Take at home transcription job or unit secretary job at hospital?
Posted By: Uncertain MT on 2008-01-30
In Reply to:
I've been an MT for 12 years and have worked at home doing MT for 10 years. Recently got replaced by EMR so had to find work elsewhere. I took a job at a local hospital as a unit secretary working 3-11 now I have been offered a job with a national transcription company. I'm not sure if I should go back to transcribing since the line count/money making potential has me worried. I've been assured that I will never run out of work but I'm worried that I will actually be working longer than the 8 hour shift in order to make the amount of money I need. I would love to be back home with my kids typing again as I miss not seeing them as much as I used to and they want me to be home. I am just not sure if I should stay in a job at the hospital which has a guaranteed amount of money per pay period since I'm being paid by the hour and not by the line where my paycheck can vary. Any thoughts/suggestions/opinions, recommendations out there? Any and all would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!!
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Whether or not to leave IC MT job for unit secretary job at hospital???
HELP, PLEASE!!! I am currently an IC, which I have been for eight years, and I recently applied for a nursing unit secretary position at the local hospital. I interviewed and who would have guessed it, they offered me the job. The position is third shift, 7pm to 7am three nights a week. I do have little kids to think of when considering this. My ultimate goal is to go to nursing school and I am thinking that working in the hospital will be good experience. I don't know if it will be easier to go to nursing school while working as an MT or as a unit secretary. I am having a hard time deciding what to do. I don't know if I would be better off staying put even though I have no motivation to sit down and type or should I take this chance to do something new. Like with any new job I am afraid that I won't like it but I don't particularly care for this current job. What do you think would be the better move? I know you can't make my decision for me but some input on what you would do in my situation would be helpful. Any advice is truly appreciated.
Thanks!! 
IC MT to Unit Secretary - sm
Do you like to answer the phone? Do you like to file? Do you like to have people order you around? Are you neat and organized? Can you do three or four things at once? If yes, then go for it. The hours 7 pm to 7 am may not be as busy as when I worked during the day, but your hospital may well be busier, depending on what type of unit you're on. I learned a tremendous amount working as a unit secretary, one thing being I didn't want to be around people anymore, the pubic being the most obnoxious of them all. An doctors in person can be very arrogant too; a lot different than on the other end of the line. Don't know how you will do those hours with small children, but good luck to you.
IC to unit secretary
You brought up some excellent points! Since you have done both US and MT, you definitely would say that you prefer the MT over the unit secretary?
Thanks for your input!! 
I agree with Former Unit Secretary sm
Great job, learned a hell of lot, meds,diseases, etc., but I worked days and weekends, notoriously busy,busy,busy, and saw a lot that I just didn't like. Staff personalities are really much worse behind the nursing station than they are on the floor, believe me. Got tired of getting reamed by doctors who thought I was the nurse just because I answered the phone. I never had as much problem with IBS as I did then. If anything went wrong, a med order, lab order, whatnot, it fell on my shoulders. You need a tough skin to work days, nights might be easier, who knows. My skin thinned out faster with that job than 13 years of prednisone usage did. Good luck
MT goes unit secretary ... check out my story!
Ive been an MT for 13 years. I was an IC for 10 years, and a FTE for a local hospital for the last 3 years. I came back from vacation in June to discover my lovely boss was interviewing companies to outsource the MT department. He lied to us - told us not to worry - and then a month later our union received the '60 day notice' letter and we were out on our assess. I took a job as a unit secretary - and a $5 an HOUR paycut along with it, working 3-11 and alternate weekends. Am I crazy to do this. Well yes and no. I'm keeping my awesome union benefits, building toward being vested in 2 more years, and just landed an IC MT job doing guess what: MY OLD JOB. The company that outsourced us hired me. I plan to rake in the bucks in the AM and do the b.s. job at night. 3-11 is half the work as a day job - plus you get the shift differential. Wish me luck ! Joanne
Probably medical records or unit secretary
In my area the pay is about 50 cents less an hour than MT seems like a gravy job compared to this.
Unit secretary will help somewhat with terms, meds, and learning the flow of the shift, but it won&#
s
Hospital Unit Coordinator/Clerk
Anyone know what this kind of job would be like? One of the local hospitals has a few of these positions open in various departments. I'm wondering if it's a high pressure/low pay kind of thing, if only because they seem to be hiring from the outside. When I worked for a bank many years ago, they hired "outsiders" only for the crap jobs. I'm tired of MT and want to explore my options.
a phone/transcription unit with foot pedal and earphone...
dials to hospital dictation system for reports to transcribe.
