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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

ESL is a relative term.

Posted By: TTMTer2 on 2006-11-13
In Reply to: Transtech - Sandy

Just because they have an accent doesn't make them any more difficult to do than the average Joe.  JMHO. 


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ESL is a relative term. We all know Dr. Joe EFL can be far worse! nm
nm
Yes, "best" is a relative term but (sm)
I mean best based on info by MTs on this board and by docs in the industry who refer colleagues to this fast-growing MTSO.  Guess which MTSO?  I'm not saying   Actually, this icon looks like it is waving it's middle finger instead of pointy finger, so don't mean to offend and don't think I'll use it again (lol!)
Opinion? its a legal labor term - not a generic term for quibbling.
x
It's all relative

Up here in the Northeast I couldn't survive on $14.00 an hour - not if you got to support yourself, which I have to for me and my three children.  I average $25.00 an hour, and even though that's not too bad, even that is pretty much chump change up here.  Every time someone posts a survey about how much they make, there's a lot of MTs that seem to make in th$30-$50 an hour range.  I'm going to keep looking till I find a job where I can make $40-$50 an hour.  Then I'd be comfortable with killing myself to get in enough hours all the time.


Anyway, what I wanted to say is that chump change is different to everybody.  Personally I think at 8 cents a line you just have to work way too hard for your money.


 


 


Was it a relative?
a
cpl is relative
MQ: 10 cpl averaged (at the end) 160 to 180 lph.

At new company: 8 cpl, average 280 to 300 lph.
LOL - did you mean relative?

Although I do have a relative--sm
such as you describe, I have found that it is NEVER effective to tell her to *quit whining* *get off your butt and change your life if you are not happy* or *stop being a victim* types or responses to HER actions. It only serves to make things worse, and that is what YOU are doing, making it worse. You are NOT helping these people by yelling at them, and that is what you are doing, as well...yelling at them. You cannot *help* someone to *change their lives* by simply *telling* them to change their lives. Sometimes you have to sit back, quietly listen to their problems, and let them figure out things for themselves. Yelling at them to take control and change things on their own is only going to turn them in the other directions. You are not being, as you call it, *proactive*, you are simply dumping on the heads of someone who already feels like a *victim* and yelling at them not to feel the way they feel. That is not being *proactive* that is just plain being mean, and yes, I do see the difference, but you are not it. Sometimes people need to be taken gently by the hand and *guided* into a situation that would help to make their lives better, but simply telling them or yelling at them to *just do it* has never solved anything. ever. You need a good course in psychology 101! Yelling at people turns those people *off* and does not *motivate* them into doing better for themselves. You seem to think you are a *motivational* type person, but you are doing just the opposite. Leave them alone. Most of them will find their own way in their own time, without someone like you yelling at them to quit whining about their situations. Compassion and understanding is definately not among your strong points. Beind cruel and unkind is definately in your make up.
IMO, it's completely relative. sm
I have an account in Cquence which felt cumbersome at first, but then I got comfortable and produce as much there as I do typing, say, in Word offline. Recently I started a Meditech account and...hey! Cquence is absolutely wonderful compared to Meditech!! So my opinion of Cquence has gone up, for sure.


It's all relative. Depending on where you live, that might not even pay for an apartment. nm
nm
MTSO not loyal friend, relative. Best not to treat
ms
Manager relative told me noncomplete dont hold up.
w
Maybe I should not even use the term ESL

Maybe I should have said horrible dictators, because some of the ESL guys are not that bad honestly.  It just happens that they used a horrible dictator with bad audio for the transcribing portion of the test.  You do have to think $$ these days, no matter who you transcribe for.  If you are on let's say an Ortho account, and there are horrible dictators there (ESLs and all) that it interferes with your income.  You are making $30,000/year - while on a previous Ortho account you know you were making over $40,000/year.  Honestly, aren't you going to look for a more profitable account??  You can be the best MT in the world, but it is still the dictator's responsibility for what prints out, isn't it.  Accurate garbage is still accurate garbage.  Is it profitable?  We really do work for the paychecks - not the doctor, the company, or even the patient for that matter.  If not, then you should be volunteering.


