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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I was lucky and had on-the-job training in the hospital I worked for. SM

Posted By: MTmee on 2008-06-06
In Reply to: breaking into the business - tt

But, it wasn't the medical terminology that I had trouble with. It was the medications that always got me!


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You're extremely lucky. I bet there aren't 10 of us out here employed by a hospital, working f
c
I guess I have been lucky to have worked for 3 great companies. The only problem with the 2 before
is that they both were sold to companies that were not U.S. only and I refuse to work for any company the sends work offshore.

I am happy at Keystrokes and know that others are too. I have gotten everything promised to me, even though I must admit that I do not ask for much. I just want to do my work and leave my desk when done and then get paid for what I did.

I hope you find a great company that fits your needs. It must be horrible to be burnt enough times that you have to doubt everyone. I feel like that in my love life (divorced 3 times).
Who did your training? When I worked there, I was trained from someone in India, very hard to
understand what he was saying. Communication is less than ideal as there seems to a language barrier and comprehensive. I used to think NO was a universal language but to them it just means keep asking until the other person is so frustrated they are ready to reach in through the phone lines or IM and tear out your vocal cords LOL. Joking aside. Awful experience. I worked too hard, made too little and the HR person was the worst EVER.. real airhead.
I worked at a hospital that used ...
Cerner for their medical records and I found it to be user friendly and easy to learn.
Most who have worked at a hospital know the
but, how many hospitals now the transcriptionists work anymore? To say you have gotten out, well you really are still in this line of work, just working for a hospital instead. I along with others on this board have been outsourced from hospitals and I along with others on this board made excellent salaries. What you are saying, we already know. Consider yourself lucky. I was outsourced from three hospitals before working for a company. The money here is good, just not as good as in the 90s working inhouse.
I know that feeling. The hospital I worked for
when I started had us all at the same "starting pay". Then they changed it to commensurate with experience.

So, new hires (even those with less experience) were getting hired in at sometimes THREE BUCKS more than I was getting.

They wouldn't raise me up to make up for it. So, I quit.
The hospital I worked at used C-Bay and needless to say
It was a nightmare. They are an Indian owned company with an office in Annapolis, Maryland. ALL of their transcription is done in India. Our department spent so much time redoing the reports that we just got sick of it. They still got paid, but we ended up doing double the work.

They will not lie to you about the fact that they offshore. There have been many articles in newspapers (check the Baltimore business newspapers for the articles) about their offshoring to India.

Good luck and get ready to redo a lot of the work. You probably will not see any mistakes for about 4-6 weeks. They make it a practice to do excellent work until they feel the client is comfortable with them enough to stop checking the work.
When I worked for a hospital we used their computers

I could chime in anytime to see what we were doing.  They did it to me several times.  Plus, they could read our e-mails even though we were at home.  They were more worried about us minding our own business and working and not snooping into medical files.  


When we were connected to the VPN, internet was blocked.  We could surf without the VPN.   We could not put any software or any extras on it except what the hospital wanted. 


I am using my own computer now but I wonder if I would be better off with a company that provides the equipment for more structure.  


when I worked in a hospital laboratory...sm
it was suggested to some of us (including me) that we take anger management (don't know if that's the same thing hehe). Of course, we were in denial and decided to step lightly instead.
When I worked in a hospital, we all fought
for ER dictation, so much that we were assigned days. Love ER. There are a lot of runny noses, etc., but the docs normally say the same thing over and over, so you can get lots of macros to increase your line counts significantly.
rad dept at the hospital I worked at
everything was automatic and errors throughout; no one cares anymore.... .  it's sad in a lot of ways... . needless to say, I no longer go to that hospital ; they can forget it; I wouldn't send my worst enemy there; yes it's that bad....
I worked in the hospital for many years - sm
and worked for private doctors' offices on the side with my own business. When I relocated rurally, I found it so much more cost-effective to work at home. No uniforms, no gas, no lunches out, etc. Could get up 15 minutes before my shift, etc. Now the companies all offer full time status (usually a minimum of 39 hours) with full bennies. Your hourly wage would depend on your speed. You would have to type over 200 lines per hour in order to get the salary you are quoting. It really depends on what you want out of the job. If it's social contact, that surely is lacking. But the pay and benefits are similar, and as I said, some of the additional costs of working outside the home are saved. Also, if you set up an office in your home, you can get tax benefits for that. I came home finally full-time because the bennies at the hospital were way too high a cost. Cheaper with the company I work with, a LOT cheaper. Plus my dad, who lived with use, got cancer, and I needed to be closer to him, as the hospital was over a half-hour away. That's my story, though. Hope yours goes the way that gives you more of what you want. Good luck to you!
When I worked at a hospital we were told
that if stupid mistakes continued from using expanders, we would not be allowed to use them. That is probably the problem, too many mistakes.
I know her personally. We worked together at a hospital for years. nm
x
Not compared to what I used to pay at the hospital I worked for. I have better coverage with sm
Unicare than the one that my hospital used (United Healthcare).  It includes prescription coverage too.  I am about half the premium I used to be.
This happened to me in a small hospital I worked at SM
several years ago.They actually saved the ESLs for me! With that on top of DS which I can't make money with (I love OPs), I found another job.
worked 3 yrs, went to work for local hospital nm
nm
Who did they outsource too? Seems like I briefly worked for a company that did ER for a hospital in
either Wyoming or Montana. I cant remember.
It is weird. I worked for the Florida Hospital thru Diskriter.... SM

