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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

My hat goes off to all of you who have stayed as long as you have ...

Posted By: sm on 2007-12-04
In Reply to: Ready to quit Spheris - mom2huskies

I left Spheris a little over three years ago. It was one of the worst employment experiences that I've had in this industry. Poor benefits, low pay, terrible dictators, constant turnover in supervisors (with the last having no experience at all in MT'g). Leaving was the best decision I could have ever made, and I've never looked back.


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I wish you well. I wish I could have stayed myself. nm
tttt
believe that your pay stayed the same.....
Even if you 'fly' ???? through the report, you still have to READ every word, so you cannot double or triple the line count.

Can you still use Expanders doing VR? I doubt.

Are you catching every mistake if you just FLY through the report?

CRAP !

I doubt any MT has ever stayed
that long at Heartland to enjoy his/her vacation!
Stayed with Medware
Heard only a couple left but were replaced quickly.  Now Medware has 3 new hospitals starting next month.  I applied for a shift lead position that just opened.  Very happy at Medware.
I stayed with them for less than 3 months.

Yes they are nice and yes they pay on time (they deduct $1 a week for your direct deposit)


There was never enough work.  Their system is clumsy compared to most, the bookkeeping/record keeping is awlful.  After having been off training and on full earnings for several weeks, they put me back on training wages because of a non-medical mistake.  They even did a QA rating on me and I had almost 99% but still lowered my pay across the board.  I was in absolute shock, gave notice and moved on.  I cannot work for a company that I cannot trust.   Good luck. 


I never stayed busy....
I worked on an ortho account and they kept running out of work, so I quit. They had way too many MTs in the typing pool. They do not assign the MTs doctors and you are in a pool so the work is on a first come first serve basis. Good luck! Not the job for me.
Sometimes I wonder why I even stayed in this business.. sm
I don't know how I did it back then, working at home on an electric typewriter, before computers and fabulous references, google, and the internet in general. All I had was Dorland's Medical Dictionary, samples, and pages and pages of notes for each of my 2 or 3 accounts. We could call the office if we got really stuck but that was it. I had a long hiatus between the 70s and the present. I have been back for over 7 years now and still cannot believe how easy it is now compared to then.

I also did QA for about a year a few years ago. Nope, not for me. Unbelievable the quality of the work that I very frequently saw, zero grammar and punctuation, absloute basic to this job even before medical terminology. I couldn't make my quota because I would at a glance see so many errors and spend too much time fixing them! Ai-yi-yi! It was awful. This was after all the offices closed and no one really had any communication with anyone anymore for the most part.

I am not a really high producer because I am a perfectionist. I research and try to leave as few blanks as possible, invest in good reference materials, have a thousands of Expanders for all kinds of reports, and try to keep up with the new rules for everything the best I can, not that I agree with them all. That's life I guess. I do love this job!

Those who have stayed at the same hospital- sm
And just switched to VR are a different story. They are not the norm and I can see why they would be okay with it because they are accustomed to the account. The rest of us who go in cold and must spend an inordinate amount of time learning the account can't make any money and then the MTSO switches us and we have to learn it all over again. It doesn't work for us.
When I was started on VR and why I stayed on
I did not ask to be put on VR. I had been at my inhouse hospital job for 14 years when we were told going to VR. I loved the job and frankly, in my 50s and did not want to go out looking for another job. At that time had no idea about the companies out there, never had worked except inhouse at hospitals. After learning VR soon learned we would be outsourced to a company and most of the MTers there went with the new company rather than quit. I have done over 2000 lines per day straight and considered myself not only fast but an excellent transcriptionist. I did not jump on any band wagon, what choice was there at over 50? Most here talk about how they do not want to start a second profession, well I was one of those at that time. I did not work from home, had no clue could even do that so working at home was not a draw for me in doing VR, not even transcribing. To put all of us doing VR as traitors, well that is not so. I too used to go home at night learning transcription in tears with hubby telling me if it is that hard, just give it up but stuck it out. I learned on the job, at a hospital with over a year's training before put out making production and incentive. Yesterday I did mostly all VR and made over $175.00 for the day. Oh, you are probably saying you could make more which might be true but I am satisfied. I no longer work full time, double full time, triple full time because I have worked my time in the past and now time for part-time for me. I have earned it. I still work because I have said before, I draw my social security, have retirement check from the hospital where I worked 14 years and have my salary on top of that and love it. If the work goes out tomorrow completely, then it goes. I have had 2 jobs pulled out from underneath me in years past with over 10 years put in at each one and rebounded. If a person does not like VR, then GO somewhere else, get another profession. You cannot group everyone into 1 fits all because it is just not so. If my job is stamped out in a few years, well that has happened before and still around. The only thing you can count on is yourself, not a machine, not a company, just yourself. If you are suspicious, paranoid, etc., then do something else. Simple.
Ditto. I wish I had stayed with them. I had to quit because I
accepted a full-time job elsewhere. The full-time job turned out to be a bad joke. I went from three part-time IC jobs to one full-time employee job to NO job at all. It's really bitten me in the behind with bills and Christmas coming. Never again will I trust a recruiter or try to work as an employee for a national. transcriptionoutsourcing.com was the best of the bunch.
You stayed with Medware for 3 years and now you
state you didn't stay with them very long.  What is it?  I think we can all read between these lines, I know I can. 
Great company!! Wish I would have stayed but
needed benefits.
MDI Maryland I think has stayed clear so far. nm
s
If you stayed with her for years this treaetment, it
x
My god, and you stayed in this career while failing
the only one to blame as I can't imagine why you would think that summation of your career any step of the way was a success.  Per your description, sounds like nothing worked for you after a year or 2 at best. I've been in the biz the same length of time and experienced the complete opposite of your story.  I would never have endured what you have endured, as I would have had the common sense to realize that the job was not cut out for me or vice versa. You have thrown your entire life away on this industry, and yet came back again, and are on here bitter and spewing hatred at complete strangers to you.  Honestly, you need to re-evaluate - read your own life story and take some accountability, realizing that you should never ever have stayed in this industry. You have nothing to show for it, have lost everything per your own claims, so please reconsider and have the back half of your life mean something - anything, whatever is important to you.  Obviously this industry is not suited to you.  Please don't lump us all in with your experience.  I can't imagine many MTs have suffered as you have - why would we?  We would find a new line of work ASAP and move on with our lives, not sacrifice them as you have.  I can't even feel sorry for you as a reader - none of your story makes sense as to why you have persevered - its just a sad meaningless synopsis.
Worked there, wished I had stayed. sm
I left OSi thinking I could make more money somewhere else, which I did at first but not so now.  The sound quality was good. I liked the platform. QA helpful and nice.  They communicate a lot with e-mail and IM.  They will have conference calls if there is something on the the account that everyone needs to know about.
I stayed an IC....employee status is optional
x
You're happy your wages have stayed the
same, even though:

Gallon of milk, 1992: $2.78
2009: $3.75

Gallon of gas, 1992: $1.13
2009: $2.50+

Dozen eggs, 1992: $0.93
2009: $2.25

So your salary stayed the same while everything else skyrocketed... yay!

And according to the IIAP, the median salary for a 'secretary' in 1992 was around $25,000, and in 2005 was already up to around $40,000 (no stats listed for 2009 yet). So are you still feeling good about sliding backwards?
The main reason I stayed with MQ through all the BS over the last years was the flexibility and that
will be gone. I worked more than 40 hours and so that will be gone as will the statutory bonus and to top this all off I got transferred to Amherst. Well talk about sucky.
OSI rocks. Easy lines. 900+ in 4 hours - now wish i would have stayed with them. nm
nm
I stayed 3 months and then bailed out. Ran out of work, lack of communication, etc. nm
s
I had the WORST foreign doc cardiac caths there! I only stayed a week. nm
, m
No problem :) No matter how long, it is too long for me - I am broke the day after payday. Kids wi
do that to you!

I know that they have worked very hard to make sure that checks are never late and I can say that in the past two years, I have had one problem (2 days late) and in the past 18 months, they have all been on payday and perfect.

I know that there are a lot of hard feelings in MT in general. I also know firsthand (and I am not mgmt) how hard KS has worked to get things going good.

