Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Acute care experience is limited...

Posted By: me on 2009-03-22
In Reply to:

BUT I want to apply for a position in acute care.  I have experience in everything except for operative reports and I am wondering if I should lie and tell the company I have this experience just to secure the position.  I know I can do it because I am resourceful, but is it worth it?  Should I be upfront about my experience or just wing it?  Is acute care really that much harder than clinic?  I pretty much aced the acute care exam, but wondering if my lack of experience will hurt me in the end.  Hm...


Thanks for any advice you may have!




Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

Acute care experience is limited...

BUT I want to apply for a position in acute care.  I have experience in everything except for operative reports and I am wondering if I should lie and tell the company I have this experience just to secure the position.  I know I can do it because I am resourceful, but is it worth it?  Should I be upfront about my experience or just wing it?  Is acute care really that much harder than clinic?  I pretty much aced the acute care exam, but wondering if my lack of experience will hurt me in the end.  Hm...


Thanks for any advice you may have!


if acute care experience, TRX
/
3 years acute care experience sm
They do have ESLs and you need to be familiar with a wide range of specialties as they are hospital accounts.  But lots of good dictators too.  Good luck!
me too.. I do not have experience transcribing acute care and

I have been trying my luck with acute care MT companies but no one would hire me because I dont have experience transcribing acute care reports.  I have experience transcribing oncology reports for three years, so if someone here who can help me find a company that hires one?  It would be greatly appreciated.


If you have acute care experience, you should be fine...
but if all you have is clinic experience you may have a problem...good luck though!!!
Over 13 years of experience in acute care and various platforms
Dictaphone is one of my personal favorites.
I have 20 years' experience in acute care, can do any speciality, can
do ESLs and I've been offered several positions in that range, though they were employee positions.  
Over 13 years of experience, 5 in acute care and I did the same as you. I confess..
I just thought I was a smarty pants and knew it all so I did not use any reference material but now I wish I had.  Honestly, that was the hardest test I had ever taken for a company. Just when you think you know it all.... then, that makes you feel STUPID!! So do not feel bad, but I think she should re-vamp their testing process. That would scare anyone off.
What do they pay per line for acute care with tons of experience?
x
I've got over 10 years acute care experience and
the recruiter (same one for the last 100 years) called me and talked to me like I was an idiot.  I pretty much told her to take her attitude and stick it where the sun don't shine.  I also told her I can see why they are ALWAYS looking for MTs.  She was a B-I-O-T-C-H !!
I was turned down with 13 years of experience with 4 in acute care. Go figure, but thanks anyway.
I was totally floored as I have experience with the basic 4 as well as multiple specialties. I am not quite sure what they are looking for. The ironic part was a year ago I received the same response from Spheris, yet they advertise that you have to only one years' experience. What is funny about that is the hospital I worked for had just signed a contract with them and they were hired to do work that I was doing on a daily basis at the hospital, yet I did not qualify. Very odd.
It depends if clinic or acute care, years of experience, can you do
ESLs.   They pay about the same as most companies. 
Experience needs to be defined better. Ten years of acute care is worth
nm
Limited experience here
but when I was paid by the minute it was $1.50 per and that was several years ago for Radiology... it was very fair. There was only one doctor who dictated a mile a minute and was difficult to understand as well. You can gauge your earnings by asking about the dictators style, etc., and volume. Hope this helps - $1.50 may be on the high side ??
Your experience may be more limited than the other posters
The other posters were on the money. If you have worked on at least half of the accounts, you would see that most of them are primarily ESL, there is one where native English is the exception and rare, 2 that ESL exclusive.

There have been occasions where work was lean for everyone and those not meeting line counts were sent certified letters to make their line counts or there would be consequences...how can you make line count if the work is not there and then be punished for not making line counts?

