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DUH, I worked for Healthscribe before it became part of Spheris.nm

Posted By: MI MT on 2005-08-14
In Reply to: keep in mind SPHERIS OFFSHORES - THEY ARE PART OF HEALTHSCRIBE - minder




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keep in mind SPHERIS OFFSHORES - THEY ARE PART OF HEALTHSCRIBE
Healthscribe linked up with Spheris and has an office in India. I know this because I worked directly with both companies but not as a transcriptionist. Personally, I think any Transcriptionist would be better off going somewhere else.
Spheris took over Healthscribe in 2004.
nm
I also know Spheris would fire you if they knew you worked for MQ. That is a BIG NO with Spheris!
nm
Does anyone know what part-time Spheris

I worked there part-time for awhile. sm
IC status, pay definitely on the low side, but I did clinic work and it was fairly easy with easy dictators.  They pay weekly and always on time.  Great people to work with. 
I've worked for MDI-MD very part time for many yrs
No, I've never gotten a Christmas bonus.  But they still are hands down the best company I have ever worked for and their gift to me is being a company that pays well every day.  I'd rather have that than a company that pays me 8 cpl and sends me a $50 Christmas gift.  The only reason I work for them very part time is that I have my own accounts in addition to working for MDI.  Someday when I'm older and more tired, I will give up my own accounts and work for MDI alone.
I only worked there briefly, and I was part-time, but the pay was so-so, sm
and you had to work there 90 days before you could have direct deposit.  However, the paper checks were always on time.  The lead on my account was great, as was everyone I dealt with.  The platform used was ExText, although I do not know if they use that for all accounts.  The help desk is apparently in India or somewhere, and communication must not be so great as I have been gone for several months and I still get calls to help out on one of the accounts.  Good luck!
I worked for them briefly on a part-time basis. sm

The people are absolutely GREAT, and the account I had was not difficult.  I thought their platform was a bit cumbersome and I could not import my abbreviations into their expander, so my line count took a hit.   They paid better than some, though, at 9-1/2 cpl.


 


Good luck.


They changed their name, was it Healthscribe before? If so
they don't pay very well. 
It is Avicis ... and used to be Healthscribe and
now is Spheris.

Ditto on Healthscribe
I'm not sure what you are referring to ... Spheris acquired Healthscribe a few years back.
I work for MDI-MD and have worked part-time for Cobb in the past. sm

It has been about 3 years or so since I worked for Cobb Transcription in Georgia (very nice woman, by the way), so my info may be old, but I'll try to help.


Good dictation quality?


Yes for both MDI-MD and Cobb



 


Steady work?


MDI:  For the most part, yes.  There have been a few times, but you usually have enough secondary and tertiary accounts to make it through the dry times.


Cobb:  I was doing clinic work -- do not recall any times without work.



 


What are the work types?


MDI-MD has a few radiology and clinic accounts (I think), but probably the majority of the accounts are acute care.


Cobb may have hospital accounts, but all I did with them was clinic work.


Good platform?


MDI uses Bayscribe -- very easy to use.


Cobb used Word.


Pay rate?


MDI pays better than any other company I have encountered.


Cobb's pay rate is kinda low, as I recall, and it was based on being paid by the character.


Paid for 65 cpl with spaces?


Yes for MDI ... as I mentioned above, Cobb paid by the character.


Do you have a flexible schedule?


Yes to both.  MDI gives you a 24-hour turnaround time to do your work, and I think the same was true with Cobb.


Weekend work mandatory?


MDI:  You are asked to work 2 weekends a month, I think.  I pretty much work every weekend, so not sure about the official rules.


Cobb:  No.


Employee or IC?


MDI:  Statutory employee (they take out FICA, nothing else, so you do not have to pay self-employment tax)


Cobb:  Was IC only


Benefits?


No for both


Low or high volume ESLs?


Probably vaies with the account -- probably average with MDI.


I don't recall any ESLs at Cobb.


Dedicated accounts with the same doctors?


MDI:  You have a primary account and usually a secondary account -- pretty much the same docs.


Cobb:  Yes.


Dialup accepted?


Yes to both, as far as I know.  I have had cable so long, I do not recall.


 


 


Good luck with your job search.  Hope this helps.   If you have an offer from MDI, I'd take it -- it is a great place to work!   


