sicker than a dog...have to make it up by tomorrow.

I am with you, why make more work? nm [2008-08-28]
.

Forget telling 'em, make them listen to just 1! nm [2008-08-22]
xx

I make more than 8 cpl. nm [2008-08-21]

no way you would make as much typing [2008-08-13]
If you normally straight type 200-250 per hour you would need to do 260-325 ASR just to break even and getting over 300 ASR consistently is hard to achieve, based on at least the accounts I have had the unfortunate priviledge of working on. Sorry, if you are a fast typer and have an extensive expansion list you are much better off straight typing. I am happy you like it, but trust me the money is in the straight transcription and always has been. MQ has found a way to get more lines out of us for the same or less money- good for them, bad for us.

But what MT can even make that much? ...sm [2008-08-10]
She would have had to be cheating the company for a million years cause I think in a million years I could not make that with MQ. LOL

they could make their pay stubs more easier [2008-08-10]
it all looks like it is in chinese! I need to have all the code explanations in front of me when I go over it each time.

Wish I had time but unfortunately I have to make a living before someone from India [2008-08-06]
takes over my job. Really good luck with your union dream but smart business people (like Walmart and Kumar) work around unions. No one can force someone to hire union workers ESPECIALLY if there are loads of workers off shore waiting to pick up the pieces or American workers who will work without a union membership.

I agree. MQ has to be losing MTs because there is no way to make money - [2008-08-05]
not the way we used to before the national pool and the ASR cuts plus the bonus cuts. I think this is the result of mass exit of American MTs who need to make more money to keep up with the cost of living and realized things are not going to change at MQ and in fact could get worse.

Sounds like the sale proceeds unless the shareholders vote it down tomorrow. [2008-08-04]
nm

being a *specialty MT* does not make you special, just makes you limited. nm [2008-08-01]
nm

I was kind of hoping whoever takes over MQ could make things better. [2008-08-01]
They are pretty bad right now from my point of view. Like maybe the new owners have more sense than to distribute work through the cesspool and would go back to letting MTs specialize like doctors specialize. Maybe the new owners could make ASR better instead of the garbage that comes out now. I don't consider status quo at MQ good news.

cr*p, i have to work tomorrow for the Q can't wait [2008-07-31]
I am just absolutely so sick of the Q. I have 3 stamped envelopes sitting on my desk each containing resumes and cover letters. They are going out tomorrow. I will take them to the mailbox right after I of course clock out of cr*ptime. Wish me luck!!!:) And next week, I am going to take a civil service test to try to get employed by the state. I took it last year and did very well, but unfortunately they don't usually hire for the jobs i am interested in in my county or the surrounding ones.

Maybe to make MQ look good [2008-07-30]
for CBay to still go through with acquisition. It is not finalized yet, but lookslike it will be soon.

I did make more per line. . . [2008-07-28]
but I lost my PTO rate. I had been with them for seven years, but was starting at the new-employee level, which doesn't add up as quickly. They were practically drooling to get me back. They lost a lot of people last year when I left. Unfortunately, the account I'm on now is MOSTLY Indian ESLs (why can't they just send those dictations overseas?) and it's harder for me to maintain my income as I did before.

Based on This, I Could Make Millions [2008-07-28]
SELLING BS METERS! Don't worry. There's plenty to be made by the rest of y'all! Go for it!

Based on This, I Could Make Millions [2008-07-28]
SELLING BS METERS! Don't worry. There's plenty to be made by the rest of y'all! Go for it!

