The fam and I are getting a $5 foot long from Subway and

How long before they put you on ASR?... [2008-08-30]
I'm wondering how long I have.

but what if that job is a really long one [2008-08-27]
and you don't have the time/desire/whatever to even start it? Worse yet is if it's by a crappy dictator to boot. Ohink how much OT comes into play re just this one factor. We got that message not long ago, and my PS said it didn't have anything to do with me. I, too, believe MQ and each MT knows who does and who doesn't...

Why is this taking so long? [2008-08-23]
I have a certain number of lines that I want to get out tonight and every time I go to check my line count.....it is always behind. It still has not recorded lines I typed an hour or so ago. It is just frustrating because I don't want to stop until I have my lines in, but how can I tell I've reached my goal if the flippin thing is an hour or so behind.

so true..so true..but as long as we [2008-08-22]
they have us just where they want us. AAMT who supposedly was our champion is now nothing but a glorified convention for MTSOs and make policies that benefit ONLY the MTSO. We need unionization. I would gladly pay $40.00 month union dues for collective bargaining power and representation...just don't see how it could ever happen.

Long time MQers, 8 or more years....sm [2008-08-11]
How long since you last had a raise? Over 5 years for me.

It was here on the board not too long ago. Current flex PT could stay in that [2008-08-08]
position but others trying to go flex were told no and that it wasn't an option anymore.

Sorry to hear that, but my PS told me a long time [2008-08-07]
ago not to stay logged in if not working.

I find it so interesting that after a long bonus [2008-08-05]
weekend, I have work on my primary tonight, a few hours worth even (whereas typically Monday nights it's swim in ye ol cesspool variety.Didn't anyone work this weekend? Was the 3 cpl bonus not enough for you unhappy people???? (I'm just pulling yer chain...I didn't work...3 CPL is NOT enough for me to change my life for the weekend and come up with diddly squat and hours of frustration). I wonder if a lot of people have quit, there's been a whole lot more work lately, workers are discouraged, or what????

Been saying this for a long time [2008-08-02]
And I'm not management. I'm an MT/ME and I work for the Q. Have done so for 11 years. Have been through the best and worst of times.. but I've never run out of work, except occasionally on a holiday. Yes, I've had to go into the National Pool at times..but it was still work. Had to dance around the CPs..but it was still work. I've complained..when it was appropriate to do so..through the proper channels..and got good results for the most part. Raises? That's a joke?! But work is still there...for now. It's pays the bills. I just pray it stays that way.

So sick of long rah-rah letters from my PS about [2008-08-01]
nm

Haven't been on this board in a long time,,,Where is this article [2008-07-31]
you mention about KUMAR....where have I been??? Where can I see this article?????

I so agree !!!! A little common sense can go a long way .. [2008-07-30]
x

How long did it take to get 401 money after you quit? sm [2008-07-23]
Called Merril Lynch and they still show me as active so I suppose they can't do anything until I have been paid the last few coins MQ owes me. Then does it still take forever?

In my experience, lots have already left. Long-time MQ people. [2008-07-19]
I have been through at least 4 supervisors since we became employees. I have no idea where they ended up as well as the work flow coordinators. It is a crazy company that seems to be imploding and has been imploding for quite awhile.

Does anyone know how long the QA test takes? [2008-07-14]
nm

Took me about 30 to 40 minutes, not long actually. [2008-07-14]
x

How long had you been at Medquist? [2008-07-13]
How long had you been at Medquist when they started you at $16/hr? That's great! GB

I had been dealing with that for way too long! sm [2008-07-10]
Started with another MT company a couple of weeks ago and already making more than I did after 10 years with MQ! You will not regret leaving. Good luck.

Too bad it doesn't recognize speech - sorry, long nite, low line count. nm [2008-07-09]

How long before Support calls you back [2008-07-05]
to release you with no work?

I was told a long, long time ago that we use the numbers instead of words. . . sm [2008-07-01]
Were you never told that? I was told that about 3 years ago.

