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Often it is better to apply at your local hospital. Many times they

Posted By: mlstoo on 2005-07-27
In Reply to: Does anyone ever hire entry level MT? - Laurie

train on-site. The training is invaluable as you can get training on acute care and radiology and you would have a mentor with you all day.


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Local hospital - sm
I loved Medware until they started sending so much of their work to Medware India. I spent my days editing the offshore work.  Its incredibly frustrating.  It doesn't matter how much feedback you give, the same errors are made. A person cannot go day after day after day doing that without getting down. I made the decision to leave and have been so much happier.  I only have to worry about my own quality now. 
Our local hospital...
has closed the entire top floor, and the nursing students from the local college are lucky to get 1 patient for their clinicals. They are asking the older seniority nurses and other personnel to retire early. Another hospital has the healthcare workers down to 32 hours per week. I am in OH, and my area is really bad economy-wise.
Then a small co or a local hospital SM
would be better.  You are not going to find an MT service of any size that doesn't have a bunch of ESL dictators.  That's just the way it is.
JLG did work for our local hospital when I was there.
They charged us $3.50 a line. I saw the contract. I was shocked. We paid ICs $1.50 a line. And the work was horrible. Everytime they uploaded reports, 2 of us spent most of the day correcting them. After about 6 months, we fired them.


Once, while working for a local hospital
I was also working PT for the service that the hospital used. The only conditions made for that were that I could not work on my hospital's account as that could be considered a conflict, i.e., less work for the hospital so more was available for the PT job. I have yet to have a problem working for 2 companies. Currently I work for a national company FT and a local company PT. They do not have the same accounts, so therefore no conflict.
Only when hired by a local hospital - sm
It is a little surprising to hear they want you to do this.  I was hired by a local hospital (an hour away) and had to come in for training there - up to 3 months, unless I got the hang of it earlier.  Some folks who worked there lived a little farther away (one was 3 hours) but all were within driving distance.  So I have been asked - however, I've not been asked for a place as far away as what you described. 
It's just a local hospital account, not a
national.  Most of the time I do their acute care work on Chartscript; I just help on radiology in Meditech if they are backlogged.  It's not the Meditech Magic version, though.  Don't know if that makes a difference. 
The local hospital I go to has it....I have to say it is impressive.
I have various scopes done periodically for surveillance, and for the last few years they have handed me a beautifully typed and surprisingly detailed report as soon as I wake up, complete with color photos. I recently asked how it was done so quickly. The nurse said the doc types it using a template.
i just started working for a local hospital. sm
They pay for the entire phone bill and internet for an extra line to do their work.
worked 3 yrs, went to work for local hospital nm
nm
Oh boy I will. It is nothing but depressing out there. I applied at our local hospital because I can
hardly stand another day of this disappointment. This business has gone down the tubes!!
I work in-house at a local hospital...
And it's been pretty much famine conditions there, too. We're having to use our VH hours when we're called off for lack of work. I don't know where you're located, but I'm in central California. Perhaps it's a nationwide phenomenon for some reason.

Hang in there. The powers-that-be where I work keep telling us it's just temporary (although I'm preparing for the worst).

~hugs~
I currently spoke with a local hospital and their pay was hourly with an incentive (nm)
x
Actually, my local hospital offered me MUCH less than what I make at my MTSO
By 4 cpl.
I used to make an hourly rate at a local hospital but s/m

The home-based MTs were on a tiered hourly scale depending on how many minutes we typed daily.  The in-house MTs were not on this scale and I believe they are the reason we lost our jobs to outsourcing.  They made the big bucks and could not even produce 80 minutes of dictation a day.  The home MTs had to produce 100 minutes a day to reach the maximum hourly pay. 


I feel that being paid by production is not such a bad thing because at least the ones who produce get paid for it. 


Recently applied at local hospital that paid incentive.
The local hospital here also pays hourly plus incentive. New MTs start at $15 an hour and then anything over 120 lines are paid at an incentive rate with the incentive rate increasing with the more lines you completed.
Anyone happier working for a national versus local clinic or hospital? SM
I'm with a national but from time to time, openings come up with areas places. None are in my own town, but would be 30 to 45 minutes away from home. In the case of at least one of these places, you are required to work in-house just to get used to their system, which I understand, but they say it usually takes a year before being set free at home. Now I can understand that if you are a brand new MT, but as far as just getting used to how they do things, that seems excessive. If you meet the criteria sooner, you can go sooner. It worried me about the length of time. That would put me in a bind with little kids and being away from home on certain days after they got off the school bus.

On the flip side, they pay hourly so I might like that, rather than make next to nothing on some days where the dictators are horrible on my current account. On the other hand, on a good day the lines are worthwhile and I'd come out ahead by LPH rather than hourly rate.

