I've had people tell me that I would need to wait to have my questions answered until I worked...
Posted By: AzMT on 2005-12-07
In Reply to: Venting on job interviews - sm - Disgusted
for them. What??? How would I know if I want to work for them if they don't answer my questions.
Go figure.
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Most MTs are very busy people. I have answered your questions OP sm
You didn't get my number, I am definitely too busy to talk to ANYONE, except my boss, when I am trying to work. I work more than one IC contract and I am working 15 and 16 hour days. I don't talk to my family or my friends...let alone you or any other MT who wants questions over the phone.
I have to say, since I have seen these questions...I rolled my eyes when I saw what was being asked, frequently the same question over and over again. I couldn't be bothered to render an opinion or tell you where to stick your commas.
As others have posted, you need training. If you can't tell where to put a comma, that training is probably high school English. Asking the opinions of several MTs is phishing for a phight. I cannot see what you hope to gain by it, but I won't be enticed to waste my time.
If you are a newbie MT and you have just completed training, go ask your teacher(s) or go to your QA manager. If you feel your QA manager is wrong, go to her boss, but you had better have your facts straight and an AAMT BOS in your hand when you do and it would be a good idea if you could quote the "errors" out of the BOS. Then again, if you had the newest AAMT BOS and if you knew how research things you would not need these silly questions answered.
Yup I am being harsh.
I've worked for companies that needed people
specifically to do certain reports. I have been hired to exclusively do ERs and discharge summaries before. It wasn't cherry picking either. They needed someone to catch up their backlog and keep the reports within TAT permanently. Evidently, other people were cherry picking and bypassing these report types because they're not as good of money makers as Ops or H&Ps.
I do. I've worked closely with these people for years,
nm
sa, thank you so much, this answered all my questions...nm
nm
Wait until you've been there six months and if you've improved
quality and quantity, I'd say go ahead and ask. Otherwise I'd say annually... good luck
Some people answered your question rather rudely below, SM
I think you came here for suggestions. I am in a similar situation. I have cleaned offices, done the pawn shop thing, sold things I already had to try and keep up with my bills. This isnt much help, but I can't believe how rude some people are on this board.
Just a thank you to all who answered this post. You've been a great help!!
I think people should wait to go to college.
Do a couple of grunt jobs and figure out what you want out of life. My grunt jobs were waitress and motel housekeeper. Then pay for school yourself instead of expecting your parents to foot the bill. I'm still paying for mine. And actually figure out what you want to be when you grow up so you don't waste your education. When I was 18, I wanted to be a graphic designer and live in New York, LA or Las Vegas. However, that's not my passion in life. It just sounded kind of glam from movies and yuppie stereotypes. I am so completely opposite of that.
FWIW, nobody else in my family went to college and they all make way more money than I do. But priorities change in life.
This is why people have to wait so long when
You had better be life-flighted or you are waiting 4-ever because of these types of cases. I had a doc when I was on staff say he asked the patient, How long have you have this boyle on your butt? The guy said oh, about 3 weeks. So the doc says, and you wait until 3 a.m. to show up in the ER to decide to get treatment? And, the guy says, yeah, I culdn't stand the pain anymore. So the doc says, well, we're going to lance it, but unfortunately we can't give you any pain medicine for this procedure at 3 a.m. The guy decided to see his primary in the a.m. and left.
Wait til yu talk to people then who only had to add a program
It's just a zoo at MQ. Nobody knows sh^^.
But then it's not their money they are having you spend, is it?
Rude people? I hardly think so. They are some of the nicest people I have ever worked with. sm
Not just management, but QA as well. No one is rude. They are a very understanding staff. There is one account that is hard but all it takes is getting used to it. Once you are used to it, it is no harder than any other ESL account that you would do anyplace else. I have heard all these things about TH from the archives and I have yet to come across rudeness or any kind of thing that I have read about in the archives. I would definitely pursue them if I were you. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
wait a minute. not PSN or OP but what "innocent people sob their eyes out"
from a response to something they posted on a board? If there are people who post on boards and expect everyone to go along with them or they cry, they really shouldn't be left unattended and certainly shouldn't have a computer. I am serious here.
Wait'll you've been in it for THREE decades,
nm
Questions for QA/Editor people
What would you say is an average hourly rate for an Editor who is not a certified MT? Do you also do transcription? If so, do you do this during your shift that you are acting as QA or after?
If you do transcription during your shift, how many lines of QA do you average per hour? Also, if there is no work to QA, are you still paid (IC status). I would appreciate any insight that any of you can provide. I just got my first QA position and am trying to get an understanding of how things go. Please don't tell me to ask the company. I want to hear from you guys, if you don't mind.
