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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

How 'bout comparing us to PA's, RNs, or even doctors? (nm)

Posted By: Backwards typist on 2008-09-03
In Reply to: You're 100% right! And where we work - (sm) - LowlyMT

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Comparing BS to CD is like...
comparing a filet mignon 2 horse meat!
To me it's a bit like comparing being SM
a clerk to being an executive, if very low level. I know what you mean about staying home because I stopped appraising real estate to "relax" at home with this work. However, if I were you I'd go to school for the RN degree, since that seems to be an option, and then make any further decisions from an enormously improved position. That RN credential is a tremendous asset and can be used many, many different ways, including from behind a desk if wished.
I wasn't comparing, I am asking for an opinion. Thanks anyway. nm

But that's not comparing apples to oranges.
2000 55-character lines is about 1700 65-character lines. Take away some more lines for unpaid headers, footers, and demographic information, and I could probably do what you're doing. Ah, so! I need to find a better employer that pays for headers, footers, demographics, and by the gross line!
Or rather it IS comparing apples to oranges. LOL
.
Where you come off comparing gay lifestyle choices to sm
pedophiles (which can be compared with, say, serial killers IMHO) is NUTS. Pedophiles rape children and break the law. And you are showing a common thread HOW????
I meant *comparing*, not *referring* ! - nm
...
This is what I found comparing the 2.....inside
I jumped in 100% enthused to do VR with a good VR program, I really liked the resting of the wrists, etc. I learned the short cuts, implemented every help they gave but what I found was if I have to separate the headings on every op, take out sentences because the doctor changed his mind, add sentences or phrases, change phrases, add a, the, put in whole sentences that VR left out for no rhyme or reason, it didn't matter if I was just reading along and believe me this was a good VR program Ex-Text, I just couldn't double my lines and it drove me crazy all the changes I had to make. If I got 3 good dictations in a row, I found I would 3 bad dictations, and remember, new residents messed it all up all over again, all this for half pay.

I compared them side by side on another computer I finally got a job with another company for straight typing and found I could make $30 to $40 more a day straight typing, that is just average some days it was more. So, even though I liked the concept of doubling my lines to make the same money in less time, I don't think it can happen consistently, for me anyway.

I know these companies going to it push it relentlessly and almost desperately. I don't know why, they can't be taking a 30 to 40 dollar hit per Transcriptionist a day, there has to be some advantage that they push it so hard.

One last thing, I went into VR determined to give it my all and I did, but I was alway 500 lines of doubling my lines. Some days it was just constant changing of things other days 2 out of 3 of changing but no days of not changing dumb things.

Woof! Just kidding, 2. I was actually feeling bad about comparing
troll posters to cats.  I love cats, so it wasn't really fitting! I can think of a few other comparisons, but don't want to lower myself to "its" level.
You're comparing apples and oranges here, SandyGirl. SM
You're talking employee status in NYC. Some of us are talking IC status where we set our own rates and do the work we're most productive at.

I am settled into a comfortable routine. I know just exactly how much work I have and how long it takes me to do it.

You should really be careful about calling folks liars when you have absolutely nothing to go on but what YOU get paid. It makes you look pretty silly and uninformed.
how 'bout this one?

I was reading through a patient's H&P and saw this:


"Patient is 73 years old, stool spry and lively."


Quite a visual, that was...


How 'bout going further than that, and
actually starting a UNION?
It could be 'USMTU' (United States MT Union', or maybe
'MTWA' (Medical Transcription Workers of America.) It'd be nice to actually put 'AMERICA' back in the name, (and Indians need not, and MAY not, apply.)
of course, I know 'bout as much as the docs do...sm

yeah, and that's why I'm here typing and they're out on their yacht somewhere, right?    But I do try to diagnose, even did this when I worked for a doc in the back office.  And sometimes I was actually right!


