my experience. I was at goal my first day of traning and have always had QA scores above the required average.

In return, I went to work and printed sample after sample after sample as we had over 100 doctors in my primary account alone. I learned new voices, new ways of pronouncing medications, and that some people still use kilograms as a unit of measurement. I faithfully made note of every blank I left and its correction so it would not be a blank again. I studied not only transcription but the other doctors names, specialties, area hospitals, local physicians, nursing homes, lakes and recreational facilities, highway and route numbers, and pretty much every possible place a person could work in the area.

My secondary account did not get as much attention initially, but 6 months after I started, my account was yanked and sent to India (where they no doubt know more about US geography than I do), so I repeated the process over again. So far I had made it a year and learned clinic notes, routine procedures (sometimes called OP notes), consultations, and ER transcription.

I had not lied about my experience, but it really didn't matter because one day I woke up, went to work, and was getting discharge summaries from a teaching hospital that I have never heard of. I was told that since I am doing so well that it was time to move on. LOL...it was more like no other team in the company could type that account so we got it. I typed it, cried, and typed it some more. Pretty soon, I was literally not making enough money to pay my bills after I paid my health insurance. I was not making my quota, which I had always regularly exceeded, and I was worried that I was going to lose my job for not producing. By the way, I am at a whopping 6.5 cents a line at this point.

I went looking for a job. I was recruited by a smaller MTSO by their president. He said that they were very supportive, like one big happy family, and they jump on a conference every month just to hash out any issues they have. I even got a 1 cpl raise. WOW...but, I am 3 months short of your 2-year minimum exeperience requirement. (I didn't lie).

I got the job anyway, and after 3-1/2 years, I have never jumped on a big ole conference call or had the opportunity to hash out any issues. Since being there, I have learned 10 accounts (repeat above learning process times 10), and I am still one of the highest producing MTs they have.

Again, I was handed a gift by my MTSO. I was given the opportunity to work on their self-described second hardest account because I was doing so well. Again, the message was sent by waking up one day and seeing it in my queue. I decided to be a team player because the company line is if you can do this, you can do anything. You will make bank.

Eventually, I was given another opportunity to help out on an account. This soon became my primary account because no one they trained on it could do it, and the account I was hired to do (and loved) was given to someone else. I figured if I was doing harder work (and the hardest they had),after 3 years I should get a raise.

No, I couldn't have a raise because they still had my primary account related to my pay scale. It didn't matter that even if I begged, I couldn't get that work. I was still what they considered a Level 1 MT. Shame on me, I went looking for another job.

I held that job for 1-1/2 weeks. I spent 3 days in training after waiting 2-1/2 months for my computer to arrive. It then took me another week to track down my production supervisor to be able to start working and get samples for my account. In our phone call, she apologized for taking so long (insert baby crying), but she was very busy as they had taken away her assistant and not replaced her (insert long pause as she IMs someone else). She was very hard to get a hold of now (insert baby crying again) but she would do what she could to get me started. I typed for 5 days and had 3 unanswered questions that were critical to me doing my work. I came back after a 2-day break to an e-mail that she was going to be gone for a week at a production supervisor meeting. Yes, I quit and without notice.

I was wise enough now to have not given up my current contract, and I decided to accept that they were going to pay me when they felt like it, but I was not going to take Level 1 pay for doing Level 3 work. I assumed that account full-time in June. I was off almost $800 that month even with the increased line rate (so much for making bank). By September I was back up to the production that was normal for me and raised my contract to 14,000 lines. Then last week, my boss tells me that we are backed up in OPs in this account.

I said that I would take them on as I had been practicing on them for quite some time. As I expected, my production dipped again. I knew I was not going to make 7000 lines, and I IM'd my supervisor that if I was going to be set for all OPs, I would need to readjust my contract back down.

The tizzy fit that she threw defies description, and I am back wishing for a new job. I told her simply that either we are in trouble for not meeting production or we are in trouble for not being a team player. I cannot produce 7000 lines of OP notes in a week, and I am not being terminated for not meeting my contract goals.

Is it fair that you have a single priority report that needs to be typed, and all I have to do is read the account notes (all xxx pages) and type it, BUT you are going to bash me if my production is off.

It is really easy for the MTSO
or management or whoever does it to complain that the quality isn't there or line counts aren't being met but wouldn't consider paying an ounce of training time to compensate you.

