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Co I work for, large national, allows normals. Of course, you must listen

Posted By: to report, but no big deal. They encourage that. on 2006-04-30
In Reply to: Does your MTSO allow you to use your own - normals/standards? see message

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Would anyone work for a large national co, with a

I use the company provided computer.  They had a change in computers and I was sent a new one.  Since that time, the foot pedal provided has not worked.  I can hear reports, but I cannot backup or move ahead using the pedal.  To hear something again, I have to bang my foot on the pedal. To move ahead forward or go backward for any length, I must go to playback page and manually move the cursor to where I need to be. 


I have put up with this for five years. Yes, that is right, FIVE YEARS!!!! I have called our so-called Help Desk numerous times and I have been sent two more pedals, neither of which work, or, rather, work the same as the original pedal.  I have asked for help from countless people.  The Help Desk states I am the only one having the problem.  The supervisor says I am the only one having the problem. I know one other person on my team who is also having having the problem, but we are too  ashamed to really raise heck.  I am disgusted. 


By the way, it is the most commonly used foot pedal. Even their ad states it works with any computer.  I just had to vent. 


When I worked for a large national, they
had a gal from New York using a steno machine.  She consistently turned out over 20,000 lines every 2 weeks/pay period.  So if you know the steno machine, you can make megabucks in transcription.  She always won awards at this biggest national.
I make more than that working for large National, which SM
provides all equipment. I do not have to pay for long distance. I have benefits, paid time off, health insurance and a wonderful supervisor.

I am really glad you posted. I haven't felt this satisfied with my company for a long time. Now I know why I am still working for them.

And by the way, if you expect your MTs to paid 8 cpl and pay for their own LD, they must be starving and/or homeless.
Large national companies and slow startup.
From the replies I gather the slow startup has been experienced with Focus, FutureNet, SoftScript and Keystrokes.  What is the company that starts with an M that someone mentioned?  Any others we need to add to the list?
Large national companies and slow startup.
I think more people have experienced this than care to admit.  From the posts I think we have Focus, FutureNet, Softscript, Keystrokes........and the one that starts with an M which I'm not sure about.  Any others?
So all MTs that work for a large service are bad MTs compared to those sm
that work for a smaller company? That could not be further from the truth. Some of the larger companies can attract better MTs with benefits, higher pay, etc than a smaller company ever can.

I think it depends on the MTs, not the service, as to the quality of the work.

I work for one of the companies the OP mentioned and the QA standards are MUCH more strict than smaller companies I have worked for in the past.

I work for a small national. I have steady work, usually

extra if I want it.  I make 10 cpl as an employee, get vacation, 401K matching, PTO, wonderful QA, lots of ESL dictators but mostly decent ones, direct deposit, no IM, no nasty e-mails, no phone calls asking me to work extra day after day.   Saying that MTs are surprised at how much money they make because they have steady work even though the line rate is low sounds like a line a used car salesman would use.  A low line rate is a low line and an insult, especially since without the MTs you wouldn't be able to pay your bills.


Just because everyone else sees to be going to India is like the saying you parents would say if everyone else jumped off the bridge ....  Many companies sell out, but you don't HAVE to sell out.  You choose to get more bang from your buck but I've seen the work that comes back from overseas and I would never put my name to it.


You might can fool some of the people some of the time, but it won't fly with me. 


 


