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EMR threat

Posted By: fastfingers on 2005-08-08
In Reply to: What will happen to us when Electronic Medical Redords become the norm? - new mt grad

I'm interested in hearing anything and everything on this subject, too. Just found out last Friday my office is going to this. Not sure what my position will be when all the dust settles, but I am the sole support for 2 teenagers looking at college, and I am SCARED! My job up until now has been the dream job - work at home, paid nice hourly wage and full benefits. Pretty sure if I am able to stay with the same office it will NOT be at home and I will have to take a wage cut. Bummer, bummer, bummer!!!


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Always the same threat

I have kept up with all the gossip on MQ on this board.  I have to say that for over a year or so, all I have seen are posts that say basically "just wait until MQ falls, just wait until this or that", when is this gonna happen?  So there are some lawsuits against them.  They are a huge company, many companies actually.  You guys are so funny.  Anytime someone has something good to say about them, you guys get on here and bash, bash, bash.  Not just the company but the MT.  It's old and tired ladies.  Let it go.  MQ isn't going anywhere.  And neither are the whiners that complain about them.  They are gonna stay and work for MQ and continue to complain.  Why?  That's is the kind of people they are.  It doesn't matter who they work for, they will never be happy.  There are other issues out there that really are important, can we talk about them for a change?


 


VR real threat
It is my opinion that VR is a huge threat. More and more accounts are being added to VR, as well as more and more MTs are picking up VR either by choice or by force (as in no other account available). It is my experience that the MDs who are good for straight transcribing are also good on VR, but of course the flip side is those who are bad for straight are also bad on VR. VR is a killer for fast keyboarders who are pulling in good hourly wages doing straight transcription. VR does go a little faster, but there is really a lot to correct. Also, you are pretty much losing the advantage of your word Expander as well as any macros you might be able to create for use in straight transcription. If it paid more, it might be more readily accepted by MTs, but the pay is only half or less per line, and it is really hard to double your productive line count with VR and still pass QA requirements (which are the same regardless). I do not see there being less VR in the future as it is the same bottom line. Money. Same amout of work for half or less the money. The hospitals probably get some break in cost to be competitive, the MTSO makes a huge profit, and the MTs make less. If it were not for my age, I would definitely be trying to get into some other line of work. I like what I do and have over the years felt it was important and worthwhile, but it is getting harder and harder to justify the time, skill, study, intelligence, and personal financial overhead of working from home it takes to do this job.
VR a real threat?
I keep noticing people posting that they were laid off or changed jobs because their company switched to VR. Does anyone think this a real threat in the future or is it so under-developed that it isn't really a threat? Opinions?
Not a threat. VR is idiocy, and a way to cut MTs pay.
Every time I do VR, I see how awful it is, and I am supposedly on one of the most intelligent platforms. Every time I edit this stuff, I laugh how awful it is. Being OCD as well I can't help but get annoyed at even the smallest things it cannot do with style, grammar, formatting, aside from the poor mistakes it makes in very important medical matters.
I performed a calculation which I am sure you already know. If you edit 1:2 which is about how fast a fast person can type, then you edit as fast as you type. That is what I do. However, you get paid a little more than half per line editing or less than half. Do the math. It is a way to cut the fastest MT's pay 40 percent. This calculates to the old way of not paying for spaces. This calculates to the old way of not paying for expanders, etc. So, in the end VR is JOB SECURITY for the MT because it cannot do our job. VR NEEDS US. It always will. And of course VR cannot do the difficult ESLs so those like me who do straight typing 2:1 on the ESLs get paid what they should. Top dollar, if paid the correct line rate with benefits.
What do I project? People who are the fastest and best with lots of years' experience will get paid 40% less the most doing VR at 500 lines an hour. And those who are normal doing 4:1, or 3:1 or those learning will be poverty-stricken. But that is a large amount of people. If you REFUSE to take that kind of pay, supply and demand, India or no India, either companies will abandon VR because they NEED US or they will go back to straight typing. I tell you. If my day were more than 25% VR and 75% editing, I could do better at 7.5 c a line straight typing (and I can do prn work for that anywhere) than being fast on VR.
Remember. THEY NEED US. If we take it and take the cut in pay and do great at VR it is still a 40% pay cut for the fastest out there. If you fall into that bunch or less, then it won't work. The hospitals will go back to higher pay for those who can do straight MT. They will come back from India for poor quality, they will come back to straight typing or pay editors the same or MORE and either way we will win. It may take some time but every time you do your VR remember it is JOB SECURITY because it cannot fail. Thanks for reading this long post. I am in the biz over 28 years and I have thought about it a loong loong time. The sick people won't go away and the lawsuits won't either. So, things will turn around. Just be patient and watch.
Yes, and also what did HE do about the growing threat of islamofascism?
x
It also reduces threat of a virus infecting
x
For the person who thinks Codex is no threat. I advise you read



HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 11, 2005

Henry Lamb- A Great Freedom Fighter Documents how your Dietary Supplements are Under Attack

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to read "Your dietary supplements: Under attack again" by Henry Lamb, which I am inserting into the record. Mr. Lamb explains the threat to American consumers of dietary supplements and American sovereignty by the Codex Alimentarius commission, commonly referred to simply as Codex. The United Nations created Codex to establish international standards for foods and medicines. Just last week, representatives of the United States government agreed to a final version of Codex's standards on dietary supplements which, if implemented in the United States, could drastically reduce Americans' ability to obtain the supplements of their choice. Members of the American bureaucracy may be hoping to achieve via international fiat what they cannot achieve through the domestic law-making process--the power to restrict consumers' access to dietary supplements. American bureaucrats may gain this power if the World Trade Organization, which considers Codex "guidelines" the standard by which all other regulations are judged, decides that our failure to "harmonize" our regulations of dietary supplements to meet Codex's recommendations violates international trading standards! This could occur despite the fact that American consumers do not want to be subjected to the restrictive regulations common in other parts of the world, such as the European Union.