'bout time!
:
and soon new Sopranos...or how 'bout...sm

Extreme Home Makeover....that's my favorite show...


new Sopranos in March...new Deadwood soon, and new Carnivale soon and too bad they canceled SIX FEET UNDER but you can still catch the first 6 seasons in reruns.


I love that HBO....


LOL - how 'bout dysfunctional since

How 'bout Amphion?

As well it SHOULD! 'Bout TIME, too!
nm
how 'bout a camera on that spot?

how 'bout Bay??? Or a local auction house, or
take pictures to local jewlers. (Wouldn't recommend taking the original on first visits). ebay might also give you some information re: comparables.
how 'bout a lovely gift certificate...nm

I hope they get put out of business. 'Bout time the
HMOs are ruining the health industry. Many fine docs have quit 'cause they don't like pencil-pushers telling 'em what to do. And you KNOW they're behind all that 'bottom line' BS that has driving our work offshore.

Glad to see the suit being brought against them, and hope that THIS time they get taken down.
Here's what I gots to say 'bout all diss stuff...
1. How long have you worked as a medical transcriptionist? 5+ years.
2. What certification have you received?  None.
3. What attracted you to pursuing a career in medical transcription?  The ad in the local paper and the fact I was penniless and willing to do anything...even if it was morally/legally questionable.
4. What type of environment do you work in (i.e. from home, physician’s office, hospital, other). Home.
5. What do you think are the most important skills a medical Transcriptionist should have? A sense of humor and ability to acquire sedatives easily.
6. Did some skills come naturally to you, while others required more practice?  Always been zippy on the keys and always been willing to learn or teach myself whatever I needed to, to get a job done.  I could use a hand with anger management 101 though.
7. In addition to transcribing medical reports, do you engage in other forms of business writing while on the job (such as memos, proposals, or progress reports, etc.) to clients, coworkers, or supervisors?  Nope.
8. What do you think is the most difficult aspect of medical transcription?  Continuing to do it despite it messing with your head knowing this line of work is steadily going down the globalization crapper.
9. What do you find to be the easiest aspect of medical transcription?  X about it.  :-D
10. As a medical transcriptionist, do you often need to collaborate with others to ensure that all the information in your reports is correct? I don't understand this question, so I guess I don't do whatever this is.

How 'bout we all shut up and go to work, loool

How'bout docs can't decide if patient...sm
is a He or She, goes between genders throughout the course of the dictation.  (Especially with ESLs, who really need to get their grammar straight, much less their enunciation).  Hate to send my loved ones to this doc...can't tell if it's a "he" or "she". 
Parents and children? How 'bout fishing, sports, his job, etc. nm
v
Curiosity piqued.....whatcha excited 'bout??? nm
.
'Bout gave me a HEART ATTACK, but no pay cute here.
Somehow I dont think they would cut MTs' pay 30 percent without some sort of advance notice, done in such a way that people such as me, who didn't get any email, would find out about it on MT Stars. That's why I don't believe it.
Only 30 doctors?
Your line count sound great anyway! Maybe some day I will get there. I will keep working on the expander thing. But only 30 doctors? I am sure we work for the same national. I have only two accounts, but have 97 doctors! I have been meaning to ask my friend who works for the same company if she has as many. She has 4 or 5 accounts, but I don't know how many doctors. Sometimes, when I see the 'no jobs' screen, I am tempted to call and ask for another account, but I never do since I am afraid of what I will get. One of my accounts is my 'dream account' because there are few doctors, and they are WONDERFUL. The other account has about 90 doctors and I never know what I am going to get!
Doctors
I used to type for a doc who said sh*t at least once in every sentence. He always told "the typist" to delete that but it was a laugh just listening to him!
You may be right that most doctors
do not read their reports, but a lot of other people do, including coders, nurses, insurance companies, attorneys, and possibly even the patients themselves.        
CERTAIN DOCTORS.

I work for a small MTSO, and I have been asked to work on a certain doctor.  It happened to me because I was getting his work done on time and how he wanted it done.  So, yes there are good reasons for this to happen. 


