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exactly. That's why I also mentioned POOL

Posted By: aa on 2008-08-31
In Reply to: If the work is not assigned to you, then someone is cherrypicking...nm - Anon

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Read down the board. Mentioned just 2 posts below yours and mentioned
multiple times this week. 
did she say in a pool or in a pool to be CONTACTED?
Are you talking about MxSecure?
Could be that you are in a work pool and...sm
...work filters through chronologically in order of TAT.

It's common for companies to put 2, 3 or 4 hospitals in one work pool. Sometimes these are under the same corporate umbrella. You might have 4 hospitals run by corporation ABC - they are in different locations geographically, but in the same pool.


Typing pool
Has anybody out there been in a typing pool and always running out of work?  I find it very frustrating when there is work in the pool and all of a sudden every MT is on line.  By the time you finish a report almost all of the work is gone and you are screwed and not making hardly anything.  Has anybody experienced this?  This month has been so slow it's ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hospital, no pool, just take what's there. nm
nm
no, usually you are in a pool; if they have many specialites....
you can end up on an account where you as the new guy get the ones nobody else wants to do; that happens; I've been there.
IC, 12 or 24 TAT, work from pool when I am available?
Is this actually offered anywhere? Some days I have plenty of spare time, some days I have none. I would like something to fill the gaps. Any suggestions?
OSi. How's the work pool s/m
The recruiter assured me plenty of work, but I have heard that is not the case.  Wanting to leave my current company, but can't if the $$$ isn't there. 
That pool thing ?
Definitely not you.  Probably just the pool of We don't know what we are doing here, we need help but we can't get it through our skulls that we need to hire good MTs which would take the burden off every entity of our organization and then treat them well and pay them fairly so they will stay with us and never create this situation over and over again and time and time again of losing clients, getting new clients, hiring, overhiring, laying off or running out of work.  We simply have not figured out that stopping this repetitive cycle and treating our MTs well would only cause us to be more profitable.  Amazes me that I have never found a company that has figured this out.  I am really surprised with all the mismanagement anyone of them stays in business.  Somehow they do because we all need to work and just put up with it, I guess.  Good luck to you though, its kinda crappy in this profession most days.   
I am an IC, and I basically type from a pool.

The work is available for me to get and return in 24 hours from the time of dictation.  I have come to learn when the work is there.  I do all clinic though.  Some companies require ICs to have set hours, but I don't think that is right. 


Of course some companies will ask when you're available, but most that know the true meaning of IC do not care what hours you work as long as you get the work back in a timely manner.


I have my own accounts as well, so that would not apply as far as getting lines because I charge all different amounts.  One is subcontracted, I pick-up and deliver.  IC offers flexibility at least in my eyes.


I don't know anything about Tera Nova - sorry! 


We don't have the pool any longer- we moved

A Mexican family.  So, I'm not paying for anything.  The pool installers were American and lazy, broke the filter, and took all day and night and brought theird kids to play on my swing set and requested soda.  The Mexican landscapers required no water, did not ask to use my toilet, and were done in one-half day with a lot of digging and a lot of stone work that would have taken a lot longer if they didn't work as hard as they did in the blazing sun.  The American installers did nothing but cuss, moan, and complain about the heat. 


As far as healthcare, we'll be paying more anyway once Hillary gives everyone who can't afford healthcare, free healthcare.  Too bad, Americans are too lazy to work harder and smarter.  I'm all American, born and raised, and I work very hard, but hey if the foreign entity comes along (like it did on my hospital job) and says they can do it cheaper, then what can I do?


Right now, they seem to be pulling VR editors from their MT pool nm
nm
SoftScripts work pool?

Is it fairly steady?  Plenty of work to go around.?


As an IC, I prefer pool work.
I have done pool work and been assigned docs and I prefer working a pool. When I was assigned docs, my lines varied so much. I never knew how much I was going to get each day. Some days I would get over 1500 lines, some days only 500. It made it very hard to plan my day as I never knew how long I was going to have to work. I never made enough money, yet I found it hard to work a second job as some weeks I would be loaded down with work from company 1 and not have time to work my commited lines for company 2, yet the following week I would get very few lines. Working a pool, I know I can get in at least 1000 lines a day every day (rarely have issues on my account with not enough work and usually do anywhere from 1500-2200). I don't have to guess how much I am going to make that day as I am in control of how many lines I take versus someone else sending the work.

Also, as soon as I get up, I can start working (like to start my day around 4 a.m. and be done around noon). I don't have to sit around wondering when my reports are going to be sent to me and waste half the day waiting when the company decides to send them at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 9 a.m.

Also, when only assigned 1 or 2 docs, if they take vacation, you are typically out of work for a week or two with little to no notice (at least in my experience). With a pool, you don't have that problem. If a doc goes on vacation, you have plenty of others to transcribe for. I also tend to get bored easily, so I prefer transcribing for multiple docs. I transcribe for about 15 docs now and I am very familiar with each of them and can transcribe over 250 lph. This would be different though if I was transcribing acute care and had 100+ docs though. But in that instance, pool work is better as it makes TAT faster.