If Google it - might find a picture of one.
hospital at-home -vs- national at home
I have an interview today with a hospital...work in-house for 3 months, then go home, paid on production. I don't know as of yet what they pay production, so my question is to anyone who works for a hospital at home AND has also worked for a national at home...
Which would be the best to choose? The hospital offers great benefits, but the national I work for now also has benefits, not as good as the hospital, though. Any input would be most appreciated!
Hospital transcription
A customer of mine called me the other day to let me know about a diagnostic imaging opening at a hospital and she told me the benefits are around 300.00 for child and spouse added. I would rather pay something like that than to have to put up with this woman. The pay starts out for bottom line 10.06 an hour, maxing out at 15.09 an hour. I am really thinking about getting into coding too.
Thank you all again for listening to me.
Paulette
New to hospital transcription
Hi,
I was wanting to get some advice from some people who have done hospital transcription before. I am new to it. I have done clinic transcription for 9 years mainly family practice and the doctors that I have done have been for the most part really easy going and are not too particular about grammar and so forth, but I have just gotten an IC position for a local hospital and was wondering how difficult it is. I have always heard that it is really hard to do. How much difference is there between hospital and clinic transcription and what is it that makes it so much more difficult. Any advice would be gladly appreciated. I am really nervous and I need this job and I want to be able to do it. Thanks in advance.
No more radiology transcription at my hospital
The medical center I worked for did away with radiology transcriptionists a few years back. They came up with "canned" reports and VR and have ZERO radiology transcriptionists. They also cut back on their xray lab/medical record clerks by installing a PAC (sp?) system as well.
Not OP, but how does one go about getting an at-home hospital job..sm
I have 30 years MT acute care experience and think I would like working at home for a hospital (currently work for a mid size MTSO). I don't recall seeing those type jobs advertised. Can anyone give me advice on where to find those kind of jobs? Thanks for any help!
Do you work in a hospital or a Transcription Service
Office? It is a hospital there should be a manager that you can go to or an administrator. Production is key in hospital work, and it is important you have the quiet you need to produce.
On-call transcription in a small hospital
I work for a very small rural hospital with only two full-time transcriptionists and one part-time transcriptionist. We have recently been told that the administration of our hospital is entertaining the idea of on-call Transcriptionist for uncovered hours. We already work alternating Saturdays (day shift only). I wanted to know if any other hospitals out there do on-call transcription (Not from home and not outsourced). They want us to physically drive in and be in the office to do this transcription. Any information at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Hospital at-home job vs. service
Here is the scoop: I work for a service now, but was offered an at-home position with a local hospital at $14.70 per hour with benes. WHAT SHOULD I DO???????
hospital work at home
May I ask if it was easy for you to get the at-home job working for the hospital? I have a hospital very near my home and have been contemplating going there to see if they have at-home transcription jobs available, but haven't done so just yet. I would love to be paid hourly. I'm so tired of having to type my fingers to the bone to make good money. Hourly should would be nice, even if only temporarily. Thanks for any advice.
I work for a hospital but am home. nm
nm
Home versus Hospital - sm
Speaking as one who was a unit secretary for many, many years, and now an MT working from home, I personally would NEVER, ever go back...but, the benefits of working in-house are much better than most MT companies offer. AND, your point of steady paycheck is a valid one. This is something you would have to sit down and write all the pros and cons, with your feelings included, to make a decision based on what is best for you. Good luck.
When I worked at home for a hospital
I had all of the benefits, but the hospital I worked at did not go by production. They just basically paid per hour. They did not expect a certain amount of work be done in a certain amount of time. I had access to the software the hospital used. This probably won't help you, but it has only been 2 years since I left the hospital. I make way more with my own accounts. If the benefits you are seeking have to do with retirement, then you may be better off setting up your own retirement account because if you are older, you will need to be vested before you even begin to think about a pension.
MT working at home for hospital
I just recently was sent home from a local hospital where I work. I make $15.80/hour, no incentive, and we are required to type a minimum of 1200 lines per 8-hour shift.
I work at home for a hospital
differential, average around $18 to $22 an hour. I am not paid hourly, but totally CPL. I don't use any benefits because I am on my husband's.
Missouri hospital at-home MT..........