What do you make of this? Transcription job losses an industry trend. [2008-07-23]
I am receivingthe AHDIA newsletter and it states: Transcription Job Losses an Industry Trend The medical transcriptionists who will lose their Fargo MeritCare jobs this fall are victims of an industry trend, according to experts in the business. Looking to lower costs while improving turnaround time and accuracy, health care organizations around the country are relying on other ways of recording patient information, said Claudia Tessier, vice president of Medical Records Institute (MRI). The movement is toward real-time documentation, which improves patient care and patient safety,” she said. “As this happens, it diminishes the need for medical transcription as we know it. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s a reality.” Last month MeritCare announced that it would outsource more of its transcription work, resulting in the loss of 70 jobs. Twenty-eight of those people accepted job offers with Nuance, the outsourcing company, said Caryn Hewitt, executive partner of MeritCare’s health information management. Fifty full-time transcriptionists will remain with Merit-Care to facilitate entering information directly into patients’ electronic records, one of the health organization’s goals, Hewitt said. The health system has outsourced about 20 percent of its transcription work domestically for nearly two decades, she said. A year ago, MeritCare decided to send some of its work overseas because of costs. The health organization spends 15 cents a line to hire, train and provide equipment for its own transcriptionists, she said. Outsourcing domestically costs about 14.5 cents a line. Using transcribers in India costs about 11.5 cents a line. With 55 million lines of text transcribed a year for the health care system, the cost difference adds up to about $2.5 million. “It was a dollars and cents decision,” Hewitt said. “Resistance to change is horrendous and, up to a point, justifiable,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean change shouldn’t happen.” Bob Wise, president of the health care division at Nuance, also believes that the business is moving toward models that allow health care providers to self-edit, but he doesn’t see transcription going away. “The role of transcriptionists is valuable. It’s a highly specialized skill,” Wise said. “Technology is coming along to help improve clinical documentation, but that doesn’t work for everybody.” For example, physicians who do hospital rounds may not have easy access to a computer. For current transcription needs, interest in offshore transcription has grown because of its low costs and because work can be turned around during nighttime hours in the U.S., Tessier said. Overseas work can be as accurate and confidential as domestic transcription, and health care organizations must be diligent in reviewing the quality of both, Tessier said. “The quality concerns are legitimate, but they’re the same concerns you have with outsourcing domestically and having in-house transcriptionists,” she said. “They all require supervision, review and a relationship.” Those are skills that a medical Transcriptionist can bring to the table, she said. Their knowledge of the English language and medical terminology remains valuable in the editing and review process.

I make at least 30% less. I know what you mean about ASR. [2008-07-21]
It seems as if it is programmed in with the mistakes and no matter how clearly the dictator says the phrase, the same mistakes show up. ASR suQs.

How much do they make? - sm [2008-07-20]
I have a friend who is considering one of those positions. She is a good MT/ME, but like so many of us, losing money due to ASR and cesspool work. She doesn't work for MQ but she needs job stability. I think she'd make a good supervisor.

Because I make 10.5 cpl, I'm near the top [2008-07-16]
of the pay scale, therefore, no raises. At least that's the BS they always tell me.

I see the same thing by QA. Can't make rhyme or reason of what they do or why. [2008-07-15]
Whatever makes them happy. Maybe they get extra points to retype it? I do not get it but it's not worth my time to question the stupid rules and regulation of how QA worQs.

This might make you feel better. I am not on ASR and the work I get is SM [2008-07-12]
absolutely terrible. My line count/pay has dropped significantly on a consistent basis, particularly the past few months. I get crappy ER reports constantly where the dictation is so fast and sloppy it is one blank after another. This is not what I was trained to do. I realize with ASR you have taken a cut, but the quality of work I am getting makes it impossible for me to earn what I was making as well. I feel for both sides. For me this has gone from a fun ride to a train wreck.

Begs the question of how fast you could type if you can make more on ASR. [2008-07-11]
The majority of MQMTs cannot make more money if the posts on MTStars are any indication of how pleased seasoned MTs are to be working on ASR.

PS - that was a joke - just to make sure everyone understands - nm [2008-07-10]

Hey Maverick - you make me laugh! [2008-07-03]
It's okay that you don't know how you get paid most of the time. I couldn't even set the timer on my VCR, and now I've got a DVR and my kids set it for me! Just as long as your paycheck is close to what you think it might be, you'll be okay. Your humbleness made me smile. Thanks again!

