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How do you cite sources but not fill in blanks?!

Posted By: Doesn't make sense. Please explain. on 2008-01-01
In Reply to: smartmed blank policy - been there, done that

NM


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oh wait, let me fill in the blanks:

you must be a bitter person to hate your job so much


there's no way VR will be able to do all the accents


once they go to India, they will be back for American quality


our jobs will never go away...


there. I already put them in there so no one has to run their long posts saying the same thing that is always said...


Well, if she meant she doesn't want to fill in ANY blanks...
then she's gonna have trouble finding what she considers a decent QA job!
How is editing for them? 100% listen, fill in blanks, lots of feedback
p
blanks are fine, just don't guess. hopefully others left the same blanks.
nm
Consumer Reports and other independent sources say no myth. nm
x
Yep, the reasons you cite are the

reasons why I left FT MT 2 years ago and I couldn't be happier!  It's a GREAT relief to have vacation time, sick pay, go to the doc's without worry, health/dental/vision ins., 401K plan and even the smallest reason of all (but a big deal to me) to be able to TALK to your coworker for a few minutes and not worry that you aren't getting paid for it!  SICK of the BS in the MT world.  Glad I got out.


Of course, I can't stay totally away, as I'm some sick glutton for punishment I suppose.  I need extra income on the weekends and don't really want to leave the house then, so you guessed it - MT (barely) fills the niche.


I just left a service where I was paid 8 cpl and 3 for VR - not worth my while.  Starting a new service with higher pay, but being that I've been around the block a few times & have lost my optimism in the Dickensonian (or is that Dickensian?) MT world, I'm a bit skeptical.  We will see...


Would you please cite here your information..sm.
source for the Philippine offshoring? Their overnight and off-hours tech support does come from India, but I have NEVER heard of a Philippines connection. Please verify - I'm curious.............
I would not cite the specific reason
just say not working out as you had hoped.  Good luck
Yet you and the other poster fail to cite how in your opinion they did not keep sm
their word.  Let's hear it -- cite examples or be quiet.  I know that not all companies are all people, and that's fine.  I have seen people on here raving about companies that I thought were awful, but I just chalk that up to personal preference/experience and don't post vague remarks saying how rotten the company has been. 
Yet you and the other poster fail to cite how in your opinion they did not keep sm
their word.  Let's hear it -- cite examples or be quiet.  I know that not all companies are for all people, and that's fine.  I have seen people on here raving about companies that I thought were awful, but I just chalk that up to personal preference/experience and don't post vague remarks saying how rotten the company has been. 
Blanks
I've left blanks before in tests if I was not 100% sure, and it has never counted against me. They may have included difficult areas in the tests intentionally to see how you wound handle it. Good luck. I found KS to be too disorganized for my taste.
If I see blanks like that...
I provide the website I found it from and tell him/her to do the research...if I can find it easily, so can they...
Just a guess here but perhaps her blanks indicates she was willing to ask for help and
?
QA is more than filling in blanks and
3.5 cpl is ridiculous. People who take these jobs do not deserve any more than they wind up earning and they make these companies think they can get away with it. The only way to get paid to QA is to get paid by the hour, and I do not mean $10 an hour either! Shame on these companies. They will use the excuse that they cannot afford to pay higher. Don't buy it. It is not true. It is greed and nothing less.


Blanks on test
No, the dictator was pretty clear, but he said a few things that I just was not able to make out.
Question on blanks
I am a fairly green MT, but I do my best not to leave any unnecessary blanks.

I am wondering what types of blanks you run across that you feel are ridiculous and just out of laziness.

Can you give some examples?
Blanks do not count against you

They would rather you leave a blank than to guess.  As with any company, there are ESLs.  There are good ones and bad ones. 


QA can be strict.  We transcribe verbatim unless of course it is a gross medical error and then a blank is left and the report is sent to QA.  If you type the wrong wrong word and it affects the meaning, it is a higher deduction but there is also a deduction for errors made not affecting the meaning. 


I have worked for Axolotl for a long time and I have never worked for a better employer.  If you have any questions you can e-mail me or post on here and I will try to answer you. 


Blanks can be a good thing!
They prove you know what you don't know! Very important in this work. Just be sure that all else you transcribe is right on.

My goal was always for 100% (thanks Scrapper), but really no more than two blanks in say 3-6 reports, and that has landed me lots of offers.

My first test, btw, was with MedQuist. I asked before transcribing the test how the scoring system worked in order to judge when to say when if it got impossible. No harm in asking!




You aren't docked for blanks unless maybe

How does Axolotl define a line?  Do they pay for spaces, headers, footers, & expansions?  Are you docked for blanks or sending things to QA?  If so, how much.

you keep leaving the same blank after receiving corrections.  They would rather you leave a blank than to guess.  Line is 65 characters, pay for spacers.  There are acute care and clinic accounts and I don't know if they pay differently for them as far as headers/footers.  I have no footers, only have to fill in date in headers so not sure how they pay.  I don't know why wouldn't get paid for expansions, I get paid for normals and I have some normals as expansions so I guess they do pay for them. 