I have worked for a hospital for 15 years. They moved us home about 10 years ago. I make 11 cpl on a 60-character line. We have to maintain a 5000 line per two week pay period quota for health insurance which is free for employees, but I carry family plan and it is 110.00 a month (hard to beat that). We can type whenever we want, no set hours. We also rotate weekly on call schedules where we go on call from Midnight Sunday morning to the next Saturday at Midnight. Just for being on call, we get an extra 220.00 that week regardless if we receive any calls, but if we do get called, we still receive our 11 cpl pay as usual. This is a 270 bed hospital with all fields and specialties and pretty well all of the dictators are great. I am very happy with my position at this hospital.
I am, but I work for a hospital (at home). (nm)
How do I find out if a local hospital's transcription is done in-house or not?
Can someone please give me some advice? I am trying to find out if one of our local hospitals has in-house transcription or what company they use for their transcription. I called the MR Dept. and the lady acted like she did not want to tell me anything. She said some was done in-house but most of it was done electronically and would not elaborate as to what company they used. How can I go about finding out who does their transcription for them. I never see any actual job opening in the MR Dept. or for transcription for them, so I am assuming they outsource most to a transcription company.
I would like to get on with the hospital or possibly the company who handles their transcription.
I have been considering working locally instead of for a national or switching to another company from the company I currently work for. Since losing my initial primary account and having to switch to another account, my income has declined and it doesn't appear to be getting any better. Not sure why, it is not from my lack of working. I just can't seem to make the counts on this new account as I could on my previous account. I now do some editing on top of my transcription due to time restraints I cannot put in any more hours than I already do. Thanks for the input. My husband recently started working at this particular hospital. I am hoping he will be able to find out for me but no luck yet.
In 5 years there won't be any transcription departments in any hospital. All will be outsourced.
Same thing happened to me and if those HIM hags who control our destiny think it's a good thing they are so WRONG. Life has been hard since having to work at a service, and I refused to work for the Monster MTSO that took my job as a matter of principle. I think we should all write to Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Amy Klobuchar (the MT in MN can write to her), etc., and express our strong needs to have MT jobs and American information STAY in America with American MTs.
Former MQ here. I finally got a home-based hospital job.
Less flexibility, as in having to work set shifts, but the pay is great and I have all the great benefits. I know there are so few hospitals that have their own department, but if you're in a populated area and can find a job, it will TOTALLY renew your opinion of this job. It has for me.
18 cpl straight from a hospital working at home. nm
x
24-yo female Missouri, PT at home, FT hospital
sm
i would never give up my home-based hospital job....go for it
s
need advice /home-based hospital job
 I was offered a home-based MT job as a direct employee of the hospital with an extremely good per-line-rate. But yes, apparently it was too good to be true! Apparently on further consideration, the administrator now says it is too costly (technically) for home set-up; mentioned something about the Lanier DVI desktop and how costly etc. etc. and some other MT has the license (?what's that about?); also mentioned "Cquence" transcription software program. They presently already have 5 other off-site MTs. Anybody out there with opinions and/or constructive advice...please.  Thanks in advance.
I worked for a hospital at home for 4 years. sm
We had to work set hours. My advice is allow youself 1/2 hour for lunch, and at least two 15-minute break periods. Work 2 hours, take a break, work 2 hours, take a lunch break, etc. Otherwise, you may find yourself having back, shoulder and hand problems. Working 9 hours may seem like a drag, but not being able to work at all is even worse. Remember, if you were working on site, you would not only have to work 8-1/2 hours, but would have travel time on top of it. Just my experience.
I worked at home for the local hospital here.
It was fine. They paid hourly and provided equipment. We had plenty of work and had to stick to a set schedule. They do use a service or two for overflow, but it is strictly overflow. The hospital still has employees working at home. They don't ALL outsource. (And ironically, some hospitals are taking back their transcription and hiring in-house and at-home MTs!)
I work for a hospital from home on my computer and they do this too. sm
I was told that it is becoming more and more common to see this happen as the internet can open the hospital to too many vulnerabilities. It's my computer but I am on their clock, so I am OK with it. I prefer my books to internet research though so it is not so bad for me.
Good luck with this.
What companies provide computers? Hospital is outsourcing all transcription and I am out of a job..
in about two months. I lost my computer and reference books in a house fire and can't afford to replace the computer until I get my tax refund back or until my homeowners insurance co. gets their act together which ever comes first! 