Search this site for some time in June or May and there is more about TH.
I have limited op note experience...sm
and I fake it....I can do the work, just takes me a little more time looking things up, and i also HATE OP notes, but If i need a job all i see are acute care.....then I fake it...
In my limited jobseeking experience I'm finding I only get to learn line rate after I spend hours
.
Acute care

Acute care is (sm)
typically the basic four: history and physicals, operative reports, consults and discharge summaries. It's hospital work typically done in the medical records department of a hospital.

That's going to be your hurdle because it sounds like you don't have the acute care experience. Once you have 2-3 years of that, you've got it made. Getting your foot in is the hard part.

I'm not a recruiter. Is there a local hospital you can work at? That's sometimes the way to get the experience when you have some medical transcription but not acute care.

Good luck!
Yes, acute care
I have 5 major accounts I get backlogs for and they are all empty, completely!!!! It has been this way since the beginning of December and before that so light that if you got 300-500 lines you were very lucky and had to work morning to evening for it. If you talk to the owner, she will just say she is going to hire more, the work will be there, it is slow deal with it, etc. I can't believe we are not being taken care of.
Acute care, ER
They wanted to pay 7.5 cents for 150 lines an hour, and then anything over 165 was on a tier plan.
Acute care

I started out right out of school working for a national doing acute care for a large hospital.  Let me tell you, it was very scary for me.  But, I look back on it now, and I am glad that I had that experience because I learned a lot right from the very beginning.  I have transcribed every type of report in every specialty.  Acute care can be very difficult, but what I like about it is the variety.  For me, it never gets boring.  I am still working for the same company I started out with (along with another) and I am still very happy.


Since you already have quite a bit of experience, you will have a somewhat easier time than I did, but it will still be difficult.  In the beginning you will have to spend a lot of time looking things up and doing research and your production will probably not be that great.  In the long run though, I think you will enjoy it, I know I do.  But, you may also find it is not for you.  You just won't know until you try. 


Probably the hardest thing about working for a large hospital is getting used to the large variety of dictators.  At this point in time, I have approximately 30 doctors that I transcribe for that I would consider my regular docs.  Then, there is a very large pool of approximately 200 doctors, any of whom I may get on any given day.  Rarely a day goes by that I don't get a doctor that is new to me.  But, that is also something about the job that I enjoy because that keeps it from getting old and boring for me.


I have created tons of normals and expansions and that has helped me beyond belief.  I know that is no big secret for someone who has experience such as you.  My advice would be to give it a shot and see how it goes.  It could be the best decision you ever made.  And if you find out you don't like it, at least you will know that for the future.


Best of luck to you!


They said maybe I could do some acute care if
the Rad work is low...but they're starting me out on about 3 or 4 Rad accounts so I doubt if I will do any acute care for a while....I know there are people who do acute care for them who say they don't run out of work..I'm not worried...just anxious to get trained!!! (which starts tomorrow)! 
Acute care..nm
nm
No more acute care for me
I do not particularly enjoy acute care either. I really want to get back to typing clinic, but all the jobs I see posted lately are for acute care/basic four. Where do you find clinic work these days? I stay away from companies who use Emdat too. Just hate that system.
Acute care
I work there
Sorry, acute care...nm
x
Is there any way you can get on acute care?
xx
acute care
Two other people that I know had the same problem this year, they had no work available to train on.
The Big 4 Acute Care
Please pardon my ignorance, but what are the big 4?  I do surgeries, H&P's, and ER.  Is inpatient care the 4th?  Thanks for any input!
6.5 cpl is for acute care.
While 6-8 is the average for a new MT, I think 6.5 is extremely low for acute care. This is why I left Spheris. I now make 7 cpl for clinic notes and make a lot more money and have a whole lot less stress.
I do acute care/B4 and some ER at KS
and was looking to do basic 4/acute care with MDI. Do you really have to pay a lot in back in taxes when you are an IC? I have never done this before as I have always been employee status at every other company I have worked for, so I don't even know how much ICs generally have to pay in taxes. Thanks for the advice! I will definitely keep that in mind when deciding which road to take!
Acute care