The national I work for does not do that. sm
If low on work, they do not take away benefits. 
you work for a national....nm
x
I work FT for a national,
and a few hours a week as an IC for a local doc, whose transcription I have done for nearly 11 years now. The full-time job is 32 or more hours per week, and includes benefits. The IC gig might take 3 hours a week, but the line rate is a LOT more than for the national, and in fact is keeping me alive.
Yep I am sitting here with 3 large accounts and no work. Has anyone gotten any satisfaction from
speaking with corporate about this. These people in Amherst obviously do not know what they are doing. I wonder what the quality of this work looks like just throwing anyone and everyone on these accounts. Cant be too good. I have also noticed their QA people dont fill in blanks even for the docs that really are just more technical. Understandable with bad cell phones etc but just more technical or with an accent they dont get the blanks.
Unfortunately, when you work for a national or particularly a specialist, there are ..sm
many, many referring physicians. Doctors do not want to take the time during dictation to be considerate in providing spellings of doctors names, towns, and even spelling of patient names. It is ashame, however very common for many of us to have to take the time to look it up. I have found, in my experience, when I have had my own clients over the years, I don't take this horse sh_ _. I left blanks and had their office staff fill in the missing info. After time, the doctors became more disciplined and provided more complete dictation after being hounded by their office staff. Unfortunatley, when you work for a local service or national transcription company, you have to take the heat for not researching the doctor names, addresses, etc. Sad, but true. Find some good national doctor databases for this purpose. If you are referring to patient names in relation to demographics, you simply cannot guess on them. Spell it as it sounds and type spelling not given (doc's problem in this case).
I too work for a national which is DCing the DD on 8/1. sm
My other job is working for a hospital at home. So glad I have that hospital position! I get full benefits, plenty of work, and respect. (3/3 ain't bad!!) I also have 30+ years' experience, ex-CMT by exam. Go for it, CMT, and I wish you the best of luck.

Check out not-so-local hospitals within your state, too.






I used to work for a national and when we ran an ad, we would get 200-300 resumes. sm
These all came at once, so it was a little time-consuming to get through them. Email or call because the squeaky wheel does get the grease!
I was paid by the hour to work from home for a large hospital. nm
x
Yes I work for a smallish national..plus still has not come in mail either
nm
Talking about the ones who say you cannot work for another national MT service. nm
nm
I work full time for a national and as an IC
for a local company. The FT is 40 hours per week, the IC is when I want to work, usually about 10 to 12 hours a week.
i work for one national, 2 services, and have one private account...
I have four kids between ages 18 and 5. Right now I have bitten off more than I want to chew with all the accounts. One pays 10.5, one pays 9, and one pays 8.5 with incentive. My private account, believe this, pays 21 cents per line, but they only dictate about $500 per month worth. I need to get rid of one but don't know which one yet. The good thing, if there is one.......I never run out of work.
I agree with ChiaPet- I work for a big National that advertised
Sun-Thursday or Tuesday through Saturday. I told them I would prefer M-F, because Saturday and Sundays are my time. They found an account that accommodated my wishes. I also might add that it is day shift. You have the choice. Yes, they would prefer everyone work that shift, but I promise you there are enough of us that those that love weekend work can do the weekend work, and those that like our weekends can have our weekends off.
Can work as many hours as I want at the national I work for now, and they don't pay OT until you
to a certain level of production. 
I work for a small national and use FTP, also work for
a small local and use a website.  If you check the job boards you'll see lots of companies use FTP. 
Do what you think is best. I just left a major national, went to another national but after
6 weeks found it did not fit. Just happened to luck into another smaller national and things couldn't be better. There are other jobs out there.
I work for a major national and starting rate is no where near 9 cpl for acute care. (nm)
x
WEBMEDX???? It's a small national, right? Benefits, running out of work, what kind of accounts,

flexible schedule (as in working EVERY weekend mandatory? 


Any opinions on the company would be appreciated.  Found some in the archives but all mostly from 2004 and 1 recent post but not much info.  Thanks.


Normals
I have a lot of normals for my primary account but not as many for my secondary as it is a large teaching hospital with more dictators rotating in and out.
Normals
All accounts are verbatim.  What I mean is I have many, many macros set up for PEs, operative reports, etc where the dictators basically say the same thing every time and then I will edit as needed.  Both of my accounts do have a few normals set up in BayScribe by administration for some doctors.  Those are usually operative reports.
There are normals? Never saw one. nm)

can you still use normals?
thanks for your honest feedback.  i appreciate it.  More positions open on your side according to email this morning.  Guess you guys have a lot more work - I have gotten NSA 5 times already this morning! 
Normals/templates
I let my IC's use them especially in my psych accounts.  However there was a time that one of the gals forgot to change the name on the header and I was gone and it went to the doctor directly with the incorrect name on the Header and big, big HIPAA violation and the doctor almost pulled the account since he did not catch it either.  So I understand where your MTSO is coming from but again, I would not keep the help that made these mistakes rather than make the other MT's pay for the incompetent ones and be unable to use their autorcorrect, ShortHand or whatever normals/expanders that they use.  The account stayed with me but we do watch the names closely now.   Why make all suffer for the mistakes of a few.
are they paying you for the normals?
 