This is the second time I've lost an in-house hospital transcription job to outsourcing and have decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and so I want to go back to working at home. What are the best companies to work for that provide equipment and are fair regarding line counts (i.e. count spaces and don't short MT's on lines) and have balanced accounts (accounts that have a fair ESL to EFL dictator ratio) to work on?
I have 13 years experience as an MT and I am desparately looking for a company to call home for as long as they will have me! I worked at home for a couple of years, but never could find that perfect fit. My new year's resolution is find a job I love working from home, and forget all about last year!
Thanks!
At home transcription. sm.
There really is no way to answer this question until you find that part time job you're seeking. A lot of small MTSOs seeking part timers just need you to have MS Word, player & pedal, and email. For others, you may need a fax machine to receive schedules, FTP access for file tranfer, etc. All of these cost bucks. I wish I could help you more.
Good luck.
It's not just with at-home transcription
I left a hospital job last year after working there for five years, strictly because of office politics and a hostile environment. The department managers offered me the "opportunity" to resign because my coworkers found it difficult to work with me, despite my trying very hard every day to be pleasant, cooperative, and a "team player". The managers didn't care how good my work was, nor how it compared to the other MTs - much less how hard I had tried to fit in in that dog-eat-dog environment.
The radiologists knew that I was the best MT they had, though. The next day one of them called me at home and said, "Who is going to take care of me now??!!!" I was always catching his mistakes - some of them BIG ones - and bringing them to his attention. None of the other MTs at the hospital did that. I am now doing the overflow work from their outpatient office (along with another part-time job with a local MTSO).
I wouldn't go back to working in a hospital no matter how much they paid me. Yes, at-home transcription pay sucks. But you don't have to put up with all the cr@p that goes on in an office. And if it gets too bad, you can just move on to the next company.
New to at home transcription
Hey guys, I know all of you are busy, but I am an MT with over 14 years experience inhouse (physician's ofc, radiology, IM, FP, etc). I'm a little anxious about IC vs employee status. Can anyone tell me which is best. I have accepted two positions, one of each and dont know which is the best bet. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Home transcription
Hi, I'm a Transcriptionist with 8 years experience looking forward to home transcription job offers. I can do on-call transcription meeting deadlines and give 98% accuracy. please contact me in my email address. thanks.
Hospital job is "work-at-home" paid hourly
Thank you for well wishes.
Key words: Utah and Hospital. Different from working at home and different SM
from working in a state that has low tolerance for drinking.
I disagree. The best place to work is a hospital that has their MTs at home.
x
Why not work fulltime at home for a hospital with bennies?
Or look into the state children's medical program. Check into foodstamps and utility assistance while you're at it. The states also usually have a program to enforce child support, which can't be arbitrarily reduced if someone just decides to be self-employed and hide their income one day.
As for the savings and retirement, relax, you'll get there. As for life insurance, you can get a term or universal policy cheap. I can relate about the job situation. I'm teetering on bankruptcy myself now because I lost my steady job in October and have had two other jobs with no work or lousy platforms since then. I keep waiting for the utility companies to shut everything off because I can't pay.
We'll survive. I can't wait for tax refund time myself. You'll survive, too. You can do this. The best part is that you can do this without his help, and your kids will love and respect you for being the responsible parent.
I turned down a hospital job to stay at home and regret it. sm
The hospital jobs are much more stable, and you have the same docs over and over. Even if they are ESL, at least you can get good at them. Take the hospital job - the PTO and benefits are worth it.
I surely lost out on that, worked from home for a hospital
for 2+ years and required to come in house for meetings and never, never paid for my gas nor my time down and just asked to make it up. After that we got outsourced to a company and guess what again? Meetings at their place and again no pay!! I bet others who see this probably have had the same thing happen to them. Your place exceptional.
i am an inhouse hospital transcriptionist who works at home
I am an in house hospital transcription who works at home. I get 19.00 an hour plus incentive pay which is 7 cents a line after 1,000 lines. and 7.5 cents after 1,500 lines.
Keep applying at jobs is my opinion. Find out where your local hospital transcription is done
dd
Medical Transcription from home
At-home transcription advice
Hi! I'm a fulltime, working Transcriptionist with a Certificate in Medical Transcription from a local, accredited schoool and nearly 4 years of Clinic experience. I want to keep my fulltime clinic job but I would also like to start up my own at-home transcription part-time for extra income. I was hoping somebody could give me a little advice about start-up equipment and supplies/cost if any. I'm not looking for my own accounts, just working for/contracting with a company on here PT for right now.
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