p.s. and hospitals are complying

Hospitals sending overload work upload [2008-12-04]
the voice files to MQ. That is a common way dictation is transferred from the hospital to an MTSO. We're not in the age of tapes at hospitals anymore. Voice files can be transferred anywhere.

Hospitals can "cut off" dictation to a service [2008-12-04]
x

Hospitals do hold work back if that [2008-12-04]
account is only overflow. If there are inhouse MTs, then they get priority on getting work, not MQ. Therefore, the hospital will not send dictation if the workload is low, and perhaps they actually do wait to the weekend because they are not fully staffed and don't want to be behind come Monday morning.

Some hospitals do download overflow [2008-12-04]
work in a chunk. I actually work on an account that does that.

According to my PS some hospitals do dump [2008-12-04]
dictation at the end of the week or whenever they want. We get emails about this all the time.

A list of hospitals/accounts...sm [2008-10-16]
your supervisor is responsible for.He/she should have e-mailed you their BOB. My new CCM did today. I still don't know what a CAF is, though.

All the higher ups in hospitals care about is [2008-09-24]
the bottom cash line and not accuracy or safety of medical records. Only if doctors actually read the transcription and take action will decisions be made by the higher ups based on other important factors such as quality. At a hospital I worked at in the past, some doctors complained about the transcription. Although, the only thing that really came of it was that those doctor's dictation was not sent off shore. At that hospital, one of my ex co-worker says the doctors have gone on strike right now and are not completing records because they WANT it transcribed and refuse to use the computer only system where they have to enter everything themselves and/or only have limited options to chose and click.

I think we should be paid more for teaching hospitals. [2008-09-05]
Not only are the residents and medical students idiots, they idiots change every 3 months and we get new ones. Just about the time you figure them out, or they learn how to dictate, they leave. You can't set up standards for these children. We should get a premium for transcribing teaching hospitals. I have 2 and they drive me crazy.

Private practice and hospitals run on budgets and need to cut corners too. [2008-07-29]
Insurance is not paying what it used to. So much of our information is outsourced offshore. I thought I read IRS was sending work offshore. And the question remains, what is an Indian MT going to do with someone's medical record that an American MT could not do?

Too bad the hospitals can't see what ASR spits out - sm [2008-07-11]
I'm sure they would be apalled. When I started on ASR a year ago it really was much better than it is now. For us to be told that our productivity will go up with it is a joke because it really does take longer to edit many of these reports than it would to just type them. I've been lucky in that I haven't been thrown into the cesspool much, and I have one account that has not gone to ASR, and I doubt they will. I think right now I'm probably getting 60/40. And you're right, how can it be legal?

Not true. It has been proven. MTs and hospitals alike [2008-06-30]
It just happens to be that they settled on this one. Otherwise, who knows, they may have lost this one as well.

I have a group of 4 hospitals and have noticed getting SM [2008-06-21]
basically same dictators over and over. Since these are big hospitals, I find it really strange.

Wonder what would happen to all the Canadian hospitals who .....sm [2008-06-14]
use Medquist? They have a number of large accounts at major cities in Canada. Canadian privacy of information laws do not allow medical information to be offshored.

different hospitals [2008-06-03]
I typed 22 different accounts yesterday and did not make my line count in 8-1/2 hours - what's wrong with that picture?

Ops only, tier 4, my super's whole BOB, 12 hospitals. nm [2008-06-03]
.

CBAY CAN DO NOTHING IF US HOSPITALS [2008-05-24]
DECLINE to renew Medquist's contracts if Cbay is it's corporate entity. Transcription is a free SERVICE that hospitals provide to the physicians as an accommodation for admitting patients to their hospitals. Hospital Administrators know HIPPA laws, and transcription is not a large part of their overhead for them to be willing to risk being sued for violating patient confedentiality laws, upset patientsand physicians. That is one BIG hurdle MQ, under Cbay will have to contend with. Will hospitals renew their contracts if they know MQ is owned by a guy named KUMAR??? (I am multi-racial myself, as are a lot of you, so please forgive me if this sounds blantly racist, it's about outsourcing and being conniving and underhanded about it).