So many things to think about...oh, and another biggie...with this local place I'd get health insurance free for myself (not the family, but I have the kids covered on a plan I'm already paying for myself, along with me on the plan, which I could then drop myself from).

Anybody worked both scenarios and decided the national really was better? I actually interviewed here a year ago but didn't have to decide because they offered it to somebody in-house so I never got an offer. I have 3 years of experience but I still worry I would take forever to meet the criteria to work from home. I guess there are a few that have been there over a year and haven't met it. I don't want that to be me.
A lot of times, if they need extra help, they will over 1-1/2 times our regular rate. sm
This is the equivalent of OT but you get it even if you have not done 40 hours already. I have also received AmerExp gift cards a few times for incentives offered. I think it depends on the account.

I do know for sure that they are working on an incentive program but I have no details and not even sure if they are still looking at it.

I do know for sure that I make more $$ with Keystrokes than I have ever made anywhere else.
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
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.
Go Local
I would not consider editing unless the pay reflected my experience as an MT. Editors spend a lot of time cleaning up the garbage.

I think you have to go local for that.
I don't know of any that pay hourly for MT work. Many do for QA work, but not for MT.

I know around here many of the local hospitals do that, but it's usually MTs that have been with their hospital for a certain period of time. They don't hire from outside to work at home.

Also look at local
While most local comapanies have an onsite group they will sometimes hire people who have worked out of their homes for years. If you are moving from Transcend submit your resume to local recruiters and find out if there is a temp agency in your area that does transcription based companies. A local physician group still uses me per diem and while they have onsite if I need to they also support offsite - it saves them some money because they don't have to support your equipment!

Just be aware, VR is the wave of the future. My guess is that in 10-20 years everything will be run through VR and nothing will be transcribed from scratch...of course if we all stand together and demand more money than they are currently offering the market will eventually succumb :)
I know...it's sad..I used to love it at MQ when we had a local

office but everything has changed so and I just HAVE to make more money!  Good luck to all MQers looking elsewhere!



local offices

what is the best way in getting starting for working for local doctors?  Get business cards made up, show them a resume?  I have often thought about this and afraid to take the leap.  is this reliable work?  I'm sure they can let you go whenever they want but I guess that's the case anywhere.    please, any info would help.


I agree - go local. (nm)
.
Local Hosptials in GA

Greetings


I reside in ATL and wondering if by chance if anyone knew who handles the transcription for Atlanta Medical Center, Grady Hospital, St. Josephs Hospital and any other local hospital here. I seem to can't get anywhere by calling. I am a newbie and is not having the best of luck with MTSOs right now. Any help would be very much so appreciated. Thank you.


I had a local MTSO try to do that to me...
...I was ready to sign the contracts after meeting with them in person, until I heard I'd have to pay a one-time nonrefundable charge due lump sum for $600.00 for the FTP software. To add further insult to injury, they also advised me they didn't pay for spaces and required me to transcribe a minimum of 1200 lpd.

I couldn't run out of there fast enough.

What would I do with their FTP software if I quit? It would be useless to me, and I'd have paid for it.

I steer clear of companies asking me to pay for use of their software, I'd suggest you do the same.
Call your local DOL

You are entitled to minimum wage if you are an employee.  So make sure you are punching a time clock or otherwise keeping track of your hours and your pay.


You can also file for partial unemployment.


 


That s/b local OR 800#. no text
 
gourdie - do you have a local - sm
news station that exposes these type of injustices? they love the david vs goliath type of stories...
Our two local hospitals do just that.

Management is at the hospital.  MTs have a choice to work at their medical records departments or work remotely from home.  Benefits are excellent.  Health insurance rates are very reasonable.  Pay is hourly - guess what, always on time.  They are always offering CPR classes free, movie tickets and group travel plans at discounts.  ACTUALLY GIVE RAISES. 


I would love to see all hospitals go back to this.  More personal employment, keep it local, smaller group of docs that we actually might know, not as much BS as working for an MTSO.  I think this gives the MT back their feeling of being a professional and  the hospitals treat us fairly, like an employee and no BS about OT and line rates.  Enough already with the greedy MTSOs who can't seem to get their act together with their overhiring, then low work, no work, then begging for help if you stay and most everyone else leaves. 


Do you work for local doctors?
If you do, how many do you work for to make that kind of money?  Do you charge $.15/line?  Thanks.
One more thing to consider: Local taxes

Don't know about you, but I have a local tax I think it's 1.5%, where I live.  They don't deduct that from my pay like my state and federal taxes are deducted. I asked them to but they refused.  So I'm going to have to come up with that money next year to pay my local tax.  I can't afford to save it now.  Those of you who have a local tax whrere you live better check your pay stubs and make arrangements. 