Thanks!


So....how do you think these doctors who
And some of them KNOW about offshoring (lots of them do), feel about people going overseas for their medical care?  How does it feel?  Not so much fun, huh?
One of my doctors...
is wonderful about saying A-B-duction or A-D-duction instead of assuming I will know. He's got a slight accent, too, so I really appreciate it
Doctors as MTs
I can't help but wonder why someone would go to med school, then decide to become an MT. Even in India, I would think an MD does better financially than an MT -- which is why I bet while they may be good MTs, they must have been inferior MDs. JMHO.
Do you ever wonder how much doctors would
keep patients if they talk to them the same way they dictate? I have transcribed some doctors that I wouldn't go to (no matter how "good" they are) simply because of their dictation. If they talk as fast, slurred, etc. to patients as they do when dictating, no wonder people are sick.
Doctors
Does anyone know where doctors post that they need a transcriptionist?  I have looked through many websites but only find companies and not doctors.
doctors-ha
I am frustrated beyond belief at doctors who do not keep up with dictation then the office blames the Transcriptionist for being behind.  Dictating a week's worth on Sunday afternoon does not mean they will get all the dictation returned on Monday!  And of course they are asking for "stat" reports on one particular patient, then claim they have "missing" dictation.  Well I don't get paid for my time going through and finding one in particular.  I've been an MT for 15 years, but never have I been so frustrated as this afternoon when this whole situation came up for the upteenth time in the month of May.  Sheesh.........why don't they talk to the doctor about keeping up?!  gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr     Sorry, just had to vent..... but I was wondering if anyone has a spare tazer I could borrow.
doctors
Isn't it sickening?! Funny how they think they know everything and are always right, then can't even dictate all of one day on that day or can't remember what patients they've dictated on and blame us for losing them! It's actually the doc who has the problem, but they can't/won't see that. If I didn't need the money so bad, I would certainly quit this guy. He's a major royal pain in the buttocks!

Maybe it's just normal "rigors of transcription", but this has been a consistent problem for months and months and especially for the last couple of weeks. Maybe his allergies are frying his brain! Whatever it is, the staff has the same problem!
They are now quoting me what my contract says and claiming I'm not fulfilling that contract!

gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Getting new doctors
I was wondering if any of you can give me some idea on how to get new docs. The last two accounts that I had I just fell into them. My friend was working for an office when they needed a transcriber. And the second were my ob that I had been seeing when I was pregnant with my twins. Unfortunately, I lost the first account to a lady who was going digital and she was was to come in and cover for me while I was out on maternity leave. And now the ob docs changed over the a new system. They are actually using a piece of paper that they check off everything and if there is something abnormal they make a note of it directly on the paper. I had been transcribing for six docs, but now I am only doing 1 and he is probably going to be retiring soon. I don't know what kind of information I would put on a flyer, or should I send out a letter to doctor's offices. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have never done hospital dictation, so I am strictly looking for office work.

Thank you in advance,

Cheryl
Doctors
Thanks.  I did work for a doctor who stated that doctors are always looking for transcriptionists, but I could never find where they advertise.  The doctor I got was from word of mouth, but he recently moved out of state so I am looking to do work for another doctor.
doctors lie

What do ya'll think about doctors who lie in their dictation.  I have come across this twice within the year - so I am sure it happens quite often.  Once was my own personal MR - doctor came in and told me I had a coronary spasm but when I got my records there was no mention of a coronary spasm or anything else having to do with coronary - he basically said he didn't know what the problem was - other than my blood pressure was 220/114 - which I had to take my own medicine in the bathroom to get it to come down -