Let's hope many of these hospitals are going to insist the work stay here with Americans. (sm) [2008-05-24]
I just wonder if the hospitals will know if it is being sent overseas or not. For all we know CBay could assure them that their work was done in US by US MTs and then have our little ILPs type them up.

Hospitals wanting to remain with US [2008-05-24]
And I know for a fact that there are many hospitals who get fooled by unscrupulous MTSOs who farm their work out to foreign subs. Happens all the time.

p.s. and hospitals are complying [2008-05-24]
from the article I saw on the news, leading hospitals are making a very concerted effort in sensitivity training and are concerned about their image in how they treat gays

If some hospitals forbid using ILPs, how can they be sure the MTSO [2008-04-27]
is still not using them in some way. I think it would be difficult for the hospital to monitor this and easy for the company to get around it. Do you think there is any way to find out which hospitals want US MTs only?

Are some hospitals split between 2 supervisors? (sm) [2008-04-21]
I have a large account and my supervisor has just over 100 employees (and of course about 7 other accounts in her BOB). Some jobs in this hospital come up showing NAME OF HSP - ALL WORK - ASR. Other jobs come up showing *NAME OF HSP West5-2d P1. Anyone else notice this? Can't state account name or supervisor here, E-mail if you wish.

Wow 35 hospitals? And I thought I had [2008-03-24]
it bad. I'm glad to have helped someone!

JHACO on site at my hospitals on top of backlog created [2008-03-18]
xx

If anyone on here ever worked for the hospitals in Philly and knows where they went can you email me [2008-03-14]
with this information. I am curious where some of the big universities ended up.

hospitals on hold ??? [2008-03-12]
I've beenwondering/worrying what is going on with our accounts as they wait for medical records? I know they can get paper labs, eventually, and paper dx tests, eventually, but what about vital consults that were dictated and sit in our system and admits, discharge summaries, psych evals, etc.??? What are they doing without us!!!!

You know... [2008-12-04]
The sad part about this post isn't that you don't hospitals have the ability to send or not send whatever they want, the sad part is you come on with this attitude that you know absolutely everything...and in reality you know nothing.

Good Grief! [2008-12-04]
I think you read wayyy too much into my post. I am not saying they do anything to pi$$ me off, I do not mind being called for extra hours on the weekends or working when the demand is there. Some of us (I think the OP) like to just understand where things are coming from. And yes, I really HAVE worked in house for a hospital (several large, nationally known entities) for quite some time. No, not all hospitals work the same, I was speaking from MY experience. So please, before shooting off like that, consider asking a few questions or trying to understand where the other poster is coming from. Not everyone is out to get someone or point a finger. Some are just here to offer an opinion and some alternative advice to help others...even if it is just to help understand why things may be the way they are. Yes, it does help some get through the day to try to understand.

Stuff I DO know [2008-12-04]
I personally haven't been called by the IR lately but I do know I've been scrounging for work unlike any time I can ever remember and I've worked for MQ and it's predecessor for 28 years. I also know that by late afternoon, my primary work pool is available, but is absolutely sucked dry overnight. My sister, who works for MQ in another region with other hospitals is in the same boat. So forgive me if I'm a little paranoid that something weird is going on. MQ never tells us anything up front, they basically just blow smoke at us and assume that we're stupid.

Hospitals sending overload work upload [2008-12-04]
the voice files to MQ. That is a common way dictation is transferred from the hospital to an MTSO. We're not in the age of tapes at hospitals anymore. Voice files can be transferred anywhere.

Here we go again . . . [2008-12-04]
Yes, that is how it works - the MQ management conspires with the doctors and administration of the hospitals specifically to annoy you and sirupte your schedule. Get a grip - doctors dicate whenever the heck they want to, they dictate directly into the system so there is no THEY that are holding work just to pi$$ you off, and if you really had ever worked in a hospital you would know how cylical the work is and always has been. And no, I am not management, just an MT with 35 years of experience who does her job as asked by MQ, is not freaking out by every single little change and can remember to be grateful that I can earn full-time wages and have absolutely NO work expenses, thereby incerasing my take-home pay by 25% over those who slog to an office or, in our case, some dungeon in a hospital.

sometimes not due to lack of trying [2008-12-03]
I have an account where if the patient is seen past a certain time of night and I type it before morning, the ADT info is not available yet. It depends on how some hospitals keep files I guess.