I worked part-time for Webmedx and I work FT for TransTech. sm

My vote would be for TransTech, although Webmedx is not bad.  Since I was only part-time, I did not receive any benefits, but from what I recall, they did seem to have a nice benefit package.  My main complaint was that I just never could get my lines per hour up to where they have been at other companies.  Normally, I average around 300 lines per hour, but even with totally focusing and typing as fast as I could, I never could get past 250-260 lines per hour at Webmedx.  Their incentive pay is based on lines per hour that you type, not total lines per pay period, so it did make a difference in my pay.  I also did not like the fact that I had to use their computer.  I like using my own computer, and also like the flexibility of being able to load the program on my laptop so if I have to be away from home, I can still work if I need to.


I have seen negative posts about TT, but I have no complaints with them.  My line counts are fair.  The people in management are absolutely some of the most caring people I have ever met.  The work generally is plentiful, and I have a backup account.  The incentive tiers are easy to attain, and the benefits are pretty good, I think, and not outlandishly priced.


Obviously, not every company is a good fit for everyone.  I hope you find just exactly what is best for you -- good luck!



When I worked in-house, we were part of the SEIU, but that included even nurses. SM
After I had quit, I heard they decided to go with the UAW.
Does Transtech require one weekend day to be worked for part-timers? Thanks!
nm
Used to be HealthScribe, not a good company. nm
 
HealthScribe did not start in India
However,I think they were probably one of, if not the first, ones to offshore to India.
I worked for Spheris...
It was a positive experience for me. I never had a problem with being called if I stepped away from my desk, guess it just depends on which supervisor you get? I only quit because working a FT job in addition to Spheris as PT became too much.
I have not worked for Spheris
Just by reading the archives, it doesn't seem that Spheris is any better than Q.  I would have to say that Transcend is better than the Q in my experience.  There were times we ran out of work but not as bad as Q. 
when I worked for Spheris
Went through this with Spheris, and sooner rather than later we had to punch a virtual timeclock, then it seemed that suddenly there weren't enough lines to fulfill our line count and requests to work overtime to make up for lost lines were denied, so there went all incentives/benefits. 
I worked part-time for them VERY briefly. GEMMS system is cumbersome sm

and difficult and slow to work with, I thought.  I love cardiology, but this was not a good experience.  Perhaps others have had more positive expeiences with the company. 


If you like cardiology, you might try Cardioscribes.  I think they are a great company and the system is easy to use.



Good luck!


 



I worked there part-time briefly. People are very nice to deal with, sm
and pay was okay.  You had to wait 90 days to get direct deposit, and until then checks were mailed, which is a bit of pain, but they were always on time.  I didn't care that much for my account, but the leader was always quite helpful.  They must be a bit disorganized, though, as I still get messages from the help desk to help out, and I have been gone at least 3 months!  And the help desk is apparently in India, if that makes any difference to you. 
i worked for spheris 4 years sm
i worked in radiology part of spheris.  i had a great supervisor.  the pay is ok.  my problem was no raises, or if they don't want to give raises, at least acknowledge people some how.  there were a lot of times when we had to help cover while people were out sick or hurricane katrina stuff.  i had been there 4 years and never a raise.  (no one got raises).  another big issue for me was they send work to india.  i don't like that at all. that's one reason why i quit.  i now work for a company as an IC and they don't send their work overseas.  they are much more personable.  i worked for Spheris when it was edix, and i liked it much better when it was edix. 
I worked for Spheris for 4 years
They expect you to keep your required linecount weekly, pay on time, pay is on low side, they offshore, insurance is not good, supervisors and QA are good. Overall they are decent.
Well, I worked for Spheris for three years ...
Speaking of Spheris from the perspective of a past employee, I wasn't impressed at all with the company in its role as my employer. The best that I can describe their corporate mentality is that of a sweatshop -- low wages; poor, disorganized, unresponsive, and often inexperienced management; woefully inadequate benefits; and only minimally helpful QA.

However, if you're asking about the quality of transcription, I found that for the most part my colleagues were very quality oriented, most very experienced. Despite a lack of validation on all fronts, i.e. pay, appreciation, etc., they took pride in their work and put out quality documents.