Thanks
I have 2 questions for people who own their own company
I started a company up and have a few clients; however, 2 of them insist on using my SS# instead of my EIN. Will I still be able to claim this as income for the business? Also, I have someone working for me and I am wondering if when I pay taxes on my business do I do it on the money before or after I pay her? I'm not sure if you have to pay taxes on EVERYTHING you make or if you can count a salary off and just pay taxes on what is left.
I've lost track of how many people who've asked about it to NOT
.
They did answer the questions. Then got swore at and had people
Yeah, suddenly there is a barrage of people asking questions
Do you think we're that stupid or what?
Questions like the one quoted SHOULD make people angry.
There's a difference between needing help with something difficult, and asking a question that NOBODY who is working as an MT should have to ask. If you can't figure that word out or find the answer yourself, you shouldn't be working as an MT. Period.
Yes, I have worked for the same people
At one time or another, you will have where they do not pay right away. You may have to wait. It has happened on every single account I do. I am sure others will agree. You have to consider holidays as well. Now I do all clinic work so Mon-Fri hours come into play, but even at a hospital with 24-hour patient care does not mean the administrators give 24-hour support. I use my savings account for back-up. I am in a situation however where I do not need benefits and I am not the sole breadwinner in my family. Just some things to consider. There are others I'm sure that will admit to the fact that when they are an IC with their own accounts, you must chase your money down. There are stories also that the IC has never been paid at all for months on end. If I quit because the pay was late, I would never have any accounts. Unfortunately when you IC and are not an employee, you almost always get paid last. They will pay their employees on a regular basis or they will get in trouble with the IRS. So, which is worse? Being paid a little late or constantly looking for new accounts? A new account means you have to put a lot of time in unless you are super-MT and have no problems taking on new accounts with their particular formatting and audio. That's why so many stick with what they have because there is a learning curve. JMO.
I worked at Sonic and people do tip...
usually about $1 back then. I always tip and I tip 1$. I was very young when I worked there, but I had other people working there that had families. Minimum wage isn't anything. Just my opinion though. I also never got snooty though when someone didn't tip me. I think a lot of people don't think to.
Lots of people worked up to it.
They got it going and then used it for maybe 1/2 hour one day. Then used it a bit longer the next and so on, until they were using it exclusively.
Another way is to create a glossary with the stuff in your current Expander so that you get used to using it with familiar phrases. Then you can add to it as you get better. That's what I did. DO use the marker keys though, rather than the spacebar to expand. That takes a bit of getting used to, but it is so worth it later on to be able to get full use of all of IT's features later. :-)
I have worked with people who have requested
to be off certain accounts because of their religious beliefs and not wanting to transcribes procedures they were not comfortable doing, but not because the doctors were too hard.
I personally have almost 30 years in this business and still have trouble with certain docs, but others do them without problem. There is almost always 1 or 2 doctors on an account that nobody wants to do for variosu reasons, but I just stick it out and believe that it will make and has made be a better MT in the long run.
I've worked for both
I think there are two big differences. (1) Benefits should be much better than the national, and (2) in working for the hospital, you will only be working on one account (which makes a BIG difference in my opinion). I averaged about 225 lines per hour working for national on a main account plus a couple backups. I am averaging 300+ with the hospital.
The only advantage with going with the national might be better job security. If you lost the account, at least they could move you to another one. But personally, I would take the hospital job in a second. Good Luck!
I've worked with one of their
products. It was an excellent transcription product; they basically bought another company and added the product to their line. I've read some about the owner of the company. He seems like a very above-board kind of guy. He values the special knowledge that MTs have, and we used the product without VR, BUT ... he won't be happy until his VR product is worked in to the transcription process. (I think they might focus on radiology only). He is just SURE it can improve turnaround time, but he admits that VR on its own is not very impressive and reports will always need to be tweaked by a knowledgeable MT. What he doesn't realize is that the transcription process is much more active and able to catch errors when the MT is immersed in transcribing the report. I don't believe 95% of MTs could in a time-efficient way get the complete gist of each report and catch as many dictator errors, history errors, as she could when her mind was completely involved in the transcription of every word. Doing radiology, how many times is there just the briefest pause from the dictator and the MT's mind is already filling in the next word or phrase, and then the dictator says something else, and you think - wha?? and then the radiologist realizes his blunder and corrects himself at some point. Or if he doesn't, the MT's mind is reasoning out what is right or wrong and can bring any problem up with that report. Because of noticing, that report will get corrected before it goes out to the referrer and causes a phone call from an angry referrer.