Expanders/Normals sm
As the poster below states, the way this is possible is by working an account that uses many normals and that you can utilize your Expanders with.

Chances are whatever national MTSO you work for will begin to use VR technology sooner rather than later.

After all, if you can use your normals/expanders to make astronomical line counts due to the repetitous nature of the accounts, it will be much easier for those accounts to go to VR.

I wish Normals had what I needed.
Most the time, what I am looking for can't be found in Normals, Alt G, or even Echart. I have enough experience on my primary that I know the usual sayings, it is just that I struggle with the not normal sayings that a dictator rambles off so fast, while chewing, yawning, etc. These things can't be found in normals (trust me I look every time before I submit a blank) and so far consist of way more than just 7% of my monthly dictations.

Whatever. I should just quit complaining. I do really like it there other than this part. I know you are trying to help, but I just wanted to point out that I use ALL the resources I can and still send over 7% to QA.
One job I worked for did not pay for normals at all.
They had loads and loads of normals and the docs used them consistently. When I would check my line count it was not where I thought it should be. When I asked I was told they did not pay for normals. That was something they did not tell me before I was hired. It was a company in Florida.
We DO get paid for expanders & normals
nm
I bet they billed the client for normals
You can make alot of reports nothing but normals if the patient has a normal exam.  I bet that company bills for those normals too.  That is like asking a waitress to work for low wages, and she can't keep the tip!!!!!  What will they think of next?
Yes, their normals, not yours. Not all places are like this apparently. nm
xxx
Do you get enough repetition so that one could create/utilize normals? Nm
nm
All accounts are VERBATIM, so there couldn't be any normals.
x
My MTSO sends us normals for those few doctors

that you them.  They are usually a fill in the blank type thing with the doctors only giving the blanks, so there isn't much to mess up.   We do have a few normals that need to be modified and there are only a few MTs that get these dictators, because of the same issue your MTSO, that changes are not made, etc.   I am allowed to create my own normals and do.   If I have a doctor that needs to have the same normal, but occasionally does change things, I only have my normal including what is ALWAYS the same and then I have macros for statements that are frequently dictated that I can use to piece together the rest of the document.


I can't imagine my company forbiding us to use normals.  My company wants the MTs to be productive, because if they are producing they are making money and if they are making good money they are happy and the MTSO will have good retention of MTs, which they have had.  It also benefits the MTSO to have high producing MTs, so that they can have fewer MTs and less costs/hassle.


 


 


 


I used to be a supervisor and we allowed all MTs to make their own normals, BUT...

it was the responsibility of the MT to listen to the dictation and make sure that the normal reflected exactly what the physician dictated.  And any QA issues specifically attributed to an MT's personal normal resulted in a three-phase disciplinary action, i.e. written up for the first offense, written up and forced to come in-house to work for a determined period of time for the second, and finally termination for the third.  Also any incentive money the MT may have earned for the day of the infraction was forfeited.  It seems extreme, but we had such a problem with QA issues and many complaints from physicians especially with radiology normals that we really had no choice.  We needed to make it clear how vital quality was over quantity.


Now that I work as an IC MT, I create and use my own normals, but I listen to every single dictation and if there is even one tiny, seemingly insignificant change such as the physician says the instead of a, I change it in the report.