OMG! OMG! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS. [2008-12-02]
http://health-information.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=189369 I went to Google, typed in Medquist and then at top of page, I hit News and this is the report that came up first. IT SAYS TO GO TO MTSTARS.COM in the article. From the East Comes Light Posted on Dec. 1, 2008 By Rebecca A. McSwain, PhD, CMT View/Post Comment E-Mail Article Printer-Friendly Permalink Ex oriente lux (From the East Comes Light) (Latin proverb) Over the last 10 years there have been, to guesstimate, a billion words expended on offshore MT. Unfortunately, these words have often generated more heat than light. That is to say, offshore MT is an emotional issue, and enlightenment in the form of facts is sometimes hard to come by. For example, an outfit called ValueNotes, which researches and analyzes international business trends, suggested in 2006 that current revenue from Indian MT was $195 million yearly and would reach $647 million by 2010. ValueNotes, however, is based in India, and may be inclined to have an exaggerated view of Indian MT trends. Given that many large U.S. clients - hospitals and clinics - require guarantees that their work will not be offshored, it's difficult to say where this vast expansion in Indian MT will come from. It is undeniable, however, that large U.S. medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs) now have a presence in India (Spheris and MedQuist are examples). For a good sampling of how U.S. MTs feel, go to the MTStars Web site (http://www.mtstars.com), Main Forum, and search the term offshore. Hold on to your hat, and get out your saltshaker for the grains of salt you need when reading some of the posts. Many people blame offshoring companies for the precipitous drop in MT wages in the past decade or so. But is there really good evidence for this? There have been myriad downward pressures on transcription pay. First is the nationwide panic about soaring health care costs. The value of MT is often not understood by administrative/financial decision makers in health care institutions, and MT becomes an easy target for those seeking to save money. Second, the increasing and continuing costs of technological change have, in my opinion, siphoned off billions of the dollars allocated to medical records - sometimes with good results, sometimes not. Some of that money, I believe, has come out of our (MT) hides. Third, I believe the promises (delusions) of automated transcription have created a reluctance on the part of financial decision-makers to spend the money necessary to train and retain skilled MTs, because, after all, in 5 years we will all be replaced by a computer. (Not. But that's another topic.) Finally, MTs should consider that their loss of income may be part of a larger trend of lower or stagnant pay in health care occupations. Nursing pay, for example, did not increase for many years in spite of an acute shortage of nurses, and nursing can't be outsourced. (See http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/15/1648 for one discussion of nurses' wages.) I worked in India for 6 months and still count some Indian MTs as friends and colleagues. I didn't believe at that time, and don't believe now, that offshoring is the source of all the ills of MT. If the value of medical transcription is understood correctly by hospital and clinic administrators, if quality and service are paramount, then our shared goals can be achieved by a worldwide collaboration of well-trained and appropriately compensated MTs. That would be the dawn of a new day! Rebecca A. McSwain is currently working as a production MT for a national service. She has worked as an MT supervisor, business owner, instructor and QA manager. She's a member of AHDI and the American Medical Writers Association. She has a PhD in anthropology and continues to work on anthro-related writing projects in her spare time. She can be reached at rmcswain_985@fuse.net.

found this thread from a community forum regarding offshoring. This is said so perfectly. sm [2008-12-02]
http://www.crn.com/channelcommunity/forum.jspa?forumID=13 Then, check out the last thread HIPAA and outsourcing medical records. I think the person who posted this said exactly what many of us feel, and points to the crucial aspects that we should address with our state reps, senators, etc. I think many should again address this issue with Lou Dobbs of CNN. His website offers email for topics of discussion on shows. HIPAA needs to make some drastic changes IMHO as well. It seems the Veterans Administration is no longer tolerating offshoring of patient medical records. In addition, the major insurance carriers should also be made aware of their insured patients' medical records leaving the country (Aetna, Medicare, Medicaid, and many of the big HMOs). I truly believe that many insurance companies, physician practices, hospitals, and patients have no idea when their confidential medical records are being produced outside of the country. I think everyone has the right to know.

from what i've seen.... [2008-12-02]
everything just gets worse and worse. asr is definitely no better, but the hospitals i've been getting, their dictators are THE WORST!!! omg. i'm so glad i went part-time. i can barely get through the 6 hours a day now. i think they must send me the worst of the worst. its a conspiracy!!!!