ASR [2008-08-30]
Not all on ASR are unhappy with it. It all depends on the accounts you have whether is is a nightmare or a way to rack up lines. I have been back with MQ since August and had never been asked to learn ASR, I volunteered to be trained on it in April. The accounts I do on ASR happen to be very good. The only problem is when a dictator is new to ASR and it takes a little time for the system to learn them, usually about a week and then they are fine. There are always going to be a few who never learn to talk so that the system can understand them, like anything else. Overall my lines and payhave gone way up since ASR, more than enough to make up for the 30% loss in pay for ASR. I am not a speed typist. I have heard that the people who are really fast and can do a gazillion lines an hour may not fare so well doing ASR and the ones who are slower find it really boosts their line counts/pay -may be animportant factor when considering doing ASR. If you have a lot of bad dictators on your accounts, chances are the ASR will be horrible; if the there are more good dictators than bad, then ASR will be good. It seems some of the best dictators on my accounts are using ASR now and the bad ones are not (many because they have been taken off ASR because even the machinecould notunderstand them). So, you cannot tell how things really are byreading thisboard (for instance, I amvery happywith MQ, having had experience with other nationals).In every situation when someone is complaining about something,you have to remember it depends on whataccountsthey have,the kind of PSthey have, etc. Some complaints may be justified, but again it depends onwhere you are in the company.It is a shame that somemay miss opportunities just because they were scared off by negative things on this board. The way you picturehow ASR worksis pretty much correct, very easy to learn anddo.

LABOR DAY, work or not to work that is the question???? [2008-08-29]
On one hand they want us all available for the hurricane relief, now asking if we want to use our PTO on Labor day? Wasup? I am not using my PTO for time I can not be on vacation or sick. Provide me work or let me go, I do not care if I am paid as I would rather have the fantastic, one of the last days of summer to go out on river and to actually know ahead of time would be nice so I could make some plans and not have to sign in on Mondaymorning to find NO JOBS AVAILABLE, call 1-800-go @*^*^$ yourself and no one to answer or give a ticket number because they are so busy because of holiday weekend and allare out of work. What do they want? I am so confused, but will be right here on Monday morning to see what is up in the cesspool, but I will not sit by this stupid box waiting for work to come in. I am saving my PTO for my fall VACATION,not because they have no work to provide for me and force me to take it.We especially here at MQ NEEDa vacation, as vacatuibs actually make aperson more productive, studies have shown that again and again.I HAVE A LIFE OTHER THAN MEDQUIST!!!!!! They can have me 40 hours a week, but then it is MY time. Maybe looking for reasons to get rid of me as I am taking a week off anyway no matter what in October, have reservations and down payment not losing. This is bull crap with a capitalS. On way out of thisdog and pony show.

losing ground fast [2008-08-29]
Wow, this was discussed below, but my goodness, I am working harder and harder every single day and getting less and less in line count. What can they be taking away? Even on my primary, which I can basically do with my eyes shut. I can not understand. I have no time to pee or even poop unless I want to work Saturday and Sunday. How can they legally do this? How can we figure it out? I used to be able to make my line count in 5 to 6 hours, now 8 and just barely, if I do squeeze it in boy am I sore and suffering. My right arm is ready to fall off at the shoulder. Then they send tips on how to increase performance, do not read emails, they send me on the average of 5 per day on updates of client profiles. Who the hell can even keep these straight? Not me, so okay, I will not read them, especially on MY time, as I have to work hardand hold my bladder to make 1200 lines. My God, this is just getting terrible, and my nephew withmuscular dystrophy wants to get into this career as it would be perfect for him to stay home and type. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO please do not do this. I tell all who ask, that is is not what it used to be and run far from it. Sick to death of killing myself for pennies. As paid inIndia, can I have a food basket?

Holy cow [2008-08-29]
What is going on with being so stringent that we have to stop and argue points with those that correct our reports. This morning I had a report where the doctor said thigh and the person changed it to leg. I know this dictator like the back of my hand and know what he said. God forbid we miss one hyphen or something now. Geez Louise. Here we are trying to increase our production to try to make a living and they are worried about a hyphen. 1 to 1 or 1-to-1, side to side or side-to-side.

follow up [2008-08-29]
I mean, we all try to be as careful as possible and try to do as we are supposed to, but we do make errors on occasion when we are trying to keep our line counts up. As an oldie and somewhat goodie, I can see that after 10 years, things are getting worse. I does not take much to see that maybe they do want those of us who have been here for a while to leave. Thank God retirement is right around the corner.

