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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I don't understand the VR upset

Posted By: beepbeep on 2009-09-23
In Reply to:

I can make about $15-20 an hour with VR, eScription, what were you guys making before on straight typing?  You do have to have a great account, but even on my bad accounts (ESL nightmare), I do okay.   I am not saying I love VR or anything, but I can make a living.   I also don't know what VR is like on other platforms, it might be terrible, but I'm just curious as to what you guys were making an hour before VR?   I was making about the same.


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sorry...just very upset
=( not big on being put down by strangers!
Please don't get upset at everyone here
I understand why you don't want to come back. I always say to myself that I will only go to the gab board where life seems normal. And that negativity and name-calling abounds here.
If you don't come back, I would not blame you. But please don't leave thinking we are all nasty, and I personally am sorry how your question has been handled. I do not understand why trolling (nasty attacks) is not monitored on this board anyway, and the other boards on this site.
Everyone has a right to ask a question and no question is stupid. Except a baiting question or a redundant question like why is so and so always running out of work, etc. which is obviously a nasty hit to a certain place of employment.
What I am saying is I am sorry you are possibly being attacked (maybe they don't realize they are attacking your question, maybe it is not personal). But not all of us out here are that way. Finally, I want to say as I said a week ago, after this incident again, I too want to get out of this place except the gab and boards where people are supportive of each other. And although I have not been attacked like you, I sympathize and do not want to keep coming here and getting a bad taste in my mouth. My 2c.
Me upset? LOL

Now why would I be upset?  I work for a great company and make great money.  It is a little annoying for people to say these things don't exist when they do!!! 


As far as posting my company's name, I am not at liberty to do so after I posted my line rate.  This is a very confidential topic at the company I work for.  I will say that they have been talked about frequently on this board as a great company to work for.  I don't believe they are currently hiring at this time.


The upset is...

Not that we are just switching to VR from straight typing. They are switching our VR to new software (that they claim to be more productive) and decreasing our line rate with the switch. We are currently paid a decrease of 30% of our transcription rate for VR but will be paid a 37.5% decrease when the switch to the new software takes place (this is about 1.2 cpl less for me). Unless the new software is really that much better right off the bat, that is a significant pay cut for us. If I can only do the same number of lines on the new VR software that I do now on our current software, I will lose a little more than $3 an hour for editing. I would have to be able to do about an extra 100 lines per hour on the new software to make the same amount of money that I am currently making. The problem is that there really is no proof that the new software will lead to significant enough productivity gains to justify dropping our line rate. I'll believe it when I see it. The idea of working harder to make (hopefully) the same, or maybe even less, money does not sit well with many....


Yes, definitely upset about the shortage.
I had 16,000 lines plus in a pay period. Some of those days were supposed to be double lines for either working over or on a day off. I was told there would be a percentage taken off for header/footer. I had no idea it would be on total lines. I am getting about a 10 line difference between the software counter and MS Word counter. I have no idea about the new MTs - I am kind of new too, started about 8 weeks ago. Took 6 weeks to get my first paycheck. :( I do have another place I can work, but that lady takes more than 2 weeks to send a paycheck too. I am afraid to work for any of these companies at this point.
I am so upset, but not sure whether should ask boss or not...
I am on a very, very hard ESL account that the company has a hard time getting people to work on.  I have the ability to see who is assigned work and have noticed that a certain MT when they help on this account gets all the easy doctors assigned to them, but us who are stuck on this account get all the hard, nasty reports.  I do not understand why they do this, other than maybe the person does not have much experience or such, but it just does not seem right to me.  I do not know whether to say something or just let it go.  I am making a horrible line count, but this person is probably doing very well as they have all the easy dictators on this account.    Any suggestions, as I do not want to be a trouble maker, but now I am so upset over this I don't even want to work today.  Thanks. 
Yes, they were so upset they said in the call...
yeah, right! I hope they slept well last night! I am sure they did not miss a wink of sleep. It was Colleen taking today off according to her email on Friday night at 10:26 pm that she sent out to all of us.
I am very upset about this situation
It is very upsetting to me to see what is happening to us and to see how people just seem to be accepting it. I can go on and on about it because I am to the point where I just want to cry - I made a good living at this for years and now when things should be getting better in my life - I have to revert back to years ago and work in a hospital instead of home to make ends meet. This is total injustice.
If you are not upset with the insurance, you must be under 35. SM
What really got me upset was that they blamed the older MTs who used insurance too much for the switch. Very low.
should be ++ thought ++ - upset about this! n/m
b
So tell your boss instead of getting upset. nm
.
looks like you have the problem of being upset

You evidently have an issue with some MTs having a good job and good employer.  Why else would you take that post as being anything else?  Maybe you should work on your jealousy issues???