acute care
Hello,

Ya know, I started out with no experience in a hospital setting also about 15 years ago. It definitely is a learning curve. I stuck it out and it took me about a year to get up to making $9.00 an hour including ESL docs which you will get everywhere! My advice, unless you want to do clinic or one specialty, stick with it, it's a lot of learning, like a new language, but you will get it and then have a lot of opportunities open up after that.
GOOD LUCK!! Hang in there!
Acute care NM
nm
acute care
I used to work clinic, now acute care. In clinic, sometimes most of my day would be 4 line reports. I had to set up each one. Avg. was 20 lines though. In acute care, avg report is probably 50+. Not so much setup time. In the long run, you want to narrow down your # of doctors if possible. That's who I see making the most money.
Yes I think they are all acute care but sm
Usually after we get the accounts, the radiology departments and such also use our services.
acute care
I prefer acute care. You can make lots of normals for physical exams and OP notes. Acute care reports tend to be longer so I can get a rhythm going, not having to change reports and look for patient info every minute or so.

It has been my experience that I do tend to make more doing OP notes exclusively. Some MTSO will not pay the Transcriptionist for normals that come from the client, though I'm sure they are charging the client when they are used. That is one question I am sure to ask these days. Found that out the hard way.
CA, acute care, 75% ESL nt
 
No, acute care...nm
nm
Acute care - HP, DS, Con, Op, maybe some sm
specialty worktypes like sleep studies, diagnostic reports (EKGs, EEGs), depending on your hospital. Level 3 MTs are ER, radiology and basic clinic work.
Acute Care
Dumb question: Acute care does not include ER reports, does it? I do not like typing ER and that seems to be all I type. I was hired for acute care.
IC ... acute care hospital
.
If this is for the acute care position - sm
I wouldn't bother - it's a horrible dictating hospital, the cherry pickers are rampant, and honestly, more often than not there is no work!  I've gotten e-mails from them saying they're expecting a lot of work on such-and-such a date and could I please set aside extra time for them.  They even offer to pay incentives, but then when that date comes and I've blown off all my other work and I'm ready to type, there's NO WORK.  Regarding paychecks, I didn't like the fact that they didn't provide a line count to me.  They have their own line counting software and it never jived with mine.  I think they now have direct deposit, so I guess that would be a plus.  And they had also promised to reimburse me "x" amount a month for long distance, but I had absolutely no way of knowing if I ever received this because I would just receive one big check every month and never saw a line count to go with it, so I'm very suspicious if this was ever included.   I only know about this one account, but it definitely wasn't worth my time and I definitely could not rely on it to be a steady job.
Are you acute care or Radiology?
The difference being that Radiology usually has a faster TAT. I think most companies will be flexible. I know a few give you a 12-hour window to get your time in.
Why can they not bring on acute care MTs?
Cannot get them or do not want them?
Not sure if there are Rad openings. I do acute care...
OPs, DS, HP, and CS.  Been here since September and have never been happier with a job.  Website is www.mditrans.com. 
I think acute care is a great way to go
You will gain a lot of experience, just try your best not to get frustrated and don't give up, it does get easier. As far as ESL's go, I think that just depends on where you work, you may have more in acute care, you may not. I wish you the best!
Actually I have done acute care for many years but
x
I'm an MT with 23 years of acute care

they told me to call them.  I called and Heather was busy at the time and told me she'd call me RIGHT back.  She never called and I never checked back; I accepted a job with another company that DID call me back.  I was very interested in DSG but since they weren't excited enough about ME to call me back, I figured I'd go with one who was.


With all the acute care experience I have (as a hospital employee, as an MTSO myself, and as an IC for other companies), I am used to companies falling all over themselves trying to hire me, trying to convince me to work for them, etc.  I guess they didn't recognize how VALUABLE I am! 


45-50 reports acute care

not sure about clinic work.