Long report [2008-06-28]
I also just did a very long ESL that had continuous background noise and ended up leaving 40+ blanks. Sent a note along to QA saying I was sorry for the mess. When I checked the report they had also left a bunch of blanks so I don't feel so bad. I guess we are all in the same boat.

Long report [2008-06-28]
Yeah.. me too. I just cringe when I have to send in a report with lots of markers. I know QA probably thinks I'm a dummy, and I guess sometimes I am. I will tell you one darned thing. I'm good at what I do and want to do a good job but when the dictator can't speak English, won't open their lips to let the words out, etc., I'm no miracle worker. Sometimes I want to just get up, walk away, and let them guess I'VE QUIT! If I didn't have such a good supervisor and like to eat I'd do just that! Hang in there. Do your best and then send the report on. What else can you do except listen over and over and over until you're ready to throw the 'puter through the door! I have more! Grrrrrrrrrrr.

I feel the same way. I have a few residents on my primary who dictate long reports and SM [2008-06-24]
say three words and there is a huge pause in their dictaton. . three more words another one. . . four more words another. If you try to speed it up you can't understand what they say when they begin talking again and then you are backing up and going through it all over again. Good thing I have a lot of very thick hair!

Don't know why that pathetic quote came up! I wrote that a long time ago in regards to a diff.top [2008-06-16]
nm

quality audits [2008-09-05]
i've seen posts below from QAs who said taht they don't do quailty audits on MTs, well then - who does? Do we still get them? I used to have them sent to me but that hasn't happened in a long, long, long time. I noticed that in QASAR some of the reports do have a score with them, but they are all 100%, which even though my quality in the past had always in the acceptable range, it had never before been so perfect. Are the reports in QASAR with the scores the ones that were audited? What's the deal with the audits?

My PS is always asking for extra help especially from part-timrers...sm [2008-09-05]
She doesn't care as long as the backlog is huge, get right on whenever you can so long as you don't go into overtime. I'm not part-time yet but will be as soon as I am able to change my status from full-time limited benefits. It seems like I'll get more flexibility this way by going regular part-time - at least with my accounts...

yes [2008-09-05]
Was told by my PS as long as the work is there could put in extra hours since it is not OT.

I would definitely let your PS know, but [2008-09-05]
if it doesn't stop. I would let the deletions in the report and send it to QA with a note that he wanted them deleted after you'd already typed them and that you don't get paid to type deletions. At least then you'd get paid for it. Maybe a few times of this happening and someone will tell the jerk, which is what should happen the first time you tell your PS. Perhaps, this jerk should write his dictations out long-hand first, making any necessary changes, then call in and read them. It's ridiculous. It's like eating something and then returning the empty package to the grocery store for a refund. I don't think so.

I thought of doing that. It was so bad this morning that I felt like [2008-09-05]
This is habitual with this guy. . . each and every time. Today, however, was the worst when he told me time after time to delete very long paragraphs several times over.

SA1 [2008-09-05]
Anyone had any word on when the cesspool will end for us? I haven't had my primary in so long. My super said things would be put right in September... Today I'm ready to throw in the towel. I've emailed my super asking for something to hang on to. I have a job interview outside of MTing in two weeks and if the money is right I'm going to have to give this up. I just can't take it any more and my bills are mounting! Is it just me?? I hate to whine, but I'm drowning. Anybody have any ideas??