I'm upset myself because she makes 10.5 cpl yet

does not know that a lot is TWO WORDS.  She no doubt works at that company that values quality above all else. 


Truly trying to help you upset folks
If you want to leave Transtech because of the VR issue you should be able to EASILY get hired ASAP by OSi in Douglasville, Georgia, or Focus but I think Focus does mainly VR.  OSI always has a huge backlog and they don't do just VR.  They also provide computers for full time.  The links are www.ositranscription.com and www.focusinfomatics.com.  These companies are always hiring. 
Explain yourself. Are you upset that
I choose to work, but it is not necessary in supporting my family? How is that self-righteous, it is just fact. I definitely think it would be very difficult to be the sole provider for my family, but I don't know why you think that is a slap in the face. I am agreeing with you, it would be difficult. But how am I self righteous. I want an explanation. You may cut and paste anything I said that you consider that I am looking down my nose at you.
What people are also upset about
is the fact that management at MDI kept us sitting without work for weeks, telling us that there would be many new accounts in September and October and everything would be fine. I personally feel used. I was loyal to them, they were not loyal to me. Lesson learned.
Hope this doesn't upset you....

But, try to look at it this way.  You are in a healthcare profession, part of the team that takes care of that patient, even though not IN the hospital.  That means nights, weekends, holidays, etc., someone from the healthcare team has to be available for transcription.


I don't know anything specifically about this company, but from a manager's standpoint, I just wanted you to realize WHY some companies are specifically looking for nights, weekends, and holiday help.  It's tough--everyone wants to be off on weekends, be off on holidays, etc., but the reality is that MT just like nurses, doctors, and other allied health professionals are needed when the patient is an inpatient.  :(


Does anybody else get upset when companies that test you
and exchange e-mails with you does not have the common courtesy to at least let you know if a position was given to somebody else after the decision was made.  I HATE THAT.  Just wanted to know if it bugged anybody else.
Wow. Don't be upset! These are just board comments
Please dont take these things so personally, it isn't worth ruining your day. Leave if you want, but not on a bad note! JIMHO
Don't get upset, then, when offshore takes your job.
If we are not willing to give coverage nights and weekends, they certainly will be.

For what it's worth, I don't see the message you posted from your company anything near being a tyrant. Not a threat. Not a bully. Just stating facts. You can exercise your option to leave, just as you state you will be doing.


That word "margins" has me upset sm
Margins...that is PROFIT for the company! Any of us who have tried ASR full time understand that these MARGINS are what they don't pay us to do!

Again, and again and AGAIN I'll remind all of you as I would any MTSO in the world...YOUR COMPANY TURNS A PROFIT ON THE BACKS OF YOUR MTS. WE ARE the ONLY money generators in your business. Mistreat us, cheat us, lie to us about making more money with ASR and YOU WILL LOSE US right along with your company, you ignorant fools.

WHY aren't there enough MTs do to do the work? Because most newbies and those thinking about join this work force read up on what the MTSOs are doing and they don't get into this excuse for a career that we are in! OF COURSE there are not enough qualified MTs do the work. There is plenty of demand for MTs and not enough qualified MTs do the work, no kidding. As long as companies think the answer to this is to boost the Indian economy and/or pay an American a pittance to edit an ASR document, we will NEVER have enough MTs to do the work available here.

ASR is a flipping joke. I have talked to dozens of MTs who have done, tried to do it or are doing it. WITHOUT EXCEPTION they are scanning a document without the voice, or they are editing every other paragraph or listening at a pace that is not conducive to accuracy, leaving errors, etc. I work for a company that uses it and I can see all the past documents in the system. They are error ridden with nightmarish formatting. Many of them do not even make sense. There are so many spelling errors one has to wonder if they even spellcheck the document.