I hope this helps.
Spheris - worked there recently
I worked there for 3 years, left in July. I made good money there, but I've heard that they are starting people out at a lower cpl now than they did 3 years ago. I thought they were basically fine to work for until they started switching all their accounts to ASR. When my account was getting ready to switch, I gave my notice,as I don't think you can make any money doing ASR. Insurance expensive,schedules vary, icentive pay was decent, but think that is being eliminated with new platform/ASR. In my opinion they are not such a good place to work anymore, unless you don't mind doing ASR for a pittance. Overall they were fair to me, but not very much communication with employees.
when I worked at Edix ... (now spheris) (sm)

when they were trying to get more hospital accounts within a system, they would promise them the moon and assign an absurd number of MT's to my accounts ... so that I got virtually NO work on my regular accounts and had to ask for more accounts -- which became time consuming and more importantly NERVE WRACKING to work on so many relatively new accounts all at once -- again -- some of which I got very little work on .... (very different from really learning one or two accts, adding another -- learning that -- then adding another -- truly I was a wreck -- oh and my line count truly sucked -- so when I saw there was an opening at a local MTSO, I lept ... I was stressed out and making no money ... and I had been on these teaching hospital accounts (my favorite) for over 5 years ... sad)


That's what the message above about accounts up for renewal (as in contracts) meant ... in my case, Edix hoped to get more hospitals in this national chain (most national hospital chains, I think, use more than one service so that if something happens they aren't completely left in a lurch) -- at the time I left probably almost 10 years ago, Edix also had a VERY unstable platform that was down a great deal ... trust me -- it was hell


Then why leave? I've worked for Spheris
I would let them keep their $500!
If you ever worked for Spheris, you are classified as insane.
!
Having worked for Spheris before, I'd vote for Webmedx.
I tried to get on with them, but I was working three part-time IC jobs at the time so I couldn't get their test files completed on time.  I got maybe two hours of sleep three nights in a row because I had so much work dumped on me.  Blown chance!  I wish I'd blown off the IC jobs and finished the test instead.  The test reports were easy enough for me to do.  I asked for an extension on the test due date, but never heard back from them.  I understand their need for TAT, but they have to realize that it's tough to squeeze testing into an already overloaded schedule.  I'd much rather work one steady job than three IC contracts.
Worked for Spheris a couple of years ago
I worked for Spheris and would not recommend it to anyone who wants the least bit of flexibility in their schedule. You are expected to punch in and out to the minute on an online timeclock according to a very strict preset schedule. You aren't allowed to deviate from it without jumping through hoops and getting time off approved or adjusting your schedule, and you can't ask earlier than 2 weeks before the date you want changed. Kinda puts a damper on making vacation plans that may never be approved. I prefer a more open 12-hour window to work my 8 hours in, with no one keeping electronic tabs on my 24/7. I'll bet the FBI knows less about what their employees are doing on a minute-by-minute basis. I do have to say that their platform is pretty awesome, though. Wish the company I'm at now had it.
A friend of mine worked for Spheris
and she said they really sc***ed her.
I worked for Spheris for quite a while. Honest answers inside. sm

Their rate of pay is pretty average, compared to other companies. They way they count their lines is fair and honest, no matter what you might hear from others. Depending on who your supervisor is, the schedules are somewhat flexible. Some supervisors are pretty lenient with the schedule, and others are very rigid. Overall, the people there are pretty nice. If you're just basically looking for a company where you can go in, get your lines done, and walk away, they're probably a good fit for you.


But there are definitely bad points, also. There's not much in the way of feeling like part of a team. You pretty much feel like just another number to them. If don't give them what they want in terms of lines or overtime or whatever, you'll definitely hear about it. They love to ask for you to work extra or switch your shift to accommodate them, but they don't generally feel like paying back the favor. They're famous for turning down PTO requests for no particular reason, no matter the reason for the request.  The recruiter will promise you there's plenty of opportunities for advancement, but really there aren't. I've known gals who have worked their butts off for them for years and still haven't gotten anywhere. The only way to get a raise is to move up in levels of difficulty, and the levels that pay the most per line are the accounts that have tons of ESL's and lots of very difficult report types, with sometimes pages of really crazy account instructions that have to be followed.


In  my opinion, if you go with Spheris, you'll make the most money if you take on a medium-level account, probably with more clinic work, where there aren't so many ESL's and not so many crazy instructions, because if you can crank out the reports at 6 or 7 cents a line, you'll make more money than struggling thru accounts that pay 9 cents a line but are terrible to type.