IT [2008-09-04]
It's a good program but with a lot of work setting it up the way you like it and a long learning curve. The instruction book is almost the size of a Reader's Digest. It will slow you down for a while until you get it

Happy at MQ [2008-09-04]
I did not mean to sound like I was belittling anyone, I know each has her/his own experiences. Maybe what I don't understand isif so many are unhappy then why are they still with MQ? I was unhappy with others and moved on until I found the right fit. I was mainly looking for consistent work.I negotiated my line rate before signing on the dotted line with MQ, 8 cpl was the offer and I declined and told them what I would accept as tier 3, 12 cpl,and they called a couple of days later and we negociated 10 cpl. I knew from research they would not go for 12 cpl as employee, but started high and came down to what was acceptablefor both of us. True, I do not get in the cesspool but maybe once or twice a week and some weeks not at all, but I am grateful to have the work, even if it is unfamiliar,without having to call someone for it when my primaries are out of work.This is a big relief to me as the other places were often out of work and I would have to wait around half the day to get work from another account (cannot make money that way). It benifits me to have the work automatically there no matter what. My BOB is large, maybe 12 or more accounts, and Iget a mix of4 or5 accounts every day with ASR thrown in, not just one account. They are for the most part good accounts for me though, but I have many years experience and maybesomenewer to the profession would not think so. As far as my schedule, I work a split shift the hours that I chose and have had no problem flexing this on occasion when needed as long as I communicate with PS what is going on, but it is a fixed schedule.As far as clocking in and out/fixed schedule,I would have to do this working anywhere else at an outside job so no big deal to me. The only difference is that I can now flex these hours if something comes up and I need to. I understand that the company needs to know when people are working so they can manage TAT and having people working whenever makes it very difficult to do that. I do not have a problem sticking to my schedule because it is what I chose. As IC being able to work whenever I felt like it, I found I was working more hours for the same pay as nowhaving a fixed schedule mainly because of workflow issues. I knowseveral people who workfor MQ and are very happy, so not sure being unhappy at MQ is the norm, although I do understand thatworking conditions are not the same throughout the company. If my pay drops to the point I cannot live, then I will simply move on.

Disparity in pay [2008-09-04]
Your post was right on! I too am a tier 3 with over 40 years of experience who is struggling. A year ago I lost my long-time primaries (they left MQ), and have been struggling with all new heavy ESL accounts and making about 1/3 less than I did a year ago. However, to add insult to injury, I know several tier 1 MTs who are making the same 9 cents a line that I make and do only clinic work. When I requested a change to their primary account (a huge clinic), I was told that I would have to take a cut in pay.

this is ridiculous [2008-09-04]
i so just want to send these ASR reports as is. i'm so sick of these reports taking twice as long to do than if i were typing them and getting paid less!!! would anyone even notice? do you think if we all started doing this, the doctors would go WHAT??? and make Medquist stop using this stupid system? aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..........................

i think more [2008-09-03]
i think i change more than 60% with ASR. its almost like i'm actually transcribing the report, only that would be way faster. the main problem is how it has affected our attitudes. i tried to stay positive for a long time, kept plugging away, but i'm now with the poster who doesn't even bother to check QA or listen a second time. i used to go back and re-listen to everything. not any more. i simply can't afford to pay my mortgage if i did that. i'm actively looking for a new job. i'm so grateful for this second job i have. without it, i'd be on the street living in a box, probably the box MQ sent their computer in. well, if i fit. give it time though...i'm eating a LOT less now.

Its not about getting paid for looking - geeze you might [2008-09-02]
and not have to leave a marker the next time. Where is you pride in you job/profession? Not MQ, you personally? You must have a lot of QA markers cause it does take that long for me to read mine.

The truth about ASR [2008-09-01]
First, you make less money doing ASR and Medquixt makes more money. This is the reason behind of the worst things about ASR. It will take a simple straightforward dictation and make a mess of it, wrapping numbered diagnoses together in a way that, to do it the way they want, triples or even quadruples the time it takes to type the diagnosis straight. Now you can protest all you want about this, but the criteria Medquist uses is, does the computer get it 70% right? Note, the criteria is not, does it take the Medquist twice as long to fix the mess? They don't care about you. In fact, they don't care about production speed. All they want is you get paid less and they get paid more. ASR by itself would not be bad if Medquist would have some discipline about which dictators it is used for. They don't look at the time it takes to separate out, capitalize, number, do the control R and control S stuff. All they look at is, did our machine recognize 70% of the words? They don't see how much havoc the nature of the errors creates. They don't care about you at all.