With a little luck, a company using a high percentage of ASR will get themselves sued to a point where they have to shut their doors. No, it won't come from a doctor, but if a patient with a creepy record sues the hospital who has demanded X amount of work to be generated as ASR to save money, and the patient prevails and undermines the hospital's *margins*, they will turn around and sue the MT company for even suggesting such a thing. This sort of a suit is not without precedent.
spelling police not necessary. OP obviously upset..
she does not need her spelling errors shoved at her as being *cheered up.*
If she was so upset about your letter not representing her feelings...sm
then let her write her own letter and express how the minority in this situation feels!!  Kudos for you in your quest to let the country know what kind of shaft you all got!  Don't ever forget that you have a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of MTs behind you, ex-Heartland or not!
Sorry, meant MRMT as upset poster.
x
Yes, it is as bad as it seems. In fact, it's worse. More upset than happy. nm
...
You went back? I thought they were upset at me when I left because they were looking foward to
working with me and I put them off. :(. I am too shy to even let them know this which is why I put anon. I loved my supervisor Ginny and Becky too, and the work. Thanks for the nice thought. I guess I am chicken LOL, and too chicken to ask to come back. Glad you did and it worked out!
I am not her spokesperson just happy with the company I work for and upset that people can be so sm

misleading because the fit was not good for them. 


If you have been on these boards a while, you would know that she always posts her name.  I emailed her today to tell her what was happening on here, and the response I got back was she does not even look on here as it is too upsetting and has promised herself not to come and look.  She has too much else to do with her time and defending herself and her company is always misinterpreted.  She basically told me I should spend more time working or with my family than spending time on this soap opera.

It is better to not care and let people form their own opinions.  Everyone takes the postings with a grain of salt anyway.  I think it is sad that she has to be so tough-skinned.
If you're that upset about it, do what I did and work for a company that doesn't outsource
nm
made type -- SO UPSET OVER TT and their NO WORK situation way TOO LONG now

sorry about type, but very, very upset with the TT has lost any concern/care for their MT's who make their paychecks for them.  Dictatphone doesn't pay you your salary, nor pay for your raises.  Your MT's allow your paychecks the remain the same and allow you to give yourselves RAISES.


Leads/sups, etc are transcribing OUR WORK now and we have none to little no paychecks to pay our bills.


You who are thinking of hiring on with TT better give some very consideration to your decision.  GOOD ADVICE.


TYPO -- wow I am upset. It is causing illness due to stress !!! Does TT care? NO n/m

and inability to meet my payments that I have normally had no problem paying.  It is so disgusting.


Don't send me a Happy Friday email.  Send me some of your paycheck, mgmt.  Nor do I want to hear you guys ROCK!  If you mgmt people had no paychecks, you wouldn't be saying that, would you?


Your paychecks come from MT's -- NO ONE ELSE !!!  And YOU want to pay us 1/3 or 1/4 of our line rate for your crummy VR dictation.  What a disgrace !!!


You are most definitely upset that your Bush **s-kicking ways have rendered your eyes caught in the
Without MTs, companies would not exist. You and many others have no regard nor respect for hard-working MTS. You can't take it with you. I feel sorry for you. Do the right thing...and, you know what that is.
What I don't understand is this-

But I still don't understand

They never have anything positive to say, except about themselves.  I guess we don't need to ask anymore questions after we come to that conclusion.


So, let me understand (sm)
That this is your first career/job out of high school and you are getting 8.5 cpl for clinics and they are mentoring you?  Did you hire in at that?  How long have you been there to be offered QA with such little background in MT? (no offense)  I have 10 years experience and they are talking 8 cpl to me.  Hmmm.....
I think we can all understand
The typo police don't have to come out every time.  Get a life.  We all work with words all day long and when you get on here, you might be a little tired.  Give 'em a break.
I don't understand it, either. sm
It'd be great if MTs came here and supported each other. This is NOT a great field to be in, IMO. We should be banding together as sisters (and brothers) in the same boat.