I think a company forbidding their MTs from using personal normals will end up costing themselves money in the end.  The solution is to institute very strict policies regarding the use of personal normals and enforce them.  Let the client know that these policies are now being enforced and if they see any mistakes whatsoever, to please let the MTSO know.  It's hard being an MTSO, I'm sure.  Assuring the client that their concerns are your concerns and making the MT's feel respected and appreciated for their hard work is like walking a tightrope sometimes.  The sad fact is that you can't make everyone happy all of the time and in the business world, you have to schmooze the one who writes your paycheck - that goes for MTSO's and MT's alike.


Keystrokes makes you count out for normals.
nm
Why do MTs who are paid by the hour cherrypick the normals off accounts.

Line counts shouldn't be that important to them. 


Employee. 0.09 cpl, 100s of normals, and downtime paid.
x
I have normals, lots and a huge expander glossary sm

I also have 20 years in this business, which helps.  I am not a fast typist really and I can't type at all without the expander, not anymore.  I have a photographic memory for terms and how they are spelled...see it once, know it forever. 


There are exceptional MTs and there are very good MTs, there are good ones and ones who can just about pass muster.  Don't beat yourself up trying to be exceptional.  I think exceptional MTs are born, but very good ones can be built from scratch.  There are MANY MANY facets to success as an MT.  You have to have quite an ear for voices and even the very best of us can't do every accent.  You have to either be a great typist and/or Expander user, and you have to know it well (I have used my same one most of my career).  You have to know your terminology inside and out.  You need to know how to properly organize your normals so that they are consistent and easy to use.  You have to have an excellent platform to work on, preferrably a Word client.  You also have to have a company who stands behind you and makes sure you have enough work with QA people who can and will take the time to teach you what you don't know.  My favorite QA gal is a font of knowledge, a BOS2 expert and she even corrects my emails for grammar.  I have learned a lot from her.  It helps to have someone on an IM who can answer questions on the fly for you.  I have had those in the past and now I am one of those who does the answering. 


Most importantly, do your very best at whatever mode of work you are doing.  Show up every day, give it your all.  Don't worry about what the rest of us are doing, be the best you, you can be.  Things fall into place when you do that, I know because this is how I had to approach the early stages of my career.  Persistance pays off.


Don't listen!
Trust me, honey. If you want to find out about OSi, you don't need to be reading this board. All of the "ex-OSIers" get on here and criticize OSi for trying to weed out the bad employees and become a better company. They make assumptions of upper management when they really have NO IDEA. Then they wonder why THEY aren't invited to the home office parties or why OSI doesn't take their "parties" on the road. Well, I'll tell you why...because OSI doesn't want people like them at their parties. Would you want someone that does nothing but criticize you to come to your parties? I think NOT!

If you're really interested in working with OSI, this is not the place to research. OSI is a wonderful company and they treat their employees with respect. Some will tell you that OSI shorts them on lines, OSI gives the easy dictators to their "favorites", and so on and so on, but if you believe that then you're just as ignorant as the people saying it. OSI is growing VERY rapidly and will only continue to grow. If they really were doing all of this stuff, there's no way they would be where they are today. So--don't listen to all of the nonsense on these posts. It's nothing but a bunch of unintelligent people getting together to complain because they have nothing better to do with their time.
Well we know what it is really like and if they want to listen to em, then they
are passing up a great opportunity.

I am happy here. I guess that is all that counts.


You don't listen
You are not understanding. I was never told that they weren't hiring. I was told she was too busy to hire. Didn't you read my initial post??!! Also, there were many other things going on besides that. Like I said, I am not putting their business in the streets, just a fair warning. Oh, and by the way, I am not an MT.
Yes, but 100% listen
so it is really a cut in pay for me.
Don't listen to them...sm
I've used Meditech with rad before and averaged $25/hr. Just depends on how lines are counted, etc. You know how it is. It all depends on the company/client.
That's not VR. On VR, you have to listen to
every report the whole way through and make corrections throughout the report, and there are generally a lot of corrections to be made because VR isn't what it's cracked up to be. VR will never be able to go straight through to the client without a complete listen/edit. I think you're thinking of QA, not VR (voice recognition reports). QAs fill blanks and/or do full listens/grading AFTER the MT has already either transcribed or fully edited the VR report.