Tired [2008-08-29]
I have never been one to make waves. I used to just get in in the morning, do my transcription, then get off in the afternoon, not worrying about anything. Man how that has changed. It is not that I do not like my accounts, when I get them, which is seldom. Glad to have work I would be asked by the sup? Sure, but not when it is the cesspool and there really isn't any way to make any decent time or money. For you older folks, do you remember summers ending last year? We would be so busy with our own accounts that we had to work OT and for bonuses to fill in for people who were on vacation. What happened to that? There were so many times when we were 2 or 3 days behind. Can't imagine all of that just walking away. But of course, we are dumb, we believe anything they tell us such that there are too many MTs on certain accounts, etc.

corrections [2008-08-29]
You know, I think we had better make a copy of everything we type. Sound dumb? The light bulb just went off. No wonder we can't get raises. We may be typing something correctly, but then a person with no MT experience changes it to something entirely wrong, but we get credit for it. Something is not right in Q land.

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.

Yeah I don't do ASR because of the same reason sm [2008-08-29]
I know quite a few MTs who feel the same and one is a proofer, sister-in-law of mine!!!! The people who say they can do a gazillion lines with ASR are not going through them properly in my opinion. I could be wrong but for me to go through them word for word, I can't make any money, so I refuse to do it.

My primary account [2008-08-29]
has just now gone to ASR and I hate it. I have a secondary account that is mostly ASR and I don't mind it so much since I don't have it all the time. Now I will be getting ASR all the time and I am just no angry about that. Not only do you make less money but it is just boring as crap. I am not happy at all.

I have a ?, too sm [2008-08-28]
How much do the supes (etc.) make? Just the range, please.

Wow, that's a pretty self-righteous post there. And I'm [2008-08-28]
pretty sure no one here WONDERS why they don't make top dollar. Pretty obvious it's bc of pay cuts NOT because no one is following directions. Besides, like the poster below pointed out, you're not quite right.

My primary is exactly the same [2008-08-28]
way. It is strictly verbatim, but I must say that if they dictate a couple headings and not the rest, I go ahead and put them in where appropriate. I've never had a problem with doing this, and as it is our job to make the report as clear as possible to read, I don't see how anybody could have a problem with adding a few simple headings. I used to not add them, then I thought to myself this is ridiculous, exactly as you are saying. Why would anybody want their reports to look like that. So I started adding them and have never had anything said to me.

ticket time [2008-08-28]
Well see here, 2 different opinions. I also have that account, and well damn if you do, damn if you don't. Then contractions allowed all over, which is hard to type when taught not to, and to top it off, abbreviations in assessment and plan. Yea, okay this is not my main account and sometimes brainlessly I type as I am used to but then have to go take all this crap out. DO NOT, I SAY DO NOT MAKE A NEW PARAGRAPH UNLESS ASKED, DO NOT, OR IT IT IS A $50 FINE AND 1 NIGHT IN THE SLAMMER. This drives me absolutely nuts, but gotta just laugh and give them what they want. Just keep guessing and hope you get it right or do not get caught.

call me at 1-800-9999 [2008-08-28]
I believe after, poorrate perline,ASR, taxes, insurance going up, poor production, cesspool, ASLs and everybody but someone who knows what is really going on running the company, most MTs take home about $1 a day. Give me a call. Sorry feels naughty this morning, trying to make light of this soon to be horrible day I feel coming.

hahah [2008-08-28]
you made me laugh. thanks. honestly though, i make less than $10 hour when all is said and done. before i came here i was making $17/hour, though i was getting paid by the hour. ahh...those were the days before i died and ended up here in hell.

u r welcome [2008-08-28]
sorry, meant to be the debt consultant, but I think you knew. Me also, with the old YOG, BIG MONEY and fair bonuses, very, very fair bonuses. Had to work about 5 hours a day to make line count, and now 8 hours and barely make it, about $10 an hour. BUT WE GET TO SIT AT HOME AND TYPE IN OUR JAMIES, or even naked. Sometimes I do that just to tell people I can and do. Gotta mix it up as on $1 a day I can not afford the nut house. Wonder when we will all be monitored by web cams.