Also, please remember that while you may not [2008-12-02]
pay rate of your new job, it will NOT be like MQ in that I am sure you will get routine raises, especially in a hospital setting. Seriously and honestly, I think MQ is the only company I have ever heard of in any line of work who has gotten away with no raises for so many and for some for years and years. So, it will always go UP at your new job! I am so happy for you. I started off working in hospitals, and miss them so much. You will feel like you are actually part of of something, and you will be! I even miss the cafeteria food! I lived in South Florida and the hospitals there had gourmet food for the staff, 24/7, including steak and lobster tails!

No [2008-11-29]
It's always like this between Thanksgiving and New Year's.....not just MQ. I've worked at four hospitals in the past and I was the only one who worked. I usually just got a few HPs trickle in and maybe some STATS - that's it. Slower than mule's asses in January.

sheesh, are you new to MQ? [2008-11-27]
been doing this over 25 years. never left blanks at all until the garbage here at medquist. don't get paid to spend 8 hours trying to understand one word, let alone 20. these docs make no effort to dictate clearly andmedquist will NEVER send a memo to the hospitals asking that their dictators consider us. so the garbage continues and so will my blanks. i have a second job and i maybe leave one blank out of every 20 reports. its not me.

i'm there with ya! [2008-11-27]
I, too, have left anywhere from 40-50 blanks and not just rushing through one time -- went all the way back through taking anywhere from 1-2 hours on one report, changing the speed, tone, etc.-- if you can't understand it, you just can't and after a while that's all you can do but send it with the blanks. MQ is so on with their rah-rah team work, but I'm sorry, if the doctor's and hospitals won't do their part to clean up their act then 50% of the equation is not there and qualityon our part just will not happen. It has distressed me so much to send a report with that many blanks, but enough is enough and MQ never seems to understand that. Like someone else posted for MQ it's not about quality anymore -- it's the quantity and that's sad.

48, and QA could not hear them either. [2008-11-27]
If hospitals will not correct their phone problem, if doctors will not open their mouth and speak or learn how to speak English, will not find a quiet place to dictate rather than the operative clean up area with banging pans, I don't sweat it anymore.

work pool teams [2008-11-26]
Does anyone know how many folks are on each work teams now? I have a primary account of four hospitals and no work. But, if a hospital sends 50 jobs and there are 50 people on the work team, then it would make sense there is no work. I thought the talking heads said the making smaller teams would be better for the MT. It has only gotten worse for me since that last change.

Yes, I do. I found out last week that [2008-11-26]
She was told she was to have 20-30 MT's to make it a small group for her. What has been added for her now is she has to deal with the hospitals directly that is on her BOB list. The company keeps adding new MT's to her group and she is now up to 80. She used to have 110 when she was a PS and never had to deal with the hospitals, but now she has to deal with hospital staff which has even added more stress and work for her than it was when she had 110 MT's. Stupid MQ does not know what the heck they are doing (MY OPINION).

I'm glad to hear your story, Sunny [2008-11-26]
I have over 15 years experience, worked in multiple hospitals and clinics, trained dozens of new transcriptionists, taught at a local business school, done proofreading & QA for years, and owned my own service. Because I now care for my elderly father, I just took the MQ on-line test for radiology & nuclear medicine earlier this week which I did not find at all difficult and ... failed! I'm genuinely shocked and wondering what on earth they were looking FOR, or what could possibly have been so bad about my work.