I wish the monitors would institute a zero-tolerance policy toward people who deliberately harass someone here like this person or people were doing to Metrochick.
Don't understand
I couldn't afford to stay in business if I paid people for NOT working.  I can understand if the computer is down or if there is a problem, but just because there is no work, a company would go broke.  Can I bill the doctors if they do not dictate a day?  How can I pay you if I cannot bill a customer for work?  This work has always been up and down -- feast or famine my father used to say.  But through the years -- now over 20 -- I have learned to save for the lean times.   Like I said if the problem was on my end due to machinery malfunction but if docs don't send in the dication how can I pay you for something I cannot bill out to them?  
I Understand more now
I understand more now of what you are saying.  I agree with you more than when I first read your post.  It is so hard to juggle in this job market.  There are so many pieces that fit into the cpl you charge the client,  the transcriptionist, supplies, QA time, software, etc. that is it very hard for an owner to make much and when an account is down for the day to pay those people that should be on it while it generates no income is double hard.   It is really hard to strike that balance of being staffed correctly for both the busy and slow times of the year.  A lot of it is out of my control.   You are probably with a larger company that can afford to pay you for 8 hours of work and generating income from only one.   They count that into their overhead.  I have only 5 accounts of 2-3 docs, have 2 part-times and am the QA, owner, Transcriptionist also.  But on those accounts that my gals type, I make only 25 to 30% max on what they type which a lot of times generates out to only $7 to $9 an hour for doing pick-up, pick-up, delivery, printing, etc.  That is why in 2006 I am going to  probably cut back to doing only what will keep me with a decent income to pay my bills and I do not have to worry about having enough work for the gals, doing the running, etc.  My guilt is high when the docs are on vacation or it is a slow time and the gals have no work but I cannot cut myself short either.   Enough rambling on,  - I do understand more and I think that if your company is not paying you for the time, they know they have overstaffed themselves to cover those times when the need is heavy and thus I would probably look for another company that staffs more evenly.   Sorry I rambled on so much.     
The way I understand it . . .
they are instituting what they're calling a pilot program to sort of test the waters of offshoring work by starting to send a small percentage of work overseas in order to be competetive with their contract fees. No, I don't think they're doing it yet, but it is obviously going to happen at least to a small extent in the near future. We have to accept this as the trend of the future because it's happening everywhere, like it or not.
What does this mean for MTs? I don't understand.
?
Understand. Thank you!
x
I understand!
That is why I love it when they post unqualified applicants need not apply!
I can understand...
I worked for an Iranian doc in office and there was a woman there that'd worked for him for about 13 years. He would call her at 3 am because he thought of something he wanted to tell her (she was also an MT). He did this all the time. As far as I know she's still there because he pays so well.
I understand all that.
The point is that besides the tons of different work types there are VERY different account specifics from hospitals all over the country. I am well versed in different work types; that was not the issue. The issue was all the different account specifics that changed on a weekly basis to boot. It became where we had no primary account. How is that productive for them or for me?
I understand that...
That is my exact point that the PTO accrues so slowly that how do they expect you to use this for your maternity leave!! Actually right now I earn less than 4 hours every two weeks and I can't accrue any because I have to use it for holidays and when there is no work unless I want to work all through the night after I have just sat all day waiting for work!! Do this make more sense... I was just told I wanted to be a maternity rider when that is not the case. All I came on here to do was to try to find a better job with more PTO then maybe when I do have a baby I can take two weeks off with it at least...at this rate I will have to come right back to work like two days after I pop a kid out! I never wanted to get into a XXXX match with anyone over maternity leave, but that is what it has turned out to be!!!
I know, don't understand it either!
there really is no proofing while you type. Proofing is going back and proofreading a document after it's done. Doesn't everyone technically read the words as they type??? And with all that going on at once, you miss things. On the other hand, I do not blame MTs who do not proofread the documents at the end, definitely less production and hence less money. I'm going to tell you a secret...lol..I just started skimping a bit on that myself. If I have a small mistake, oh well. I need to make a living here! :)
No, you don't understand.
My account with them DID pay for headers and footers and I always randomly check my line count against the ESCRIPTION (not Editscript) metrics of the company.  This week it is off consistently and in talking with the company was told the client does not want to pay for headers any longer ???? so without letting us know, we are suddenly not paid for completing demographics.  I simply wanted to make sure others were aware of this as this evidently can happen anywhere at anytime and no one at the company may feel compelled to share this info with the MTs. 
I understand what you are trying to say, or what
is bothering you. I have been in this industry my entire adult life - a LONG time - and I agree that most companies have changed in that they just don't share info that is really pertinent - like not getting paid for headers anymore. Its sneaky to me, or underhanded, and just breeds contempt or suspicion in the MTs. Or, the company can have an uppity attitude, like why on earth is it the MTs business what they are getting paid for or not? Which also makes me feel bitter. I remember the old days of honest communication - the news might not have been good, but I handled it well. They treated me with respect, and I felt like a professional. Gone are those days, and it is a shame.
This is what I don't understand........
Wouldn't it have been more beneficial to everyone involved to sell the company rather than just let it die a painful death?
I don't understand...
why they yell at the MTs when it is not their fault? The MTs get blamed for everything!!!!!!!!! Grrrrr
I don't understand
how you can say they ALWAYS pay on time when just this past Friday they were late with direct deposit