I have worked for MQ, Spheris back when it was Edix, Transcend and OSI. TransTech is by far the bes
The pay is decent, probably not the highest in the business but not the lowest either. The benefits are good. Pay is always on time. Great bonuses. Great communication and most of all I really like the people and it makes me enjoy being an MT again.
Yes, it is about the almightly dollar. I worked for a hospital who outsourced to Spheris
and the only reason was NOT because they could not find available MTs but it was because it saved them money from having to pay benefits etc..
OH - I thought part transcription, part escription, but don't know for sure
nm
They no longer hire part-time and may be eliminating part-time employees within the next 6 months.
They are going to have those that are PT go FT if possible. Some accounts require 1 weekend day, but not all. Most transcriptionists have 1 account with 1 back-up account. I know that they are hiring for hospital accounts in medical records and radiology right now.
I still feel like a team player of Spheris, as the shackle scars are still on my legs! Spheris was

Micromanaged to the microsecond, or ms!  Horrible. And part of a team?  Total opposite - part of a team as in prison.


Don't imply you're worried at all. Just stating fact that Spheris does NOT allow a Spheris MT
work concurrently for MQ - no exceptions.  MQ, on the other hand, does not have the same feelings as Spheris.  Just all I had to say so that MTs aren't misled into thinking they can do the same "legally". Even went to the ropes on this issue with Spheris, as I was professional as well, and wouldn't share info, etc. The point they raised was that MQ is their direct #1 competition, and if I was typing for MQ and doing great work, that was in direct conflict of interest with Spheris' best interests.  Guess which one I obviously stuck with!!
No PTO for part-time. Not sure if you can work part-time or not since recent rule change. sm
You do pay a deposit for their equipment.
Thank you, Spheris recruiter! Anybody wanna place a bet that there are lots of Spheris
HELP WANTED ads on the job board?? So funny!! Out of the blue, Spheris, we love you!! Lets all run and apply NOW!!
There is a part-time and a flexible part-time, just left there and they offered
me both. Flexible, however, is more or less when they need you (I.e. weekends), part-time is fixed hours.
Spheris - any spheris employees out there care to s/m
comment on the new Cornerstone platform, good, bad? Will we all be going to SR on this? Thanks.
Yes I know they hire part time because I referred someone there for part time.
They are internet based.
From what I understand, the part-time positions will be only be for those that are already part-time
It is not a restructuring of the company, just of some of the existing part-time positions.

I know that there are a few employees who have been with Keystrokes for many, many years who are part-time and they will not displaced.

Other than that, there have been many discussions why there will not be any new part-time employees hired, and I really don't think they will back down on that.
I worked for a temp agency for 3 years..LOVED it. Just worked. No counts, no hassels, GREAT pay..
No benefits at the time.  I even learned pathology while temping (8 months on that assigment).  I loved the variety, the ability to say I'm not available such and such time.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I didn't need benefits.
A company is ONLY supposed to verify that someone worked there, what dates they worked, whether PT o
and last date worked. It opens everyone up to a lawsuit if more is given, so most companies are told by their attorneys and business advisors to verify only.

No one has a right to a reference, only verification of employment.
It worked! Latest suggestion from DJ's email worked. nm
nm
If I worked a longer day, I just put my regular shift, 3p-11p, or whatever. If I worked sm
an extra day, then I was told to fudge the hours around on the other days so it all came out to 40.  I didn't really mind -- have learned not to expect overtime in this profession -- and I was happy to be able to work whenever I needed to get the lines I needed.  However, them telling me directly to fudge on my time sheet would seem to be a violation of the wage and hour laws.  I suppose it doesn't matter now if they do not even have enough work to make the minimum line count necessary.  Several of the companies I thought were golden seem to have gotten a bit tarnished lately … sad. 
My experience with Spheris isn't bad at all. I have been with Spheris sm
6 months and already have 40 hours PTO. I was shocked.  Spheris is a  great company.  After 90 days I did get my sign on bonus and didn't even have to ask.  There is soooooooooooooooo much that Spheris offer I wasn't even aware of.  I am so glad that I didn't listen to the negative posts on this board in regards to Spheris because I am a happy camper.
Glad it worked for you. I have worked for companies
that were more reliable and paid without the delay I had. Maybe you started before they started doing that but it makes no difference. I TOO am a single parent.

You are not trying to argue? Sounds like you not only are trying to argue but you are just waiting for anyone to post anything about the co on here so you can just get out there and respond, which seems to be the way I have always noticed it. It's like all the MTs or whoever that work there are just waiting to respond.

This board is about the good points and bad points about companies. I am telling my experience.

The people were nice people though, but my experience was not a good one and I will not say it was.

I can go a week after the end of payday and even 10days later but that's it. Kids would starve.