Radiology needs to go out at 100% accurate, and IMO, insisting on the use of VR will lower accuracy rates and won't improve turnaround time much at all. When I was doing radiology, the better radiologists could dictate a note in a quick and efficient manner and the MT would get on and do it within about 3 minutes. Every 20 minutes the good radiolgists would sign a batch and the reports would go out. So it was about a 30-minute turnaround time for those reports that didn't need a different radiologist to read them. Turnaround time had everything to do with which radiologist was reading and how many specialty reports there were and how efficiently the off-site radiolologists were getting on to dictate. It seems like the VR guys think the MT is the slow one, but IT'S NOT THE MT - SPEED IS UP TO THE RADIOLOGISTS.
Let me add though, the people there were awesome and very nice!! I wish it would have worked because
I've worked for MQ for years and
have NEVER been given the opportunity for bonuses. Those who have gotten them have been lucky.
I've worked for MQ over 4 years now and
I have never been told how many spaces to put or not put after a sentence; I have never been paid for spaces, by my count at least. I occasionally check my reports. I do not get spaces.
I'm not sure why, or actually by the anonymous stature of posters on this board, IF anyone has really been told to limit spaces to one after a sentence.
If MQ really isn't paying for spaces, it wouldn't make any difference monetarily so I cannot see that they would make a stipulation like that.
all the ones I've worked with (6) were gay. Go figure.
The only male MT I've worked with is now ...
one of the MDs I transcribe for now. He worked as an MT for the same small service I did while he was going to school.
I should add, I don't know how they are to work for as I've never worked for them, just saw th
post.
I've worked for several companies using this VR
I make on average $20-$26 an hour with the editing at 4cpl/straight typing 9-10 cpl 65 char with headers and footers and templates. I've been using it for several years though. There are several job ads for this software.
I've worked the same one account...sm
for over 10 years. They know I'm reliable and I know what those docs are going to say before they say it ;0) Seriously, though, I've tried other short term assignments or on-call situations through the years but always come back to my bread and butter. Like anyone, I could of course be let go tomorrow, but in the meantime I'm making good money and doing work that comes second nature by now. Less stress too!
No, not gullible. I've worked in
years and not just in MT. You need to unwrap your mind from around the state of MT of 25 years ago. Those days are long gone. Another unfortunate issue that we're faced with today - new MT graduates. The quality just is not there as it was back in the day. Well, enough said - we obviously will need to agree to disagree. I see it every day the negotiations with major hospitals and offshore. They know what their pennies are getting them and they don't care as long as it's cheap.
What is the best platform you've ever worked on
and why? What do you like about it? Also, what is the worst?
I really like EditScript 8 & although it isn't perfect, I like the fact that I can access other reports on the same patient/same dictator if I need to verify something (although I never trust it 100% lol) One thing I don't like is that I can't use my Expanders (or maybe I can, but don't know how to go about it?)
I don't like ChartScript, as I don't think its very user friendly and those old DOS-based antiquated systems were for the birds!
I've worked and traveled with (sm)
A Verizon Broadband USB device on a 5GB/month plan for $60/month. Anywhere that I can get a Verizon phone signal, I can work. Working on the DQS platform, I could work 24/7 and never approach the 5 GB limit per month, but I'm not sure how other platforms work in that regard.
Europe in general is more sophisticated in their cell phone plans than the US (the majority in Europe use prepaid as opposed to 2-year contract plans). I would think that you could get a USB device over there that is compatible with the cell phone frequencies they use over there.
Hope this helps!
I know a lot of people it helped (I worked in a doctor's office) SM
BUT you have to really want to quit before you start it. It doesn't make you want to quit - it just helps you w/ the depression and the withdrawal symptoms that come along w/ quitting. Good luck.
I've worked in-house and at home ....
I find that even when you're in-house, with the nature of the job, there's no time for chit-chat. When I worked in-house we had production minimums and there was incentive to earn if you produced, so who has time to talk? I'm with you. I'm happy being here in my comfy clothing without all that aggravation. Let is snow, I don't have to drive in it!
I don't think so. It sounds like you've never worked for a national.
Nationals DO check references. That's the job of the HR department. They DO run credit reports when you accept a job, and they tell you so on the piece of paper you have to sign giving them permission to do so. They DO prosecute and report to collections against people who don't return equipment. They DO keep deposits on unreturned equipment. They DO get the equipment super cheap anyways in bulk deals through major technology suppliers. Equipment, losses, and shipping are all tax deductible anyway. They DO use QA so that lazy or inexperienced MTs aren't sending garbage straight through to the clients. Most national MTs don't have any contact whatsoever with the clients. In addition, the majority will let you use your own equipment or charge rental fees so it's not coming out of their pocket.
That goes both ways. I can tell you out of all the MTSOs I've worked for,
only a small percentage of them worked out. It's as if they'll tell you anything to get you hired, then reality hits. You tell them when you're available. Oh, OK, no problem. Then the work doesn't show up until your shift is over, but they still expect it done by TAT. Sorry, but I don't work on-call for free 24/7. I'm not sitting around doing nothing all day long waiting for work to come in. I'm not staying up all night without sleep and blowing off my family because the MTSO is in a bind. We're expected to work more than 8 hours a day without overtime or incentive pay.