medical term

"Palpation over the muscular tissues reveals mild tenderness in the bilateral paraspinals (s/l: clavatus or quivatus, and spiro-glineal) region."  I can't figure it out and am hoping someone out there will give it a shot!  The words in parentheses aren't words I know, they just sound like what he's saying.  TIA.


medical term
It could be gluteal. I thought of that too, but just can't figure out what he's saying before that if it is gluteal. S/l spiro or could be superior......don't hear left or right unfortunately. thanks very much.
What do you mean by no long-term QA

Do you want no QA department at all? Do you want to not have to have your work checked all the time? I'm not sure what you mean.


Difficulty with a term
This s/l D-timer and is a test done to r/o pulmonary embolus.
Any help appreciated.
Oh my. You actually use that term enough to need an expander?
nm
Ooh! A new term. What is a squid? (nm)
.
Well, that's what we do. It's an appropriate term. At least its better than typist. nm

nm


"Transcribers" is NEVER an appropriate term
A transcriber is a machine. A Transcriptionist is a person. They, and we, should always remember the difference.
when you use the term "Indian"..

or any ethnicity within a derogatory connotation, it most certainly is racist.  Go check your dictionary for the definition. 


No, I think whatever it is, it's far more serious and long-term
I don't think it's just an overhiring spree, to be perfectly honest. I think there's something else going on.

Too many MTs on too many different accounts, all with no or minimal work, ICs suddenly having to chain themselves to their computers 24/7 hoping for work to show up, no explanation for the lack of work, total silence from the powers that be.

Scarily, it sounds very similar to what our fellow MTs at the Q went through.

I'm not saying they're offshoring but I am saying their lack of any explanation, lack of any response to emails from MTs, and that ludicrous email this morning all kind of point toward SOMETHING being askew.

I don't want to be a sitting duck so I'm applying elsewhere at this point. No matter how great they have been in the past, their behavior over the past month or so has left me VERY skeptical about the future with them.
I could never figure that term out myself.

Does management really not realize that if you run out of work on your primary account and have to work on 3, 4, or 5 different accounts that are unfamiliar and sometimes all on different platforms, that in itself is limiting?  I've done this so many times I can't even begin to count them.  I'm lucky if I make $8 an hour doing this, and the ONLY way it would help me reach my needed rate to qualify for full-time benefits is if I do it 15 hours a day!  How is this 'self-limiting?' If you're THAT familiar with your backup accounts where you're making what you do on your primary, you're running out of work consistently and this would make what they say about it being occasional an inconsistency.


The term *stagger*
is such BS. Do they stagger for us? Anymore staggering and we won't be able to walk aka function.
probably don't even know what the term means...
and you couldn't take advice from anyone, as you think you are just too perfect. you're right and everybody else is wrong. the world revolves around you, you, you. cold, heartless, compassionless, unempathetic you.
Do it because it's the best thing for you both now and in the long term. SM
I agree that having the knowledge that you're not alone would be comforting, but the bottom line is all of us need to have the attitude of be willing to do what it takes regardless of whether others do or don't see the importance of taking action. Actually, I see that in your post. You have already made the decision that you have to move on. So take heart, because there are plenty of positions out there with companies who are not selling our profession out from under us, and the ones that don't put off doing what needs to be done are the ones that will fill all of the currently available positions. That's where we all need to concentrate on being, i.e., with companies that realize we are the ones that provide them with the service they market. Without us, they have nothing. For sure, it won't happen over night, but the accounts will eventually have to follow the work force. They will have to look to the companies that can provide them with the service they need. That's not wishful thinking, that's reality. Everyone needs to take the attitude of supporting the companies that support us and our profession regardless of how many others do or don't follow suit. It starts right here with me and with you.

True, if as a profession we don't stand together on this, what the few of us do will make no difference in the overall scheme of things, but it will make a difference to me and to everyone else that takes these necessary steps to know that we refused to help some company owner or corporate board get rich off of our skills while they were busy working behind our backs to do us in. If we're going to have to be looking for different work in the future, I see no reason to help make those that would put us in that position get rich in the process. They intend to eventually take our livelihoods away from us. I think we should take theirs now while we still can and give it to those who will support us.
Not OSI MT, but term venture capitalist SM
has been used a lot lately in reference to MT companies. My own company has venture capitalist, or is it vulture capitalists?