Own accounts [2008-08-30]
Had my own accounts, all have gone with a service because it is cheaper. I could not compete. None left in my area. Those days are long gone. My pay may not be near as good as it was then, but to tell you the truth less stress working for someone else now.

How long before they put you on ASR?... [2008-08-30]
I'm wondering how long I have.

Not true [2008-08-30]
When my old primary account did not want to go on ASRlast year and canceled MQ's contract, MQ kept the clerks who wanted to stay and put them on QA on other accounts. They were great, long-time, friendly clerks but they had never done MT ever, no training for that, and wouldn't know a medical word to save their own life. One told me that what she mainly does is check addresses and doctors names if there is a question on that, then sends any medical blanks in as blanks.

cobra [2008-08-30]
I left MQ on July 10, and I did not get my papers to fill out until the second week of August, although I kept calling to find out what to do. I filled out the forms, sent in the check for $436 because it is just me. I got the check back a couple days ago, that I had made the check out to Cobra instead of Employee Benefits. They said they put the money on to my Vision section (which I did not order) and they needed me to send another check. Of course they will not get it unil Tuesday or Wednesday, and now not sure how long it will take to get credit on my health insurance. So I went to get my meds yesterday and was told that my insurance card did not go through. thank goodness it was just for my cheaper pills and it was only $21.95. Not sure what the other pills will cost me in a couple months. they are supposed to reimburse us for anything we pay out of pocket for. Hopefully I will get some good insurance with the new job I went to. Hope you got a good job after MQ. I guess anything is better. I just figured out my line count and what my check will be BEFORE taxes and I USED TO get checks from MQ AFTER taxes about 2 years ago,that were more than my total I made at this new place, but it will be a WHOLE LOT more than what I made the last year at MQ. The only bad thing is my new place is going to almost all ASR and I refused to do it at MQ after I tried it back in 2004 and ABSOLUTELY HATED IT. And it truly has not gotten any better anywhere else. I am truly much faster from scratch typing than trying to fix that ASR stuff. I think we need to be paid more to fix that ASR crap, cuz is sure takes longer to correct than to type from scratch.

Same thing happened to me [2008-08-30]
Not long after I started doing ASR I started to have really bad pain in my shoulder, arm and neck, and I have a plate and screws in my neck, and recently had back surgery. This has exacerbated the pain in my neck. My experience with ASR has not been good, perhaps because I am a little depressed that my pay has been cut by 30%, which has greatly reduced my monthly income.

Tired of theft, or why I'm quitting [2008-08-29]
I'm looking at ASR reports that take longer to fix than they would to type. This is a trick. It's a scam. It's the same as if somebody was lifting my wallet in the subway. I'm a shareholder, you know. I sure hope the next prospectus notes that profits are increased because the company is scamming their employees. It's a scam because this tool is not a tool to increase our speed. It's a tool to keep production the same at a lower cost. If the prospectus doesn't note the fact that ASR fails to improve worker speed, the company will belying to the shareholders by omission and I will inform the Securities and Exchange Commission. I will get you back, Medquist, if aren't honest with your shareholders. By the way I won't be working for Medquist at the time, but I will still be a shareholder. And it will be payback time.