holiday [2008-11-23]
What a grim tale Scrooge! Yes, there are some great paying MT jobs out therewith a lot of MTs applying for each and every one of them. Yes, there are other companies willing topay more than MQ. Yes, there are other companies paying less than MQ. Yes, there are other companies with better benefits than MQ. Yes, there are other companies with worse benefits than MQ. I alsoworkas an IC for a privatemedical office that does pay me more per line than MQ doesbut I don't get any benefits, have to pickup and deliver, don't get paid when the doctors are on vacation or out of the office, have gotten only 1 raise in 11 years,andam only allowedto take off1 weekper year (unpaid ofcourse). There are a lot of campanies in the US that have headquarters, manufacturing plants, etc., outside of the US.This is not something unusual or unique to MQ.If MQ becomes a foreign company doing business in the US, then theymay very well lose accounts.However, you have to remember that hospitals and other medical facilities are first and foremost a business and all businessesoperate toturn a profit and will gravitate towards the cheapestmeans to achieve that goal. In this economy, we all need to be thankful for a job. ThoseMQ employees who harbor suchhostility towards MQ should think of how they would feel if they logged on simply to learn they'd lost their job because MQ couldn't keepenough accounts. Instead of puttingso much effort into dissing them, maybe that effort should be puttowardstheir job. As for those prior MQ employees---WHO CARES-----your opinions mean nothing, your ideas mean nothing, you are not a vital part of the MQ community now and probable never wereto begin with. When you don't like yourjob, you get a new one and that's that. You don't continually diss yourformer employee unless you're trying to convince yourselfyou're right.This is something teenagers do, not grown-upswith bills to pay and mouths to feed. MQ may not be the perfectemployerbuttell me one that is, then I'll believe your doom and gloom,they did me wrong song!

new company..sign me up [2008-11-21]
That would be a nice comeback to their backstabbing and manipulative ways.. Count me in if you set it up. . This is bad for all of us, but we can only hope that Karma comes back to bite all of them. I have the same problem with my hospital being sold out to Spheris, another Indian outsourcing gem of a company.With all the warningsof identifytheft, how can they get hospitals to agree to sending someone's health records over to India? Oh yeah.. never mind .. called the bottom line of course .. ugh..

I don't send any more to QA than I did before - sm [2008-11-21]
I suppose I should consider myself lucky for getting my new primary almost constantly, plus most of the docs are pretty good about the ADT screen, but I did have one who did 3 jobs in a row w/o any ADT info...nothing, not a number, name, date or anything else. I dida judgment call and just stuck a note on it and uploaded it to the facility, as I knew QA couldn't get it either. Two days later when I got this same doc, he started off by saying that he'd gotten in trouble for not telling us the info, so he spelled everything out quite slowly. LOL, every once in awhile we get through to the hospitals! I've noticed no QASAR feedback as well.

I believe NO ONE cares [2008-11-21]
After listening to some of the worst dictation I have heard in years, and I don't just mean mumbling and accents but just an inability to express a thought, I am thoroughly convinced that no one in the documentation food chain cares at all. Why would they even care if ASR or an ESL MT are producing a quality document? The doctors, HIM Departments and MTSOs do not seem to care so why should we? If the dictators cared, they might actually try to be accurate. If the hospitals cared, they would demand quality and go to the next higher bidder who would provide it. If MTSOs cared they would charge what is needed to produce a quality document and brag about it. For what it is worth I cannot in good conscience be sloppy, but I just don't think that going up the chain of command with our commands will do any good whatsoever. A decision maker would have to care. As for MT/ME/QA, we just get the

website with court documents now [2008-11-21]
wwwdotTranscriptionsettlementDotCom has about ten court papers posted. As I begin to read, it looks like Hoffman's suit brought out flaws in the original complaint. I have not found the description yet concerning how MQ shaved off the lines we typed, or how they shammed the hospitals into paying even more than we typed. Or what MQ did with the secret money those two ploys accrued. I am opting out of the charity settlement. I think the lawyers who discovered this deserve payment in full, as do we. We should try again. When we unionize, the union can get us the pay we deserved during those, for me, nine+ years. Kind of what I would like, though, speaking more normally, would be some direct communication of what they knew they were doing to my pay, who knew it and when; and some cash to me to make up for the career insults. I am willing to move on to the next job, if I can find one. But, truth is I like Medquist a lot, and respect our doctors and our typing personnel. I think that is why the settlement was some milquetoast, though: they knew we just want to do our jobs fairly, and work hard for the sick people's sake. Guess I will try to keep this job.