Only speculation on my part, but are these Indian investors who want an American MT company, then eventually move said company to India? Or wherever?

I supposed none of it really matters, I am just curious. Am I the only person who wonders about this?
I think if you have short-term disability
as a benefit with a company, that covers maternity leave.  I
short term benefits
I work for Transcend/MDI and I got short term benefits for my maternity leave for six weeks. It worked out great. If you have short term disability where you work now then you can take six weeks and get paid for it. I hope this helps.
Duh - "comparative term" not compative... End of my day!! LOL NM
.
Wow . . . I probably should have said short term disability.
nm
For short-term disability to pay, you have
to be signed up for it, at least where I work.
Re the term "Indian giver"
Political correctness is intellectual terrorism.
Ooooold school term
Think back to the old Starsky & Hutch days. It is/was usually used to describe a drug addict craving his next fix, but came to mean anybody who had an intense desire for something; i.e., jones'n for chocolate, jones'n for a vacation, etc.

And it's no more or less ghetto than any of the other slang that finds its way into our vocabulary: dissing, wack, and true dat!
I think the confusing issue here is the term

Maybe access is a better word.  For instance, I have access to certain accounts for my online company.  As an IC for them, I have no quota to meet, I draw from the pool of dictators.  Now, I have agreed to take on certain dictators that no one else seemed to want to do.  But, if something comes up in my workday, as an IC, I just e-mail the company and they find someone else.  It's that simple and it works great.  Other than that, I draw from the pool of dictators that I have access to for that MTSO. 


Assigned means no help from any other MTs; it's all you and when a company assigns you work they should actually be paying you as an employee not an IC.  An IC works piece work meaning each and every sound file is a job or a service you have provided to that company.  You are an MT that provides your skills and they pay you for that service.


The only thing I've found that's difficult in this biz is naming your price with the online MTSOs as an IC.  They seem to name the wage; so that part is tough. 


If it is an ongoing relationship, it's also important that you think of this client and/or MTSO on a file by file basis.  One voice file is a job and so on.  There are other MTs in place at the company I work for that will step in and take work, so the downside is that I have to be on my toes if I want more than just what I have agreed to do on a regular basis unless something comes up.


As an IC, I have my own personal clients as well.  But, I consider the online MTSO one of my clients, so I service them all in the same fashion.


In actuality, my own clients are the money makers, and the online MTSO is filler and works very well for me since there are no set hours, no set line quota, and I can not work at all on any particular day.  As a courtesy, I let them know if I'm taking time off, but I really don't have to do that if I don't want to, but I like to because I know that TAT is important.  I respect them and they respect me.


I agree with the short-term person..

It seems like I only get the worst of the worst dictators from the hospital.  I see other "American" names but have never seen them dictate.  I get nothing but ESL or very poor dictators.  I do think they take nothing but overflow work also on certain accounts. 


I also  agree that they over-hire.  I have not been able to make full-time lines in the last 6 pay periods--never any work during the day, and when there is, it is the crappy (maybe leftover) stuff that no one else wants to do. 


QA is not that nice, and even though they know we get all the crappy dictators, they have told us that we are sending too much to QA and that until QA catches up because we are not figuring out our own problems, we cannot be assigned to any new accounts.  I already have 4 but still not enough work.  I am relatively new so decided to tough it out and wait to see if maybe there is more work later.


I don't HATE Webmedx, but they do have some problems that you may want to stay away from. 


Just my opinion...


You are misinformed. Sufi is most definitely NOT an Indian term. SM

Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic, is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam. Nevertheless, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.