Figure out as much as you can and leave blanks.
Sometimes they give you a mumbler to see how you respond.  Never guess...  Just do the best you can and send it back.  Good luck!
Mercy, of course filling in blanks is ok BUT
not 30, 40, 50 or 60 blanks in EVERY report from the SAME LAZY/UNTRAINED MTs. Don't criticize QAs who have a problem doing this baloney. One company I used to work for NEVER did audits and what they got was swiss cheese reports from people who didn't care, and I was simply wondering who the companies are who don't put up with that now since I've been away a few years. Thank you.
banning blanks in reports
How do you ban blanks in reports? I've been in the MT business, from the ground up, for years and sometimes even I can't hear what the heck the doc is saying. Are you saying that you put an asterisk in there instead of a blank or are you banning blanks altogether? That would make for a not-so-good end result I would think......once again, another tactic to give up quality which the entire MT world used to strive for. I was once very proud to be an MT, and now I don't even like to mention it, especially if I'm visiting the doctor's office. I always get an earful.
He probably means you have to send any blanks to QA.
Not so unusual. I have had accounts like that for years..first at YOG, then the evil Q, now at Webmedx. I suppose it gets resolved with the facility's QA/med recs.

In any event, I share your shame about this profession.
Do you give it back with the blanks filled in?
I send things to QA and never hear back until I prod and prod.  This is a waste of my time as well only to hear from QA don't know, we sent through with the blank.  If you are filling in the blanks, then you should be giving it back to the MT with the mistakes filled in and also a way for the MT to relisten.   JMO.  Is this MT doing the same doc or is she being thrown new ones to learn each day?  As far as the timeframe for when will she learn, there are a lot of variables to that question in my opinion.  Sorry to sound sort of like huh?, but you seem like you are sort of complaining about the job you chose.  If you do not like QA, why not try going back to being an MT.  JMO.  Good luck with the MT though..    
Not true. You are not dinged for anything coming through QA, blanks, etc. nm
.
You get paid for 15 lines no matter how many blanks
/
You get paid 15 lines for reports with any # of blanks
If you do a full listen you get paid for all the lines. They discourage this unless the MT is on 100% proofing because they have a massive backlog. My pay was roughly half of my pay as an MT and I was one who got fired a few months ago because they were doing away with QA's in the US. Can't imagine why they are hiring for US QA's again.
I agree that QA is there to listen to blanks that the MT cannot understand...
However, there are times I see so many reports where people do not even try to find the blanks and think someone else is going to do that for them...I wouldn't spend hours finding a blank either but you made it sound as if you didn't even try to find the blank...obviously you are the type of MT who are not talking about so you shouldn't get offended...I don't think doing QA means your above anyone...you are there for an extra set of ears to see if you can hear a blank but some MTs take advantage of QA as a backup to not finishing the report...
I QA'd a 4-minute report yesterday with over 100 blanks
..
It they are 20-minute dictations with lots of blanks,
nm
Can you fill me in, too?
I have done acute care for 17+ years. thanks
So all three you just filled in the blanks and didn't need special equipment?
The MT I work with and I might test with them this week.
One with overwhelming ESLs that you have to keep leaving blanks for, thus losing
s
Thank you Jennifer - in turn - I think you get better quality work - less blanks! nm
nm
First of all, I think she means filling in an inordinate number of blanks. Secondly...

QA's job should be solely filling in blanks.  It should be to perform routine and random quality checks, it should be researching and educating MTs on new terminology, new procedures, new drugs, it should be maintaining and updating account specs, and it should be assisting newly hired MTs in their transition from training to productive employee.


Far too many MTs see QA as a safety net and big gigantic kitchen sink where they can toss in their crap and out comes something shiny and clean, an excuse to never research a new word or look up the correct spelling of a doctor's name because QA will do the work for you and you'll still get paid for your lines.


And QA used to let MTs get away with it back in the day when they were paid hourly, but the majority of QA people are paid on production now too and so when MTs don't try hard at their jobs, that means QA picks of the slack and loses money.  QA gets reports that look like swiss cheese and we have to practically transcribe the entire report to fill in the holes because of lazy MTs with the looking out of numero uno mentality.


okay so she wasted her time looking for blanks on a report that you obviously could have found yours
Now how is that her job again? The point is be responsible for your own reports and take pride in them...and being an MT is more than just knowing terminology..I am sorry you had a bad experience with QA but not all of us are like that...
Those are big shoes to fill

I guess you've never worked on the inside of an MTSO business, but you wouldn't believe how physicians and hospitals are chipping away at our pay by demanding lower rates from the MTSOs.  Some MTSOs that people on this site complain about offering offshored services to client did it to KEEP from losing their clients.  When it starts with the doctors and hospitals, what choice do the MTSOs have but to pass that on to the MTs?  It really is a vicious circle. 


Some MTSOs team up with schools and offer interships where an MT in training works for free for a period of time to gain experience.  Now trust me, THOSE savings are not passed on to the experienced MTs...that goes directly into the MTSO's pockets and those MTSO push their long-term, higher paid MTs out the door to save a few pennies with no trouble sleeping at night.