Guess it is good that each company does it different so we can each find what works for us.
Throw a VR back into the pool?
My company has stated if this were the case, you could be terminated. I do not like to straight type anymore so definitely would not want to throw away a VR report.
quarterly bonus from company pool?

Anyone here work for a company that offers a quarterly bonus that comes from a pool set aside by the company and the transcribers who qualify for the bonus, split it at the end of the quarter?  Just wondering, if any, are you bonus checks worth the hassle?  Are they decent checks?  Thanks for all replies.


 


I know the MTs that work this acct. load them from a pool. However, sm
I think that is a very good idea - batching docs and/or specialties together.  I wonder why they don't do that, and I am going to ask!  Thanks!  If you saw my post above, there are a total of 37 specialties on my list, made up of approx. 4-5 docs in each specialty, so I'm looking at learning well over 100 doctors in only 40 hrs. of training?  That's a joke. 
Have 3 primaries and then go into the pool rarely, but always have work sm
You get 20 different accounts every day? I feel for you. In the beginning of last year, I was doing as many as 15 accounts. Since at least November, I rarely go into the pool. Maybe you can switch accounts?
Ha! This is what dropped into my pool of its own accord. It was a "pocket" and that happens s
I am NO ONE'S PET.
Fair? Just curious, why does all the work in a pool go to
the same people and some don't get anything except what they can scrap up? Just curious about this
My guess is someone messed up the pool scripts sm
which determines how the work is routed. I had work until about 1 on my primary and then moved over to my secondary and scraped together the last 200 lines. For the last 3 weeks I have been running out on my primary at 9:30 in the morning.
Years ago I worked for PHNS and it was a pool - sm
which I don't know if that is what you do, or if it is assigned doctors who you do the same ones day in and day out. But when I first started I only had PT in my pool, then I ASKED for more work to expand my horizons and obviously to make more money as PT would run out from time to time. I ended up probably with 300+ doctors in my work pool, more than enough work to go around then. As CB says above, you need to go and ask for more, it is the only way you are going to get enough work.
I am in a pool... see inside for the boring details :)
When I started with TRS I was a 36-year clinical-only MT, and the reason I took the job with TRS was, among other things, the fact that they offered to up-train me into acute care. (In fact I applied at Transcend just before I applied at TRS and they said no thanks, don't call us and we won't call you, and they wouldn't even let me TRY the freakin' TEST, so I find it mildly amusing that now they've got me anyway.)

But I digress. Anyway... at first I was assigned to a somewhat-limited pool on a large hospital account (an account that was brand-new to TRS and in fact I think we stole it from 'the Q') and all I was doing to start with was discharge summaries and letters. Well, once I got used to all the different voices, I started begging for at least some consults and H & Ps because even though I had only done 'clinical' before, I had done literally thousands of excruciatingly-detailed consults and H & Ps for internal medicine, hematology-oncology, orthopedics, and a few others I can't think of right now, over the years.

Then, apparently because I could actually do the work (plus I got kicked off the usual 1-month mentoring full-QA program after only 10 days, because it was mostly a waste of their time to full-QA me), they started trying me on another account, which I was later told was the VERY HARDEST account TRS had in its inventory, and before long I was in the 'all-work pool.'

So now the 'hard' account is my primary, the original account (still with only discharge summaries and letters) is my secondary, and I also have a tertiary (which fortunately I don't get hit with very often because it has REALLY CRAPPY sound 'quality', scratchy phone lines or something) on which I seem to be on just consults, progress notes, discharge summaries, and H & Ps.

I am told that the 'goal' at Transcend is to have everyone working something like 80% on their primary account, with the other 20% on secondary and tertiary, with no more than 3 accounts (except perhaps in extraordinary circumstances), mostly so there would be fewer account instructions to keep track of.

I can't find out how many physicians practice at the hospital that is my primary account (short of manually counting them) but it is a 350-bed hospital where they do pretty much everything. Just on a rough guess, there might be around 100 dictators I run into. A certain number of RNs and PAs dictate in addition to the doctors.

They keep me on that 'hardest' account because I am actually pretty good at deciphering most of it. Of course there are a couple of real 'problem children' still, and they usually have as many blanks after QA gets done with them as they did when I gave up on them, so that makes me feel better.

Not only that... our people are very proactive about actually talking to the clients to try to resolve problems. One of the worst dictators was just recently talked to and she has gotten a whole lot better. I e-mailed the liaison to report that, and asked them to please pass the word along that this doctor's dictation had indeed gotten a lot better and we, the poor saps at the other end of that phone line, really and truly appreciate her efforts....

Anyway. I had better get back to the work that is actually available this morning....