This article is typical of Henry Lamb's work. For almost twenty years, beginning at an age when most Americans are contemplating retirement, Mr. Lamb has worked to expose and stop threats to American liberty, sovereignty, and prosperity. Mr. Lamb became involved in the battle for liberty when, as the CEO of a Tennessee construction company, he founded a state association of contractors to work against excessive regulations. In 1988, Henry Lamb founded the Environmental Conservation Organization to defend true environmentalism, which is rooted in the truth that there is no better steward of the environment than a private property owner, from those who used the environment as a cover for their radical statist agendas. Since 1992, Mr. Lamb and ECO have focused on the threat to economic liberty and self-government posed by the radical global environmental agenda.

Henry Lamb works to further the cause of liberty by giving speeches around the country, editing an on-line magazine, making numerous television and radio appearances, and writing a weekly column to inform his fellow Americans of the latest scheme to undermine their freedoms. Mr. Lamb is the model of a citizen-activist, and all who wish to become involved in the battle for freedom can learn from his example. In conclusion, I once again urge my colleagues to read Mr. Lamb's article to learn about the need to protect American consumers from Codex, and I thank Mr. Lamb for his tireless devotion to the cause of freedom.

YOUR DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: UNDER ATTACK AGAIN (from WorldNetDaily, June 11, 2005)

(By Henry Lamb)

The Codex Alimentarius Commission sounds like one of those shadowy, sinister organizations conjured up by one-world-government nuts to scare people.

Truth: It is!

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization created this commission in the early 1960s to set standards for food safety and to ``harmonize'' the laws of member nations. The commission was endorsed by U.N. Resolution 39/248, which says:

``When formulating national policies and plans with regard to food, governments should take into account the need of all consumers for food security and should support and, as far as possible, adopt standards from the ..... Codex Alimentarius. .....''

The Codex Alimentarius Commission consists of delegates from 163 member nations representing 97 percent of the world's population. It meets every two years, either in Rome or Geneva. Between meetings, the commission is governed by an executive committee that directs the activities of its many committees.

Of immediate concern is the ongoing effort to bring dietary supplements in America under the control of standards set by this commission. Dietary supplements generate a $17 billion industry in the United States, which affects more than 150 million consumers, according to Congressional findings (H.R. 2485). Proposed procedures and standards could virtually destroy this market and deprive millions of Americans of the supplements they want to use.

The European Union Directive on Dietary Supplements, which becomes law in August, severely restricts the types and quantities of supplements that may be legally sold. Most forms of vitamins C and E, for example, are not available, or are available only in extremely small doses. If current plans proceed on course, American consumers are in for a shock.

How can this little-known international commission control what consumers buy in the United States?

An even less-known agency, deep within the bowels of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible for U.S. participation in the Codex Commission and designates delegates to each of the commission's committees. Barbara O. Schneeman is the delegate to the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses.

The effort to regulate dietary supplements has been under way for more than a decade. In 1994, Congress adopted the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which kept supplements beyond the reach of the drug police. In the past, Codex recommendations have been non-binding. Now, however, the Codex Alimentarius Commission is teaming up with the World Trade Organization to bring international enforcement to the dietary-supplement battle.

Ironically, it was primarily the U.S. that brought the WTO into existence in 1994, as the successor to GATT, the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade. The WTO agreement specifically requires that the member nations--including the U.S.--conform its laws to meet the requirements of WTO decisions. Failure to conform results in stiff financial penalties. The Codex Commission and the European Union want the WTO to enforce Codex standards, which fly directly in the face of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

Pascal Lamy of France was just selected as director general of the WTO. Lamy served as a member of the French Socialist Party's steering committee and was chief of staff and representative of the European Commission for President Jacques Delors. Since 1995, he has served as a member of the Central Office of the Mouvement Européen (France) and as a member of the European Commission, responsible for trade.

The Codex Commission will be meeting in Rome July 4-9 to adopt the final rules on dietary supplement use. Dr. Carolyn Dean, president of Friends of Freedom International, will attend this meeting and return to the U.S. just in time to present her report to the Sixth Annual Freedom 21 Conference in Reno, July 14-16.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission's reach is much broader than dietary supplements. Its committees are also working on standards for pesticide residue, labeling of all kinds of foods, food additives and nutrients, veterinary medicine and drugs, as well as standards and methods for analysis. The function of this organization is to establish standards for all food worldwide and to enforce those standards through the power of the World Trade Organization.

Few people know that there is such a thing as the Codex Alimentarius Commission. It was created to promote food safety in international trade. It is on the brink of becoming an Orwellian bureaucracy--far worse than the worst fantasies of the one-world conspiracy theories.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission is neither fantasy nor theory; it is real.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/c...05/cr071105.htm

__________________

point-of-care mobile devices - that is a bigger threat...

another excerpt: 

It is no longer a question of whether medical transcription will survive. The move away from traditional, free-text medical transcription is inevitable, given the improvements in speech recognition technology and natural language processing; the development of standardized templates through HL7’s CDA (clinical document architecture), ASTM schema, and other similar efforts; XML-based communication; and point-of-care mobile devices that will ultimately facilitate real-time documentation. And it is very clear that real-time, point-of-care documentation by the practitioner will replace transcription! This can already be seen in countries outside the United States that are developing direct entry, interactive, structured text documentation without going through all the evolutionary steps from traditional, free text transcription.