 


Look through the yellow pages of your local

phone book and call agents that offer health insurance.  Make several calls.  I did this when we needed private insurance and each call I made I got a lower premium, although every company had the very same insurance.  Celtic is what we found to be the lowest.  We no longer have this insurance as we have insurance through DH job, but we had no existing conditions, no regular meds, nonsmokers, so I'm not sure if these were covered.   I'd keep calling about COBRA.  The company has to offer it.   If you go 45 days without insurance and have a pre-existing condition you are in trouble, unless things have changed since we got insurance.  There is a temporary insurance through Fortis that is very cheap, but the deductible is very high and it doesn't cover pre-existing conditions.


I'd stay away from the association for the self-employed or whatever it is called.  When I called them their rates were double what I could get a private policy for and it was the same insurance.  


 


A local cc (NC) costs about $1200. The
local state supported 4-year university now offers an on-line MT program too and I think it is about $1800.00.  The cc arranges internships and helps with job placement, don't know about the 4-year school as it is a relatively new program and I am not familiar with it. 
Do they take out for all taxes or just the Federal and you pay your own local? nm
s
Is there really an advantage to staying local? Most

It doesn't seem there's any more guarantee of stable work from local MTSOs than the national ones.


If you do want to stay local but work at home, also try Southern Transcription Services, located in Taylorsville, I think.  They have a good reputation. Google them for their web site. 


A local nephrology office - NM
NM
I know of two huge accounts local to me

One is a huge hospital system and the other is an ortho practice that I used to contract for and left due to the physician retiring, but they have 10 physicians.  They are very unhappy with the quality of reports from C-Bay.  Not surprising that they are not needing as many MTs these days since their reputation is very poor.


Go to the library in your local town. I do.
nm
My local area rates seem to run 9-12 CPL sm
If you want benefits as mentioned in your first posting, you'd need to become an employee. Some of the bigger companies offer a good competitive rate for ICs, 10-12 cpl (without benefits of course).
how does one find out what local rates are?
Also, how do you figure what rate you should charge if you land an account not in your area?  Do you go by THEIR local rates?  How do you know what those would be? 
In our town, we have a little local pharmacy or many
I tried to stick with my little local pharmacy, but started having problem with insurance issues, which miraculously didn't happen at CVS.  Something about CareMark is my insurer for meds.  So, I switched to CVS primarily due to these glitchy insurance problems with my scrips. All went well for a month or two, though I felt bad ditching the little local guy. Well, then I started having all sorts of medication errors from CVS - wrong med being given in my bag, wrong dosing, etc. When I started complaining, I realized that CVS and CareMark are basically one and the same - another mass merger thing. So, I believe that CareMark deliberately gave me problems when I used anyone but CVS, and it turns out it was true. I have gone back to my local pharmacy, and he confirmed what I thought had been happening. Its like conspiracy theories everywhere these days.  He said he couldn't say a word, though, as he had been threatened by lawyers not to make the connection for people - we had to figure it out on our own.  Well, me with my big mouth, I'm telling everyone I know!! LOL.  So, no, not impressed with CVS either, and no, they don't care about their mistakes - locally or corporate. We're all humans, after all, though some have jobs that could kill fellow humans.  LOL.
I work for local clinic 17 cpl
But it's only two doctors and another MT and I split the work.
Offered a new local job and trying to decide. sm

The new job is MT but it is not straight typing.  It is basically putting reports together from a check list with occasional regular transcription.  Will also be building reports from handwritten documentation.  The doctors are all available and do not mind you asking if you cannot read something.  I met all 11 of them today.  There is 1 week vacation time the first year, 2 years after that.  Med insurace is $30 per pay check is very good.  Family is around 120 per check.  They have retirement as well.  It is also 8-5 M-F.  All holidays off and paid.  Now, here is the drawback.  They only start at 13.50 per hour.  They do give annual raises of a minimum of 5%.  Travel is not a big issue as it is only 10 minutes or less from my house.  The low pay I am a bit worried about.  What is your opinions?  All are appreciated.  Also one last thing, this is a specialty clinic and I have always done acute care but know the specialty well.


A local surgery center
I was referred to them through someone else. They have had trouble keeping a transcriptionist. Now I know why.
Reading 095 -Local CC offers It
The lack of comprehension in reading on this board is truly infuriating. I said nothing more than I have not experienced problems finding a job or poor wages as a recent graduate. I claimed nothing of knowing more than that. Perhaps it is time to spend a bit less time chatting online and step out of the house everyone now and then. It always refreshes my perspective. Good grief.
maybe she should try local doctors and clinics and hospitals - sm
it's just a suggestion. But some docs have one tape a week that they need done. It might be ideal for her situation.
Send out letters of introduction to local
physicians.  Doesn't guarantee you an account, but maybe someone is looking.