Anything else anybody wants to know, just ask, and I'll try to answer as best I can. :)
We worked out of a pool, and when a report came up from a cruddy dictator (sm)
they would hit "1" and send it back to the pool so the next Transcriptionist would get it.  It was so obvious, as soon as you went on in the morning the first few reports you got would be from the most God-awful ESLs and you can see that they were dictated the previous day, but then all of a sudden you start getting jobs that were dictated just an hour before.   
Friend of mine cleared out pool for incentive - never got it
and now theyve bounced her fourth or fifth check. She's been gone for months and they're STILL messing with her
Do any companies let you specialize rather than work out of a huge pool? nm
nm
Not to be referred to as a "scribe" or "typist" or "typing pool." nm
x
WEBMEDX- Assigned acct or pool and how is the platform?
ds
Bring up again - companies that allow small pool of doctors versus
nm
Yes, the pool to be contacted, should have made that clearer, and yes, MXSecure is the company I'
nm
Can you say where you work if you get assigned docs/accts.? I'm tired of this pool garbage/left
s
If you do not comply with their PC check on your personal computer, Acusis will close your work pool
nm
It's the big O not the one you mentioned
.
Yes, it was mentioned... SM
and explained. Transition to new MTSO not going smoothly -- acct could come back at some point but DO NOT hold your breath! Bottom Line: Same-old, same-old -- Onward and upward, think positive, etc. No dramatic announcements other than big push to get everyone on same platform. :-))
EMR...should have mentioned

Our EMR system did cut down on some things for us typists.  The medications and allergies were already in the patient's chart and therefore pulled through into the document (office visit letter) that the doctor created himself the day of the visit.  If there were changes to those meds, he would dictate the changes.  If there were no changes, he would state that.  That was one less thing for us to type.  It didn't change things for us greatly because we got paid hourly, but I'm sure that would cut lines out of someone who gets paid production.  It was a very new concept for our office at the time.  We had 21 physicians and 7 NP's so I can safely say half hated it and half loved it.  Some doctor's refused to go completely paperless and would always ask us to print hard copies of the latest test results and that allowed them to not have their faces glued to a laptop and actually pay attention to the patient.  I have not yet experienced the EMR/EHR system as an actual patient.  I'm sure I would be really alarmed at not getting to spend time with my doctor and instead only see the top of their head as they are clicking around in my virtual chart.  There are definitely pros and cons and I can see both.  As for it completely wiping out transcriptionists -- I have my doubts.  Dragon software years ago was supposed to have wiped us out as a profession and look what happened to that.  I know VR is a huge thing, but that too is still creating jobs.  I tend to be more optimistic.  The only thing constant in this world is change and we have 2 choices -- embrace that change and roll with the punches or sit and complain about it and make things worse.  Nothing is ever certain so I guess we will just have to wait and see.  No one can predict the future.


It has been mentioned that some
companies have increased the cpl when the client requires VBC.
The companies you mentioned
Company 1: Good company if you like ESLs. They have lots of accounts in areas that teem with ESLs. For them, I would choose QA.

Company 2: This company has had more conflicts than Carter's liver pills, and the turnover is outrageous. The problem is that they are always out of work. They overhire, then nobody has any work. Lots of big wheels. Public company and making millions but the MLS's as they call them don't get the money. They promote from within. They are going to speech recognition and cutting pay in half. Forget them totally.

Company 3 outsources like crazy and hires people who don't know what they are doing. Just started decent benefits. Moving to speech recognition. They do not stay in "touch" with the real workers who keep them afloat. If you are not an insider you will go nowhere with them. Forget them.

Company 4: I would shoot for a QA or editing job since you have the experience. There is some pettiness but you don't have to be that way and the managers don't expect you to be. Good benefits and stable company.

Even with some of the problems mentioned here,
nm
It was mentioned on this board that they -sm
never pay on time, so I wasn't in the least surprised when they told me about their payment method.
No one has mentioned my company yet
LOL!!! Sad, but true... Don't like my company either.
Several people have mentioned that they have
been hired for the account.  I have also been hired for the account. 
P.S. You mentioned archives
when you searched.  I believe that will give you only older info.  Try searching without going into the archives - you'll find some more recent posts, some negative, some positive.  Just confirming again, though, that my experience has been very positive.
Do you have to use their computer still? Mentioned somewhere in
s
The ESL load has been mentioned as being a very
s
Me too - Transtech was never mentioned by OP
NM
Here's a few places that have been mentioned..sm..
Accuscribe, DSG, Echo Sten-Tel, Execuscribe (just started using it recently), InTouchMI, MQ, and VanBelkum.
No name was mentioned and how many people
even know who the recruiter was. 
I don't get it. This Kim person is mentioned all
I guess you don't want to say anything against someone here.  There is also Debbie mentioned for TransTech.   
As I mentioned in another post...sm

what a great way for terrorist organizations to infiltrate the US.


Quite a few posters have mentioned doing this..nm

Which one mentioned hourly?
Was it M.L. or was it the female? Just curious. I can't understand why they won't pull the escription MTs who don't have work - over to the Dictaphone accounts that they are scrambling to hire for.

It seems really dumb to lose some of those MTs because they are quitting due to no work and then be desperately trying to find new hires for the dictaphone accounts.

They are only making things worse because those lies are catching up with them and they will have fewer and fewer people applying because the word is out.