Silly me. I did it again. [2008-08-28]
I forgot this yet again. Call it being conditioned to not being paid as we once were. That did remind me of all the reports I type daily where I have to do all the clerical stuff and lose that. I know this subject has been discussed at length, but I'd like to see (and have) the cumulative amount I could have earned per PP for all those NONpaid items. Multiply it by 12, and wow! Even so, it does make me wonder why 95% or more of my reports come to my desk with no ADT info. The only thing I can guess is due to TAT.

I would be happy to have that. [2008-08-28]
I think it takes a lot of stress away from the job if you can just type what they say - no decisions to make. I wish all accounts were like that.

something similar [2008-08-27]
I have not worked for a couple of weeks now, but I was noticing very frequently that I would get emails about my primary account being backed up, yet I kept getting jobs from other accounts that were pretty crappy. I emailed my supervisor many times about this. Sometimes it would get fixed before my shift ended and sometimes not. It might be a conspiracy. I think a lot of it has to do with technical malfunctions. I know the couple of times my supervisor actually replied to me it quickly it was fixed. Like I said, I no longer work for MQ, but while I did there were times that I emailed my supervisor URGENT, left messages for her through her MQ voicemail, and left messages for her on her cell and still didn't get a response sometimes for days. She was really nice and I liked her a lot.. I think some of the supervisors are overloaded though. That was the feeling I got from her anyway. Sorry to get off track there for a sec. Next time this happens to you I would recommend emailing your supervisor, MQ voicemail, cell, and contacting the technical department. I would also copy the email to myself so that you have proof you tried to contact your supervisor. One of the reasons I quit though was because I kept getting really crappy accounts other than my primary and was not able to make my line rate when this happened. Not only do you have to read a new client profile every time, but then you usually also get crappy dictators.

In your rush to judge, you've missed the point entirely. [2008-08-27]
Please do not presume to tell us that you NEVER lose your concentration, that youNEVER get in a hurry, that yourmindNEVERwanders, andyou NEVER make a mistake. I do not PUT my brain on auto-pilot, it simply goes there sometimes, as everyone's does. Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. Thiswas meant to be a continuation of a thread from below. My point was simply that ASR can be every bit as dangerous to patient care as canned text, which we have specifically been asked not to use. MQs policies are contradictory and confusing, and I'm so glad I won't have them to deal with anymore.

Flabbergasted [2008-08-27]
Its not that hard people. When you are done you hit the end of session box then sign off- Then it kicks your second reserved job back into the pool to be picked up by someone else instead of being stuck. Really people come on. This is not a hard concept and y'all are supposed to be able to be bright enough to follow instructions. I cant believe what I see on this board sometimes and you all wonder why you dont make top dollar.

Good luck to you. I left a little over a [2008-08-27]
year ago and had 3 job offers the first week I sent out resumes. I have now been with a company for almost a year and absolutely love it. Also, not to sure about an hourly rate however, you can normally make a bunch more money on production.

That's what I thought [2008-08-26]
Maybe it's just the dictators I get, but if I try to make and use normals for them, it's like going through and trying to fix bad ASR. I can type as fast as they speak for the most part, so I gave up and just transcribe them.

Not humanly possible... [2008-08-26]
to remember/reviewEVERY detail ofEVERY CP,EVERY time you get a dictation from a differentaccount (which sometimes is each dictation), and still make above minimum wage. I can't tell you how many times I've sent a report and 2 seconds later realized that it was set up all wrong for that particular account. I worry constantly about the reports that I may have sent where it never dawned on me that it was set up wrong. There's a difference between being a good employee and being a d__n fool. MQ has created an impossible situation, and no matter what spin they try to put on it, no matter how guilty they try to make us feel (i.e.any good MT should be able to do any account), it doesn't make it any better for those of us with children to feed, bills to pay, etc., etc., etc. I've hung as long as I could out of loyalty to the company, fear of change, a myriad of reasons, but the bottom line is my family comes first, and I'm already, after 1 week of training, making more at my new company than I can possibly make at MQ these days. I've got 4 days left here. I just wish I would have made the move sooner.