My husband is also self-employed. If I said to him, I know you regularly make xxx dollars an hour, but this is an emergency, and you are the only one who could do it, so would you mind spending 20 or 30 minutes learning how to do this. I know you may never have to do it again, and I won't pay you any more than what I normally would no matter how long it takes you, but would you do it to be a team player? I would STILL be taking that flying leap.

When you were back typing on sticky paper, did you regularly worry that you were going to have to stay an extra hour in the evening because the report you were on was taking too long? Did you spend your evenings researching doctors in Bullhead City, Arizona, and Columbus, Ohio, and in some little known town in Louisiana that has a clinic but barely even a zip code? Did you have to use Mapquest as one of your transcription tools so you could figure out where this guy on this account is from? Did your boss come to you and say there is a clinic 300 miles away that is behind, and I volunteered you to do their work? Don't leave, now, until you have 1000 lines in. And don't WHINE.

PS...how do you know they don't whine in India.
It is a sticky mess with no resolution to the pay problem.
If anyone at this point thinks things have gotten better or different, just let it be known that you were warned!
I DID type on sticky paper and an IBM Selectric
Yes, I did stay an extra hour because a report was too long. The difference was I got paid for it and appreciated for it.

I agree with you. The cheap exploitation of the third world has driven a high percentage of this field into filthy trash and many of those managing it into slumlords. It went from MTs working from home to fill a need to just dirty bloodsucking middlemen looking for a place to weasel into and make a buck off the backs of others.

What do you mean that you have Thanksgiving with your family? What do you mean that your arms or back hurt after no time off for months? What do you mean that you need time off for a mammogram? Geeze. It's sick. It's just disgusting. I'm in it only because I've done it so long I'm not quite sure what else to do. I'm back at a hospital so I can be a PERSON again. The difference is night and day. I'm finding the hospitals are grossing-out on it, too, and outsourced MTs are thought of as those poor things and somewhat pitiful. Like a necessary evil they are trying to figure a way around.

The sticky says "Don't make decisions SM
based on someone's recommendation. and that about covers it.  For every single person, it's a trial and error process.  What works for me won't work for you, someone recommends a company and you agree, I may not. 
How can a message be confidential if it posted on a public message board? nm

sm small message or see message...geesh..nm
x
please don't put nm or call yourself nm if you have a message - nm means no message -sm

nm means no message.   sm means see message.   if you call yourself nm, then people might not click to read the rest of your post. 


just trying to help.


ps. if the money is there, why does that particular person's balance say zero?


I read all read all the threads in the "companies" section
of another board, MT Chat, and Googled each one that got positive reviews. If they had a website and a way to apply online, I did so. And that was how I got hired at TRS. They were not advertising at the time. By sheer coincidence I applied to Transcend just before I applied to TRS, and they were not interested in what I had to offer at the time. And now they've got me anyway, since they bought TRS. Interesting how things work out sometimes.

Companies with negative reviews, or company queries that got only a terse I sent you a PM reply, I passed over.
I can't give you the name of the message board, but it is not a free message board (HINT). There
Monitor, I hope this post is okay.
But that could be Leave a Message or Little Message! LOL
nm
Congrats! :) SM = see message. NM (no message)

I read your post. What do you want me to re-read?
and it seems those are your posts, too, so things just didn't add up and seemed inconsistent. If a place dropped me down to p.r.n. at 7 cpl or whatever and I already had another job where I could get 1000-1500 lines, I wouldn't give the first place a second thought so just couldn't figure out why anyone else would.
please see message
I was told that they do outsource a very low number of jobs, but I have yet to find very many who don't now.  At least they're honest about it.  They have different platforms for different accounts, and the one I'm working on pays for spaces, headers, footers, etc., and I really like it. They are hiring right now.
Please see message-----
I am a radiology transcriptionist who has worked at a hospital for the past 5 years.  Due to medical reasons I can no longer make that commute every day and I'm looking for an at home job.  Reading through all the posts here is so discouraging.  If so many of you who have worked at home for years don't know who to trust, how do I ever stand a chance?  I haven't applied to any companies yet.  I'm hoping some of you who do radiology and are happy (or at least not miserable) can give me some guidance.  Thank you.
See Message
I think it is the same few people doing all the complaining. They all sound very similar.