 


then - a friend of mine had a bariatric procedure and developed a stricture - he then had an egd under conscious sedation (he is 21 years old) and he became combative on the table.  The doctor came into the RR and told us all about how he had been up and down on the table and how he was not able to do a dilation because of this - then when we got his records - the report said that he had used 3 different balloons and dilated the stricture successfully.  However, my friend was not able to keep anything down - so the doctor went in and did the egd again under general - and could not even find the anastamosis site - he was sent to a specialist who did an egd using dye and fluoroscopy.  Another stricture is forming and the specialist is going to place a stent which is not approved for bariatric patients - it is something they place in people who have esophageal cancer which allows them to eat until they die since the cure rate for esophageal cancer is so low.  I wouldn't let them touch me again - but this is a young kid and he doesn't know any better.  I might also add that the anesthesiologist and the nurse that was in the room on the first EGD came to the RR and told us how bad the situation had gotten before the doctor gave up.


long story long - do ya'll think this is common?  can we no longer trust doctors with our lives?  I realize they are scared of malpractice suits - but, as with my friend, we know that the doctor messed up his tissues - and the specialist told us how bad the tissue looked - like it had been "stabbed through with a knife, inflamed and beginning to scar up".  But do you think that they lie in all of their reports where something goes wrong - or that they color the situation so that they come out smelling like a rose?


doctors
I like www.healthcarehiring.com/

Can look up doctors, clinics, and other things by state.
Doctors --sm
are so used to dictating certain ways that he may not even know he said the word comma. I have a doc that uses "comma" for every punctuation, including period at the end of a sentence. My transcription training drilled it into my head to use as few commas as possible and we were graded on that, dinged if we had too many. I transcribe what I feel to be right, not what the doctor dictates as far as punctuation goes. JMO
I take this seriously; however I know doctors
My mother's surgeon is one of them. Sometime during one of his visits, mother's medical records were brought up and somewhere in the conversation transcription. Well, he said all the x-rays were transcribed by a facility in Australia and he thought it was wonderful because they were ready the next day since their day is our night, etc. He just had a big 'old smile on his face. When I asked him didn't he realized HIPAA rules could not be enforced, he just shrugged as if it were no big deal. This is a guy that has been around a long time and he doesn't even care about patient records, and this would go for ALL the other doctors in his group practice as well. The x-rays are sent by a local hospital, so if the doctors don't care, and I know the hospital knows where the records are, I find it hard to believe most don't know what's going on with our records.

The bottom line......MONEY.........and not the patient.

I take this seriously; however I know doctors
My mother's surgeon is one of them. Sometime during one of his visits, mother's medical records were brought up and somewhere in the conversation transcription. Well, he said all the x-rays were transcribed by a facility in Australia and he thought it was wonderful because they were ready the next day since their day is our night, etc. He just had a big 'old smile on his face. When I asked him didn't he realized HIPAA rules could not be enforced, he just shrugged as if it were no big deal. This is a guy that has been around a long time and he doesn't even care about patient records, and this would go for ALL the other doctors in his group practice as well. The x-rays are sent by a local hospital, so if the doctors don't care, and I know the hospital knows where the records are, I find it hard to believe most don't know what's going on with our records.

The bottom line......MONEY.........and not the patient.

my doctors!
or the nurses or whoever else, but as i just said this IS being implemented April 1st!

dont think it will happen super quick for everyone, this is an eventual process, how can you deny that?
Doctors will not like to have to
put all that data into a computer. They are doctors not data managers. That work will pile up on them and because of their busy schedules and become a real pain.

They will always in the end have to dictate/narrate some sort of personal profile on the patient that does not include vital signs,lab values and imaging results.
No, because the doctors will not want
to listen through an entire dictation of sometimes meaningless stuff to find out what they need.
if the doctors in the USA really REALLY sm
knew why their work is of such bad quality, they would bring their transcription back into the US and hire EXPERIENCED US MTs to do it. I see it happening already, albeit very slowly!
Doctors
are the worst at spelling. I have one doc that consistently spells words wrong. I spell them correctly and leave a note letting him know. He continues to spell them wrong (the same meds). I think he just cannot admit that he is wrong(-: