A friend of mine worked there over 9 years

• Has anyone ever heard of silent type? - mbr425
  • A friend of mine worked there over 9 years - Loved it
  • Think you still have to go to NJ to train. Was offered a very low per-page rate several years ago. - nm Didn't take it.

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One of the accounts they have came from a hospital I worked for here in Ohio.  A good friend of mine went to work there when they outsourced the radiology side.  She got an e-mail out of blue with them stating they no longer needed her services. They did this to ALL of the 2nd and 3rd shift MTs.  The reason she wants YOUR line rates is so she can the very least she has to pay.  If she has this information up front, then she will not contact the MTs with higher line rates.  They used to only pay 9 cents per line radiology and 8 cents per line acute care.  They have also changed the way they post jobs as they used to post the amount of line rates for each specialty.  Horrible Company!!

Her big complaint was that there were so many ESLs that it was hard to make any money.  Another friend signed on with them  as well part-time and he had no complaints.  There is plenty of work.  They are very flexible.  I think they use a Dictaphone platform.  I did talk to the owner a couple of years ago and they offered me 8 cpl with a bonus weekend every month where I make 10 cpl, more depending on how much I produce.  Again, this was 2 years ago. 

the pay rate sounded a little on the low side to me (I'm thinking around 7 cents, 65 cpl), but she really didn't have a whole lot of experience when she started, either.  (We had worked together for about a year and I trained her as a new graduate before we both quit the company we were with.)  She really likes working for them; it seems like their trainers/QA people are really decent folks who give pretty good and fair feedback, which is something she really likes.

I do know they have benefits for both FT and PT people, which is pretty rare these days.

with her current job, doing radiology transcription at a local hospital.  I was going to suggest she send her resumes to some of the national companies, but did not know which companies out there had radiology accounts.  If Keystrokes is the best, then I'll suggest that to her.  Thanks for the tip.  :-)

As for me, I've been doing acute care since Moses was a baby, but doubt I could pass any kind of radiology test. 

Verbal tests are to give the recruiter a feel of what that MT knows off the top of their head.  Not all people get nervous at verbal tests but a good recruiter has the insight to know if a wrong answer or lack of an answer is from not knowing or is from just being nervous.  A verbal test is done just to get a feel for the the off the top knowledge of an MT plus you know that MT is taking it.  This recruiter is also an MT and having gone through so many tests the long hard way decided this was the lesser of the evils.  She did tell me though if she felt that MT knew their stuff and just could not respond because of nervousness that she noted that and just by a general conversation based on experience would not flunk someone like that.  Lenghty tests prove very little except that an MT has been working for companies that all have different ways of style and that she felt that was not right to an MT; as well having to take tests that are hours long after an MT has been working long hours is also not fair to the MT.  And my friend told me that in many cases there are MTs that literally have other MTs take their testing for them and you would not know it until that person starts the job.  It depends on the recruiter and their knowledge of the industry.  Each recruiter or company has their own way and usually they find the way that works best for them.  I personally find that many recruiters just have no knowledge of the industry (inside knowledge) and it annoys me that someone like that is allowed to even have the opportunity to interview and test me.  I can remember one with a company up north and their idea of punctuation was way too much.  It should not have been an issue unless it changed the meaning of the report but had they gone by the Book of Style they would not have added those 20 or so commas throughout the 4 reports that they had me transcribe.  I passed but when you have been in this industry for over 15 years and are being judged by someone that has not and who has not been in your MT dancing shoes then something about that just does not seem right.  Anyway I doubt there really is a best way to do anything, but if I had my choice, I would prefer the way that is the shortest. Time is precious and for the rates they pay nowadays those tests are just too lengthy to go through that for a whopping 7 cents a line.  No thank you.  I'll chance my nerves over all that. 

She said that the work load was sporadic at best.  They would either be drowning in work or starving.  She said that her pay was late two or three times and when she questioned management on it they were extremely rude.  She said that the owner/manager of the company was a nightmare who was prone to screaming fits and berating those who disagreed with her.

You can take this for what it's worth.  I hope it helps with your decision.

and also because I wanted to distinguish myself from the pack of people who do this to make a little extra money or supplement the main income in the house.  I agree that this initiative will probably fail unless the people who truly believe they are professionals will invest in themselves and get the CMT.

I wish everyone who is protesting this move could see that the letters after the name DO set you apart from the rest.  We are paid less and less every year because we have too many people doing this as a sideline, too many people typing garbage and not enough people who take pride in their work and treat it as a career.  If more people will get the credential, we can weed out the people who can't pass and start regaining the ground we've been losing for years.

I got my feet wet working for them, and I gained some valuable experience.  However, I found that they constantly sent updated notes/templates on how their docs wanted files formatted.  This got to be very time consuming after a while as this seemed to be a weekly occurence.  Of course, that was a few year ago, so they might have come up with a better system.  I also found their pay to be on the low end, and their raises, which you had to put in for, weren't all that great.