I've worked for two services that had VA contracts.
It was horrible. Lots of ESLs. High stress MTSOs. No samples or QA feedback.
I've worked on a laptop only for going on 7 years.
I do use an external keyboard the majority of the time though. The USB WiFi does not accept a card, it is small, plugs into a USB port and acts like your card does, you don't use a card. Go to a website like best buy and search for Wireless USB adapters and you'll see what I'm talking about.
I've traveled and worked many times
To try to answer your questions.. Whether your foot pedal will work in your laptop depends on the laptop that you buy. When you're looking to buy one, try to find one with the correct kind of port for your pedal. The one I recently bought doesn't have a serial port, so I bought an adapter at Circuit City that plugs into my USB port, and then I can plug my ergo keyboard and mouse into that. In any case, your laptop will definitely come with at least a couple USB ports, so you could always buy a USB pedal to use with it if you have to. As far as the headphones, every laptop I've ever used has had a place to plug in a pair of headphones so that should be no problem. The thing is...if you're going to buy a laptop specifically for this, then look at the ports on the laptops and make sure it has what you need. I would say if you don't mind buying a USB foot pedal, though, you're not going to have problems because every new laptop will have USB ports, and I'm sure a place for your headphones.
If you're staying in hotels, try to stay in places that have free high speed internet which so many of them have now. You can plug right into that and work. If not, I know Verizon has a wireless broadband service now for around $60 a month you could check into.
I hope this helps some.
They aren't that rare. I've worked with SM
bunches of them. Unfortunately, my experience with them boils down to this: The men who do this usually are the men who can't get along in a work environment with a lot of other men.
I've had this problem and the only thing that worked for me....sm
was to slow down turnaround. They called within a couple of days. Told them I had to take on extra work to meet my own bills by paying customers which slowed down their turnaround. I had my check the next day. Don't know how they managed that, but they did. Since then, there have been a couple of times that it was a week or so late, but not like they used to do. I honestly think as long as they can get away with it, they will. I wonder how long they would last if their paychecks were 2-3 weeks late. Really irks me.
I've worked with much programs that were much worse.
I don't find ExText so bad.
Because I've done radiology, I've been stuck using software that didn't come with a medical spell-checker and was not compatible with any medical spell-checker. It had an English word checker, so we had to add every single medical term manually.
I once had management actually move us BACKWARDS in technology, from Medrite (which was a fine program back then), to the one previous to it. It may have been called MTS, but I can't remember. This was done because of a company merger and the "alpha" company managers were too lazy to learn the Medrite program. Did it matter to them that they were not paid on production and we were? NO! Of course not. So we all stood around as we were trained on this program my jaw dropped to my knees because it was so inefficient. And the spell checker was worse than useless with that program. Say you misspelled Levaquin as Leviquin. Here is a list of the suggestions it offered, and I am not exaggerating:
lewder
lawless
marshmallow
As far as ExText, what I would want fixed would be the ability to speed up or slow the dictation rate with the keyboard. The multi-mouse moves required are a waste of significant time IMO because of the long pauses so many acute care dictators inconsiderately leave in dictations.
I've worked with MTs who work diligently
...to find a way to cherry pick.
The system that you and the poster above you are describing sounds like the one used where I used to work.
One MT fiddled around and wasted who knows how much company time until she figured out how to manipulate the filters component of the system, and set the filters to only route to her jobs from her 3 preferred dictators.
If only these MTs put as much time into actually transcribing as they put into getting around the system they could probably make even more money than they do with the cherry picking.
No, I've worked in doctor's business office.
That is what the insurance company allows, not what they dictate. Who is to tell the doctor how long he can sit and talk with his patient. It is up to him. True insurance companies get together to decide what is the appropriate amount for the doctor to "charge" for a service but I've literally seen where the doctor sees the patient all of 2 minutes after patient is worked up by techs, but they still get paid for that visit.
We supposedly have Labor Day, but I've worked it for years.
I do respect those that have serious religious holidays though and only hope that the company that they work for understand.
At first I kicked myself for picking Mondays as one of my scheduled work days, as most of our holidays fall on a Monday. But the kids sleep in because they have no school, so it always works, as I only have a 3 hour shift and I'm done before they get up.
I've tried Vivarin and the 1st two days it worked great
But after that they put me to sleep like anesthesia. Go figure.
I've worked for attorneys and doctors in the past and ...
I can tell you that attorneys have way more heart. Docs are stone cold. Personally, I can't stand working for them.....
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