Since this change... [2008-11-20]
a month ago I've had between 90-100% ASR. Today was the second day in the past month that I've had more than 2 or 3 reports of typing, all the rest ASR. I'm also having dropped lines in ASR because I'm bouncing at least half my shift. Usually by the end of hour 2 I'm bouncing outside my BOB. Today I had 5 different hospitals including my primary which is also new to me. I have lost lines just because of the ASR being so high now, where I used to average 50/50 prior to this change a month ago, now its been usually more than 90% ASR, and like I said, with the bouncing that alone dropped my lines like crazy. I've lost all motivation slowly over the last month...

Same here [2008-11-20]
I do approximately 100%. I may get 2 reports a day that are not ASR. I have gotten the worst doctors on the account I am on, and we have added new hospitals to our division, most of which are ASR.

Settlement - What a brilliant move! [2008-11-20]
Not much time to post, but this is what is going on with the class action settlement. The MT class action suit was simply a bunch of lawyers who hopped onto the coattails of the South Florida hospital law suit. Their theory was that IF MQ overbilled clients, it stands that they then MUST have underpaid MTs. These lawyers had no pride and fished this board for years to get any info they could, and they never could get any proof of their theory. But that doesn�t matter in America, right? They sued anyway, knowing that they would get $$ for it. They did, at � million for their own fees. Not shabby for a fished up lawsuit. Their original suit was only for MedRite, by the way, and not a lot of us were on that system. At any rate, this is my 100% prediction of why the $$ is going to AHDI or AAMT. CHECK THIS OUT: 1.5 million is going there so that MQ MTs can BENEFIT from it? How might you all benefit, you wonder? MQ and AHDI worked hand in hand and invented the RMT � registered medical Transcriptionist certificate thing, and it was INVENTED to prove that INDIAN MTS knew their stuff. Prior to that there was no such cert. So MQ and the other big MTSOs needed something in paper to show to our American hospitals that Indian MTs could do the work, too, so they invented the RMT. CMT had been around for a while. Now, I believe last I checked, the RMT cost a good several hundred bucks from start to finish, all in AAMT�s pocket � courses to prepare, books and materials, and then the cost for the final test with required renewals, etc. GUESS WHAT?? You are all gonna be FORCED to get your credentials, as in the RMT. MQ once again has killed 2 birds with 1 stone. They are gonna use this to BENEFIT once again. This is not for your benefit, but its gonna be an across the board test for all MQ MTs, Indian and American, and then the clients will be told there is NO DIFFERENCE in quality with all being RMTs, Indian or American, and that its discrimination or something to demand US only work. This 100% makes sense and is the plot, I would guarantee it. This is what is up with all this CRAP. And MQ got the US judicial system to support it! Remember, everything MQ does is only for their benefit, so does this not make total sense? OUR settlement $ is going to the AHDI or whatever they are called now, otherwise known as MQ�s back pocket, and you will get to take FOR FREE the RMT exam and prep work, etc. because MQ is gonna demand this. HOW BACKHANDED IS THAT? MQ continues to impress with its snarky moves right down to this genius move. Plaintiffs don�t care and are probably laughing their behinds off at the lack of cooperation they got from MQ MTs � they got their $$. Also, please remember that this suit has been around for years and most MTs were not interested at all in helping the case, so don�t expect one ounce of sympathy from the lawyers. This is, indeed, a DONE DEAL. You are trying to jump on a bandwagon that launched years and years ago. Also, why on earth so many of you are wasting your time writing to management to complain about your rates being cut? How on earth could you possibly think this is productive? They know it! They want your rates cut. They would probably like you all to quit before Christmas, and they have THOUSANDS OF YOUR REPLACEMENTS ready and in the batter�s box. PLEASE come to your senses and see the light. Get yourselves situated in new jobs and leave this drama behind you. It will NEVER end in a good way for US MTs, never. Remember � FACT not EMOTION. Your company is owned by India, NOT America. Your American bosses are just paper, they are HOLOGRAMS just like CNN uses for the election. They are a fa�ade. You are owned by INDIA and India wants to do what is natural � make more $ and use Indian MTs. PLEASE see the light. Use your time and energy for something productive, not fooling yourselves that you can somehow get back at MQ.