back in 2005 when Diskriter first landed the gig.  I had to take a drug test, see my personal doctor for a physical and have him fill a very long and involved form, and get a TB test all for a facility I would never set foot in!  It took three long weeks for me to get through all the red tape and actually start the job.


The work was okay, but it ran out and you had no secondary account because you were employed by the hospital.  So if you wanted a backup account, then you had to go through more red tape to actually be an employee of Diskriter too and there was a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo that came with that because Diskriter was managing the transcription department for this hospital and the hospital had a contract that said that Diskriter could not put the hospital's employees on Diskriter accounts without express consent from the hospital. 


The supervisor of the hospital employees was employed by Diskriter and was incompetent.  We weren't able to get sample reports, normals, etc. out of her.  We always got the standard I'll look into that or It's in the works.  It seemed she had no contact with the hospital HIM department at all.  However, they could have a new person in that position now.  Like I said it was all brand spanking new back then.


Oh and your benefits were out of Florida.  So unless you're planning on flying into Florida to see a doctor or have an operation, you're basically screwed.  The bennies may have changed too by now though -- so who knows.


After three months, I just decided it was all just too much and left.  All the hoops I jumped through to get the job and then to have the job be such a disappointment was just irritating!


I worked on a large teaching hospital account and was
frequently out of work.  KS didn't have the entire account.  I don't know if they had in-house MTs or they used more than one company.  You should have a backup account too, though there may be some  lag time between getting you a backup as they figure out where they can plug you in.   They supposedly are getting several new accounts so surely they should be plenty of work. 
Used to be 7.4-7.7 cpl for clinic, 8 cpl for hospital w/1 weekend shift, 10 if U worked entire
s
Ewww - I worked on Meditech Magic in a hospital system - sm
unless the platform has improved mightily, it was horrible. There was no word Expander in Meditech and the spellcheck dictionary was very limited. By changing to a Word-based platform, my lines per hour increased about 75 LPH in one whack.
Much easier and better process of doig this, as I worked at a hospital on ExText nm
n
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..
Lucky You ... I was not so lucky to work with that platform
Meditech - it was awful. I kept getting promised that my account was going to ChartMatrix, but it never happened and the Meditech system was SO slow. I loved TH, the people, etc. - so if you can get an account that is on ChartMatrix - hop on it. But, avoid the accounts that are on Meditech because I don't think they are EVER going to convert (and I waited quite awhile - couldn't take it any more).
Their training schedule kind of got backed up and so far the only training..(sm)
I've had is one short Bayscribe session. But I extended my 2 week notice at Medquist and I have until July 17 now to get some training in at MDI and do some reports to get familiar with the platforms. I'm looking forward to it! 
I can't say enough about their training team. Excellent training!
The people at Medware are all just great. I wish I would have joined the Medware family sooner! They are very flexible and caring!
do you mean company training or med transcription itself training?
nm
Diskriter off off offshores - and on some hospital accounts - they have not informed the hospital
x
Jewish is the main hospital, St. Mary's is another hospital under their management. (nm)
x
what training? no training for me, first day they Tried to give me 2 ESL....
nm
they did not come up first. An hour of training is not really training.
nm
First for hospital, then outsourced still on same hospital work
and believe it or not, the hospital was so much easier. Had worked at the hospital for 11 years before they outsourced and then worked another 3+ years for the company they outsourced to. What a difference! The company had so many rules and regulations you could hardly keep up with them all, thousands of them, on the same account, mind you. The higher ups would not leave you alone, constant IMs about any and all. I have gotten to the age where I do not need all that and walked the other week. Have scheduled testing with another hospital for this month. Hope I make the cut, love the hospital work 1000 times more than a company.
Lucky you.

Not OP,  been here years and leaving shortly.


lucky you
you guys are lucky to be working. i need a job. just relocated to NC.
if you are really lucky you can
:0
I wish I was that lucky!!! I pay $900/mo
x
consider yourself lucky

It's better you find out how horrific the communication is now than waste your time getting hired/quitting your other job, and them jerking you around.


Take it from someone who knows EXACTLY where you are coming from.


Well, you must be lucky...sm
Like the poster below, it took me 6 weeks to get my first check. Two weeks worth of work invoiced on the 1st was not paid until the 27th. That is beyond a long wait for 1 paycheck. Also, while I knew I would not be paid for headers/footers working in Extext, I was quite surprised when I got my check and 30% of the total line count was deducted. Considering the headers/footers only accounted for 5 to 6 lines a report, they were ripping people off big time. What excuse could they have for not sending someone a paycheck?
Lucky you!
I just emailed the payroll person to see about why the check I got was wrong and she says she only issues the check and she can't help me with any issues. I just would love a straight answer from someone and for someone to step up and do what is needed.
Your one of the lucky ones
I am no longer an IC for TTS nor will I ever be again or will i EVER refer anybody to her dungeon. LK has a serious problem with favoratism. If you are one of her goody two shoes that she not only pays on time but gives them all the good work, (cuz yes, she does cherry pick herself and give her favorites the good work so they can make more money) then you don't have any problems. Fortunately but yet unfortunately for me, I was one of those people that she Cherry picked for and when I got paid I got paid well, but I can't live on a not knowing when I was going to get paid. This is not a new problem for TTS. This has been ongoing since February of about 2 or 3 years ago, I can't remember what the year was.

There is no doubt that TTS has GREAT accounts, a GREAT platform, and LK does know how to take care of systematic problems, but she doesn't know how to run a business professionally, unless you are one of her favorites!


How lucky you are?
You must not work for a national!
Lucky?!

Your lucky!  I worked for On-Point MTs and am owed $1400.00 that I will probably never see because the owner stole all the money her MTs earned...


I have a bounced check from one of the payments I recieved and never recieved payment for that or any of the other work I did for her.


Stay away from On-Point now and in the future.  Her name is Bawnie Bartlett and her husband is Aaron Bartlett.


I would say you got very lucky! nm
x
Lucky you
A lot of us did have problems getting paid. There was not always plenty of work either. Sometimes we did run out.
Lucky you....
My emails are never answered. Maybe I should use your name in my subject line in order to get a reply.
Consider yourself lucky
We still have autumn leaves.
LUCKY!
You are so lucky! I have to drive what I can pay for. You are fortunate to have such a generous husband. :)
Lucky you, we are all not so lucky.
nm
Boy you are lucky! (sm)

I can crank out 500 lines an hour but there's no place I've found that allows me to do that.  Sure I can do 1000 lines a day and make $20+ but if I only work 2 hours, 3 max, that's only $60 a day and no where near coming close to making $8000-$9000 a month.


If I could make HALF that a month, I'd shut up and type.  I'd be in heaven and I'd never gripe about my life/job/bills again!


I'm lucky if I make that in 6 months.  You are definitely NOT the norm and I'd hate for people to think that you're making a normal average salary ... the work pool would be saturated and those of us with 16+ years experience and in a normal crappy MT situation would be even worse off.


I hope you count your blessings every day because there are tons of us who wish we were in your shoes!


Lucky?
Gal! Please don't fall for this. Sounds like a bunch of hype to me. Telling you that you are lucky? This is is the jargon of a company who knows it's an employer's market and, believe me, once they get you, they will use you up and discard you without looking back! You will be using your equipment, financial resources, and knowledge to line their pockets. Run the other way.