The long-term MT world is so small

and we all (MTs, QAs, recruiters and other staff) move around so much that I know and have run into a bunch of the same people at different times/different companies.  There are many MTs I have never met but I know their work and I know who they are from board postings on other sites...there are more than a few bad ones and more than a few high-maintenance ones.  I know who they are and I assume that other people who have been doing this for a long time know who they are also.  When presented with one of these people, would you knowingly hire someone whose work you have seen previously (BAD) or who was a difficult/troublesome/undependable employee?  No.  So there is not an official list, but there are a few people out there in the world I recognize by email addy or name and won't deal with them because of previous experience.  I'm also sure they would never recognize themselves as difficult, troublesome or undependable.


The term -nice/nasty- describes them
I have not run out of work there ever. Same as previous poster, working on different hospitals with different specs.

There are quite a few ESLs and speed talkers. I don't think I have ever typed a report in which I did not have to leave a blank. There is one ESL who sounds like he has a vice around his throat...can't understand a word.

As far as management goes, I have sent more than a few emails to which I received no response.

I still have not figured out what the organizational setup is as the trainer and people with various other titles all send out the backlogs. They are nice as long as you are going along with the flow. They can be not so nice if otherwise.

Insurance is expensive. Pay has always been on time.
Riddens? The term is good riddance. nm
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I'm a long-term Precyse employee ...

In short, if you need to make a decent living, to use the words of other posters about some other MT services, run, run very far and fast in the opposite direction. 


Other employees may present another work experience, but I've found that despite the fact that they have great managers, good team spirit, and treat the MT's with courtesy and respect that for the most part the dictators are terrible, sound quality is poor, and I've yet to receive a stable primary.  I get bounced around all over the place due to low work volumes or accounts being transferred over to the offshoring side of the company for Indian MT's to work on. 


ASR takes up a significant portion of our transcription now.  Between ASR and the offshoring it's my perception (and it may just be a matter of perception) that most of the 'easier' dictators have been routed in this direction while those of us still doing straight transcription get a more concentrated pool of challenged dictators.  Because there's not a mix of the good and the bad it's very difficult to pull lines.  I haven't made my company minimum production in I don't know when and know of many other MT's who are in the same boat. 


The platform, though, is very user friendly and only rarely has glitches that prevent you from working (although glitches do occur). 


I hope this helps. 


P.S.  For some reason it's difficult to find recent info in the archives on Precyse.  I remember a week or two ago another poster saying that she too had done a search and couldn't come up with anything more recent than 2006, although I know that there have been more recent postings. 


I am also long-term happy here; nothing is perfect but sm
Webmedx is working for me, has worked for me about 8 yrs now; next best thing to my previous hospital job.
your short-term experience is why - 5 is nothing in the field. NM
x
Ronald Reagan enacted it during his term
Wow, incredible response on this.
'transcriptionist' is an ahdi-generated term.
nm
I prefer the term ''downwardly mobile'' nm
x
This is a gambit that won't work over the long term
I don't know many experienced MTs who are signing on for this VR for less pay. Before anybody chimes in who has a unique situation and loves it, save it. I've heard it before. But if you look at the job board, you will see that there are some MTSOs who use no VR as a sales pitch to attract good MTs. I also know of my local hospital where the MTs there are being forced achieve a minimum amount of minutes on VR or their pay gets docked. This stems from the bogus sales pitch that the dishonest vendors fed the management. That you can do VR faster so you can pay less. The MTs aren't happy and are looking for work elsewhere.
WMX short term disability question (sm)
Sent a question to HR about this, but still haven't heard.  Don't have much PTO and will be needing a surgery in the not too distant future.   Does anyone know if our short term disability will help with this?
Haven't seen anything mentioned, but have any long-term MDI-MD SE's received anything for X-Ma
Just curious, as there was no mention that I could find on the boards.  As a SE and just recently being hired by MDI-MD, I didn't expect anything; however, I received a beautiful Thanksgiving, X-Mas and New Years e-mail card from my liaison.  Can't begin to tell you how much that was appreciated. Just remembering we're out here doing the work for them, and she in turn taking her time to chose a card to send us, has shown me more appreciation than I received in my past 12 yrs working for another National !   
revolving door is too slow a term - your head would
spin right off your head with the number of employees they go through! Practically every week I was getting emails about management changes and replacements. It was very uncomfortable. I worked for them for seven months and it was not a good experience.