I wouldn't worry about too much of it.

Start with the big nationals and see if you like them. If you don't, go with smaller nations, then MTSOs, etc.
My message

I just went through all the posts and read them about Keystrokes.  I am an ex-employee of KS.  I want to know why some of these MTs are being so degraded like they are by current KS employees.  There are 2 different types of negative posters.  There is the disgruntled employee who likes to stir the pot.  Then there is the ex-employee who had real issues and problems with a company and posts their experiences and opinions about such.  I see many ex-KSers posting about just that.  Their experiences.  The things that they know best about KS, the things that happened personally to them while working there.  Then I see current KSers being combative in their words, degrading, very unprofessional and I am shocked. 


A Keystrokes employee, maybe management, has come on here and publically named quite a few names as the owner's of these negative posts.  Naming names publically without any knowledge or proof that is the person that they are naming.  There is no evidence based on any one of these posts that points unwaveringly that it is any of these people whose names have been flamed.  No one at Keystrokes can possibly know who they belong to based on the content of the post, as many, many ex-KSers have had the same complaints over the years.  It is simply impossible.  I find this very unprofessional and unethical. 


Lee has posted on this forum many times, lashing out, being nice, getting on her "soapbox."  But I am quite sure given the history that she has also posted on here without placing her name with the post.  I know that a current KSer has stated that Lee always posts her name with her post so that everyone knows it is hers.  But as any simpleton would know, you could post anon just as easily.  I want to know why any current KSer, or anyone else for that matter, would be surprised to think that people are considering Lee as the owner of some of these current posts since we have all seen how Keystrokes maintains a history of flaming people publically in a dirty, under-handed way.  It is too far a stretch to imagine that she could post hurtful things, untruthful things without leaving her name? 


I am sure that there are a lot of MTs that have a good experience at KS and can understand their wanting to defend their company.  But this does not take away from the very real fact that many have had some terrible issues with this company.  It is evident in the pattern that has long since been set.  There are too many MTs that state the same complaints over too long of a period of time.  No amount of good publicity can deflect from this truth.


I do know that if I so happen to see my name publically expressed on this forum by anyone at KS in response to any of these posts, there will be some serious repercussions for KS.  I think that this needs to stop immediately and the staff and MTs at KS need to buckle down and cool off and remember what it is exactly that they are doing. 


See Message

This was the worst company that I have worked for in 30 years! Their platform is horrible! If you want to talk to Indians every day, then go work for them! This was not the company for me,


I could barely make 1300 lines per day, and I was on 4 accounts! Supervisor was like talking to a brick wall, I don't think she has ever transcribed a day in her life.


I tried to make it work, I really did, but when it came down to it, I have become acustomed to making enought money to afford bread and milk and wasn't going to be able to working at Heartland!  


See message--I put nm, but there was one
But the new platform SUCKS, and you can't edit 40% more lines on the new platform.  I would guess on average maybe 20% more lines, but definitely not 40% on an every-day basis--only when there are a couple of the better dictators on.  And even if I could, I would have liked to know ahead of time
DQS. (no message)
nm
see message -
I did not start working because I was NEVER TRAINED...how can you start working on an account and not have any training? I'm good, but not psychic for IDs and account specifics! What I'm leaving out is all the calls to the office and emails to the office, the cursing and tearing out of my hair trying to find a job again after accepting this position. I spoke directly with Lee - she hired me, and I felt she was someone I could work with....never more wrong in my life. Please don't start accusing ME of leaving something out when your company left ME out in the cold.
P.S. to see message
P.S. - by the way, all these messages will soon disappear as soon as someone tells the office, and they will have them all taken off so future job seekers will not see these warnings....just watch, happens all the time.
See Message
I have been in that situation and here is what I did..

I called the hospital to inquire of their transcription service they use, told them my situation, and they gave me the name of the company they are with as well as the person to contact and the contact number.

You should ask if there was a problem with quality or if there were any quality issues, just to be sure that was not the reason for it going with another service.

If that was the reason, they may be reluctant to give you any information.

Good luck!

In my case, it was $$$$ and they needed a full EMR, which the service I was with could not provide. They were very happy with the quality, and actually were pretty eager to get me to go with the new company.