So what about a union?  You're right.  More jobs will be offshored.  More experienced MTs will lose their jobs.  Doesn't anyone remember what happened when the air traffic controllers went on strike and the president of our United States canned every single one of them and airports had to hire an entirely new staff of controllers?  Did you see airlines stop flying passengers?  Nope.  Managers worked triple shifts until restaffing occurred, oh, without extra pay since they were salarired.


I don't pretend to know the answers as to how an MTSO should run its business but honest communication, good benefits and wages that have been lost in just a few short years (less than 10) would be nice.  It should stick to its gun and promote keeping jobs in the states for the patients' sakes.  And for the Indian physicians who have organized and created their own MTSO's to keep their families in India employed should be boycotted.  MTs should educate anyone they know who uses a doctor to ask the physician where his/her transcription is done or if s/he even knows and use only physicians with American-based transcription.


Boycotts worked in South Carlolinia and other states to take down the Rebel flag. Why can't we have a similar affect?  Mostly because we are not organized (I did NOT say unionized) and we do not generate the media coverage necessary to affect change.


d~


Had to fill all of it in when I left.
`
demographic fill-ins
Top-of-the-line platforms will fill in demogrpahic screen automatically (if docs enter right numbers in the first place), and it's wonderful.  Other platforms will fill in partially, and on the ancient and/or practically obsolete ones, the MT has to fill in everything.   Also, most of us don't get paid to fill out our production sheets, etc., either.  When I worked in-house at 2 hospitals, we did get credit for time away from keyboard, like answering phone, filling in time cards, in-service education, etc.; they had a formula for it and it was pretty fair compensation.  Buth, that was then . . .
agree. you could also fill that cup the other way
and say bad credit implies one will work harder to keep afloat.

Also agree about checking a company's credit - HOW MANY TIMES have we heard 'they don't pay'? Is that not what gets reported? and relevant here?
If you didn't have to fill out
a 6-page application, you are lucky. I remember it being very tedious to fill out multiple applications, clicking off which specialties I had done, not being absolutely clear if they meant cardiology within a hospital setting or if they actually wanted to know if I had CLINIC cardiology experience, etc.

Working at home can make lots of people cranky. That's why MTs tend to have a reputation for being difficult. Or maybe a glycerin suppository and some MiraLax would help, LOL.
Yes they hire from outside and need to fill
QA doesn't always pay the bills.
If this company begins with D, your pay goes back to new-hire rate if there are ANY blanks in it
s
You must have been on an old platform. That's my point - we don't have to fill in anything on
Its all computerized. You hit a search button, and then accept.  That's not even 1 keystroke! Same thing with doctor searches, etc.  You can run searches at a click by first name, last name, specialty - you name it. It takes seconds to find a doctor and then you just click "accept", and it fills in for you in the body of the report! Its great! I tried other companies lately, and its so antiquated.  Back to paper lists and shuffling thru pages and pages of name, manually entering or correcting demos - Yuck. Five minutes til you get into even the first line of report! No thanks!
I just have to fill in patient's name and everything else is automated and

even filling in the patient's name is made easy, I just type it and enter and it goes where it needs to do and then I type.  The work is batched so I just keep typing until I have 10 -12 pages and then send, again all automated and then start another batch. 


I worked for YOG for a short time years ago and they had so many demographics it took at least 5 minutes to fill them in, had to constantly look up stuff on the lists to find correct info and never got the same doctors twice to be able to learn doctor's information so you didn't have to keep looking it up.


My server has never been down, except during hurricanes last year, so no down time.  A couple of times the hospital's server has been down and I've been able to get my lines, though had to take a break during my regular shift and work a little longer in the evening.  Never went a day with NO work.  System never locks up.


 


You fill in a time sheet
but why dread it? attitude is 60% of the challenge (or more). You might just like it better, i do.
Does the demographics fill in on your account or do you ....

have to type them in?  I had an account that filled in and it was not too bad.  The account I have now must be searched out from the patient name to the type of document.  Really sucks because it is so terrilby time consuming.  Get a ESL saying the name and you can be looking at several minutes just to locate it.


I don't think any of them do, but some of them require VERY little time to fill in.
.
NO demos to fill and a lot better than .0835!!!

I have great benefits, no demographics to fill in (unless error and maybe a MR# and name), and make in the double digits for my line count rate.  Any MT with a lot of years acute care experience that settles for less than 0.09 or 0.095 is crazy. These jobs are out there. 


I worked for Amphion a couple of years ago and I only stayed about 2 months due to the demographic issues.


Good Luck to all!!


Do you still have to fill out a timesheet with the keystrokes
s
Here is the reason that rad job is hard to fill...
Pay is by the report. As I am training, the woman training me states that I will be doing a lot of diagnostic studies, that the reason is they are dictated during those hours. So, I just imagined myself typing huge reports for a buck and a quarter with no benefits and figured she was warning me before I got in too deep. If that is the account which is in the Houston area.

Now, I guess I am glad it happened since the word lay offs sends us all into a state of panic and anxiety equivalent to fight or flight and is an exhausting state especially while trying to produce perfect work.