so sad [2008-08-29]
it makes me just want to cry. i used to love being a medical transcriptionist, was proud of it. after these 2 yrs with medquist, like you, i want to tell anyone considering getting into this to do anything but. but...in my distress, i have been applying for jobs, found a good part-time one which i just love, and am finding out that Medquist is the devil, and they aren't all like this. a lot are very similar, but some are good. i'm just guessing here, but i'm thinking that companies like medquist, the BIG MT companies, who offer benefits and have thousands of MTs employed, are the ones that are the hardest to work for. it may just be the nature of the beast. i'm not defending them. i'm completely planning on not still being here come my 2 year anniversary with them in just 6 weeks away from now. but i think you have to find the smaller companies, and find a way to not need benefits, or find your health insurance elsewhere, to find a place that has a heart and respects and appreciates you. i think it must be hard for everyone who works for MQ, the QA people, our supervisors, us.all the rules and regsjust make it harder and harder for anyone to be productive. i've been preaching the Obama thinking for a long time now, that one has to start from the bottom and work up, not from the top down, to truly shine as a place that functions on a level where everyone benefits. unfortunately, that has not been the corporate way, with a very few exceptions, and even those exceptions end up going big (i'm thinking ben and jerry's and a couple of other progressive minded companies). anyway....its just sad. i hope they wake up, but i don't see it happening any time soon. hang in there everyone.

resident dictator - could she dictate any faster - don't think so [2008-08-29]
that's why she's getting a nice bunch of big long blanks that i am hoping QA won't understand either.

Me too [2008-08-29]
It takes too long to figure out how to rephrasea sentence starting with 9-1-1 and there is nothing wrong with putting ; at the end of the last sentence in most instances.

I see a lot of complaining about ASR. I was wondering.... [2008-08-29]
How long before they give you ASR reports? I hope they give me some notice and Iassume there wouldbe some kind of advance notice and training, but with MQ, ya never know. Anyways, I was just wondering how much longer I have until they lay it on me. I started in December and they haven'tsaid anything about it yet. In fact, I can't recall it ever even being mentioned in my training from the very beginning. From reading the posts on here, I'm sure not in a hurry for it! Here's what I picture it to be like. The doc dictates into his little machine. The computer types it out as it thinks it hears it. We get the report laid out in front of us along with audio. We listen to it and fix all the mistakes it made. Is that right? What else? I want to know in advance the horrors that I'm going to face before it actually happens to me!

Wrong... my PS does and she's not an MT...sm [2008-08-29]
Well, actually my ex-PS as I had my last day at MQ earlier this month. I love my PS and we talked very candidly about the company and where it was headed, etc., and she flat out told me that they are always after her to do QA when they are behind. She even tells them that not only doesn't she have the time to do it, she's not even an MT and has never transcribed anything ever in her life, but they still want her to do QA. She said she has done it several times to help out and she hates it because she doesn't know what she's doing, but what do you do when you're really not given a choice. She has even given them the names of some of us MTs under her who she thinks would be willing to help QA and are good MTs, been with the company forever, etc., and although I was one of the ones she asked them to contact, no one ever did. I think it's MQ's way of getting more out of their PSs without having to pay out more for QA as the PSs are salaried, or at least mine said she is. BTW, she's also looking for a new job because she is as upset at the way they treated me as I am and she also can't believe that they'd rather have her do QA without MT experience instead of a qualified long-time MT. Who wants to work for a company who is making such stupid decisions? I am so glad I finally found a better place to work. It took me almost a year and several companies, but finally found my fit. Didn't mean to get off subject there, but in answer to your post, yes, I do know for a fact that MQ does have people doing QA who are not, and have never been, an MT. My ex-PS is doing it and she told me that there are many others in the company who are too. I think it's because they need the MTs in the seats right now and can't even afford to take the good ones and put them on QA. JMHO.

Here is what I do [2008-08-28]
I have enough to stress out about without having to waste time worrying about if I can finish the next job in time. I hit end of session only when I know I will get my 8 hours in. If that next job is too long to finish in the 8 hour timeframe, I go ahead and just do it (it usually is not more than 10 or 15 minutes later than normal clock-out time anyway). I then clock in later the next shift to compensate, and then I shoot my PS an email what I have done. On the rare occasions when I have gotten a report that will take me more than 15 or so minutes over my time, I will abandon the job and shoot my PS an email saying I have abandoned a job and why. So far, I have not had any problem doing this as long as my PS is informed, even if this happens several times a week.