Best of luck and I hope it works out for you.
see message
Try Oracle (OTI).  They hire part-time, and everyone they hire is an IC.  Very nice people.  There is a lot of work all the time, and the pay is good too.
See message not nm....nm
nm
Thanks (no message)

NO!!...no message
nm
See message.

I worked for Medquist in California, so I can't speak for you where you are working.  You are an MT right?  Medquist is currently offering huge sign on bonuses to try to attract qualified people.  They are begging for people, so I think if you are half way good they are going to try every way possible to keep you with them.  I think they need people badly.  Have you been doing this a long time?  There are just so many advertisements for MTs that believe me be you will get a job right away if you are willing to work for little.  That is the unfortunate fact of it as far as I can tell.  I am slowly rooting around, sifting through all the bull shit, trying to find a place that pays well and has a little integrity, i.e., provides medical insurance for a not too many lines and is not just a bunch of uncaring liars who want to waste my time.  I just quit MQ about two weeks ago after being at the same company for the better part of a decade, even if they were not always MQ.  I took a huge pay cut.  I was being paid by the gross line and they had me buy a computer and then started counting the lines differently.  I do not know how they were counting them.  I had no way to verify it and I was just so pissed off I couldn't stand to work for them any longer.  I think you need to go to the drug store and pick up some Benadryl (its harmless and it will make you sleepy) get a good night's sleep and if you are still nervous about losing your job at MQ start looking around and comparing.  You'll be just fine and you will like working at home a whole lot better than putting on make up, getting dressed, fighting traffic, etc., to get into the office.  Good luck and good night.


message to jlw
If you would like to email me privately i can answer any questions you may have.  I curently work for DSG and unfortunately sometimes on this board all you get are disgruntled employees.  cortni414@ameritech.net
see message
Try M2ComSys.
see message
We are not trying to be sneaky. An ad had gone on a website about four months ago, and even though it stated no recruiters, no services and no freelancers - guess what? TONS AND TONS AND TONS of what we asked NOT TO respond, did respond.

We are located in the northeast part of the United States. I know that when people hear northeast they automatically think SNOW!! But actually our winters are very mild here.
Yes (see message)
The VR must be the good thing about it because they also can use it for transcription and it's a lousy transcription program.
See message.

I didn't say it was a difficult program to use.  It isn't difficult.  It's just erratic.  I never know when it's going to be working or not working, and the voice quality is terrible.


It can't hold a candle to Voice Wave as far as sound quality.  BeyondTXT sound quality is terrible.


Please see message
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MTstars/message/4

It looks like it was just posted this summer. It's the second ad down on the page.
Yes, and if OSi MT has been there for 2 yrs then she got that message along with
n/m
See message.

Everything the above poster said is true.  Every word of it.  A lot of misrepresentation goes on.  It can be great in the beginning, but that doesn't last long.  Be sure to document everything and don't ever delete what you document.  You might need it a week from now or a year from now.  Too many changes going on within that company and most of them are not good.  As the above poster said, if you ever are made to feel like you're getting special treatment, be very suspicious, and don't ever forget that today's favored one is walking around with a knife in her back tomorrow.  You're very wise to keep your other job. 


See message

I'm not sure if I can put the website on here, so if you can email through this post (I can't tell if I have the email thingie, as I can never see it on my own posts), then I'll let you know.


If not, leave an email where I can reach you and I will respond.  Thanks!


Actually nm is no message and sm is see message
nm
See message....

Again, search Google.  Use words such as


medical transcription outsourcing india Ny


See Message
I know that the hospitals have a lot of issues with the quality, but I guess they are more interested in saving money. As I mentioned before, QA will correct any errors, obviously still get paid, yet they will penalize your whole pay check. Thus, they are making pretty good money. You will get bombarded every weekend with emails to help clear the backlog, yet there is no incentive for working any extra time. On your days off, you will get IM'd to death to please do one more stat. It is just not worth it. I finally had to take Yahoo messenger off so they would leave me alone (supervisors from India) as I had told them numerous times that I quit. They do not listen. Bad communication.
see message
Google the terms: productivity talk shorthand. There is a forum with a section specifically on Shorthand, and then inside there are very, VERY specific instructions on how to import a DQS .aco file into SH.
See message ......
It's allamericantran@aol.com according to the ad they had last week.