I would not want to walk in an MTSO's shoes for any amount of money, but that's just me. I like to finish my work for the day, forget about work when not working and get paid on payday. I never want the other things that go with mgmt or owning a company of any kind :)
They definitely rip you off with your line count. Figured this out long ago and quit long ago
x
What really sucks is that I looked for a LONG, long time -sm
before joining DRC - wanted a highly reputable, not-too-big co. that was LOCAL, and that treated its MTs humanely. I'm very happy with DRC & had planned to stay with them permanently.
Long, long history of not paying...and
similar posts have been made here in the past few months. Everyone thinks they will be different, and then they end up coming back here to warn others that they don't pay.
but those were long, long lines for
most of the reports. You could make more with a 65-character line count.
anyone who has been in the biz long enough should know sm
that summer time is usually slow.  This has been my experience, anyway.  I'm glad I gave MQ a chance, it's worked out wonderfully!
How long ago were you with them?
And how long did you stay with them?  Thx.
well it was certainly not that long ago.
This is just the truth.  I think people should be aware of things that have happened.  She probably won't have any problems, but it does happen. 
How long did it take

after submitting your resume before you heard from them? 


Thanks. May I ask how long ago that was
and possibly why you left, issues with company?
how long have you been there.....
are they going VR?  How long did it take you to get used to the platform and make decent money after training?  Do they doc your pay for mistakes?  How is QA.  How many lines can you do there a day and is the work consistent, i mean really consistent?  Has there been anything that you don't like, if so what?  thank you so much
How long have you been with TH?
Can you give specifics on thier benefits?
How long
have you been working for them? IC or employed?
how long ago was that?
Was it recent or before their personnel adjustments?
How long have you been with them?
nm
been too long for me
it has been months, at least two. i guess i should give up.
that should be not, rather than now. Long day. LOL.
nm
How long have you been there?
x
How long have you been there? nm
x
Wow, that's not long at all. nm
nm
You were not there long enough to get (sm)
picked on. Lucky you!! Believe me those people are crazy!!
Not for long....

oh yeh we do if you have been around here long enough
.
How long did the FBI take for you.
I just want to get working. Thanks
I'm not sure how long it took,

but I started no later than 2 weeks after all my paperwork was signed and sent in.  So I don't know if they finished the background check before I started or not.  About a month later, I got a notice from the DOT notifying me that they checked my driver's license records, but that's the only info I got back.


I also have to agree with several posts above about the comments about being a hospital employee.  I also was hired as an employee of the hospital, and yes, the process is a little more involved, but it was no more involved than when I was hired for an inhouse position at a local hospital.  It is just the hospital's requirements.  Diskriter did pay for everything and I have no indictation whatsoever they they sold my info to telemarketers. 


The pay is average, but I also agree with the poster above that it is offset by the fact that you are working on only one account, plus the benefits are better than any national out there.   I  am making more $$ than in my 15 years of MTing than I ever have (45K+).    


Oh, another plus is that they do pay an hourly wage for downtime (system problems, no work).  This is also a big plus in my opinion.


Good Luck.        


 


How long have you been there? nm
nm
how long ago was that?
x
RE: Going On Too Long

I need to find a new IC job.  To make a long story short, I work for a very small local company as an IC (just 3 transcriptionists).  I guess the reason why I stay is because it's so flexible.  I can work in the morning, have the afternoons off and then work again in the late evening when my daughters are asleep.  I have 24 hour TAT.   I'm supposed to be paid on the 1st and 15th of every month.  For the last two months instead of the 1st and 15th, I've been getting my paycheck on the 13th and 28th if I'm lucky.  Right now I'm still waiting for my check from the 1st. 


Again, I know I'm crazy to stay, so you don't have to say it for me,  but this is my first IC job and I'm a little scared to leave. 


I guess what I'm asking is do you know of a good company that hires IC that use lines rather than hours or is flexible with hours so I can try to keep my same schedule?  I know there have been a lot of posts in the past about this, but I was hoping for some recent information from someone who works for a good company.


I'm just so frustrated at this point.


How long ago where you at WMX? sm
Been there 4 years and we have only had 1 male supv during that time, and he is the best MT supervisor I've come across in 20 years as an MT.