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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Those are the reasons I do shop SM

Posted By: Becky on 2005-10-30
In Reply to: I have about a 20 mile drive - Not Wal-Mart, for sure!

at Target. I have a huge problem with the Salvation Army's practices (be our religion, go to OUR church, adhere to OUR values, or stay cold), I think our government ought to be the ones supporting the military since they sent them where they are, and as for supporting gay and lesbian rights, I think that is a good thing. I'm not sure exactly how you phrased that.


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Give professional reasons why you deserve it, not personal reasons
x
I stayed for many reasons and while those reasons have changed - sm

I loved MT because I was good at it and it came naturally to me.  Typing, language, etc.  The perks of working from home and being able to raise my family were a huge plus.  I stayed because in the hayday of MT you could make really good money really fast (2500 lpd @ $0.15 cpl). 


I stayed while my children were young and I could be available for them.  I stayed so I could return to school and have that flexible schedule to juggle everything once the kids grew  older.  I stayed full-time and cut school back to half time so I could take care of my ailing parents and inlaws when the time arose.   


I continue to stay because I still need to finish school (3 semesters to go) and unfortunately my DH is ill and needs someone to care for him now.  I stay because it is convenient, but I do not plan to stay forever. 


I sure miss the big money days, but what money I make now is sufficient enough to pay my bills.  It is a means to an end so to speak and it has been a godsend along the way.  But I in no way plan to stay at it forever.  It served and continues to serve a purpose, but it is no longer what I "love" to do. 


Shop around -- sm
If you don't need something fancy for work, you don't need a lot of the bells and whistles that come with a more exp computer. Dell is cheap though most other brands have lower-priced computers. I would look at Dell.com, Gateway.com, amazon, Best Buy and Circuit City. If you ask you might be able to bundle the printer/scanner/fax deal. Canon's are good, and i have a Brother. If you have more specific questions, feel free to e-mail.
I wouldn't allow it in my shop.
Lordy, what's next? The patient was sent 2 radiology 4 a chest x-ray? God forbid.
That's why I don't shop there anymore. sm
Years ago, they had this wonderful vanilla almond lotion.  Discontinued.  Then a delicious pineapple-mango lotion/body lotion/body butter. I bought it in everything they had.  Discontinued.  The last time did it for me.  Why do they do that! 
shop around at the HP site for
small businesses - they have laptops with XP loaded that can be changed out for Vista at a later date if necessary. They worked this out with microsoft to bridge the gap between xp/vista, as companies are not so quick to jump to the change this time.

All prices.


WE go to a sandwich shop

and they call us by name; oh my goodness somewhat might know I'm there for a cheesesteak!  I don't fret though!  Because no one knows what I ordered.


I've seen other people's names on the lists at offices too, but I try to mind my own business... 


Only when the desktop has to go into the shop,
and I have to move operations over to the laptop. I just plug my regular keyboard in, which is a Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000. I like this keyboard; it's cheap, so when I inevitably kill it (I am hard on keyboards; must be a hold-over from having learned to type on a manual typewriter back in the stone age) it doesn't cost a lot to replace. (I'm on my second one.) And it has a decent enough touch. The curve is just enough to straighten my wrists out to a neutral position, but not so much that I feel like I'm typing on an alien machine.
Just wondering where you'll shop...
I think Wal-Mart's changes in hiring and benefits is dispicable. Wal-Mart is all we have in the small town we're in. Will you shop at K-Mart or Target, and what store for food? I'll have to go about 30 miles for the nearest K-Mart, but I feel that strong about not shopping at Wal-Mart. I always liked how they had the food store in with the regular retail store, so I'll have to find a grocery store too.

Thanks!
Fine, you shop where you want to and I'll do the same
nm
I know, those all make me want to shop at Target

in my state, there is also this to contend with: 


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/23/BAGDKEBPA71.DTL


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/23/21560/4064


Jees.  Ya can't win for losing, can you? 


Still shop at Target at little bit (*never* Walmart), but I'm really going to try to make it much more exclusively Costco now. 


Ask your local bike shop sm
They have the most bicycle knowledge and are truly helpful. If you can afford to get one, a bike shop bike would be much more practical (and able to actually be repaired) versus a mass-market store bike.
Check to see if there is a consignment shop...
in your area, especially if the children are small, as they outgrow everything so quickly. These are "gently used" clothing at way less than the original price, and are usually listed in the Yellow Pages.
Spi opens shop in Vietnam
The latest newsletter states Spi (formerly Cymed) has opened up shop in Vietnam.  I guess they have run out of shops in India and the Philippines.  I asked a vet if they speak any better English than the other two and he said NO.  I guess I give up on finding a good QA position with headquarters in the good old US of A.
Sweat shop labor
We can all clearly see the run around by various layers of quality control when work goes offshore, and what it really costs. But the thing is that as more and more corporations offshore their products, they are able to skirt strict regulations in the U.S. For instance, as we already see the advantage of India doing transcription while we sleep here in the US, they don't have labor laws as we do. A corporation here in the US dealing with American workers has to deal with lots of regulations such as labor laws, state compensation for injuries for employees, etc. These regulations cost money to the company. In countries like India, China, the Phillipines, there are no labor laws such as in the U.S. If a company says a worker must work 12 hours a day with no benefits or breaks, you can be sure these people will do this, and are sometimes grateful where no job existed before. If working conditions are intolerable, there is no agency that protects the people. You can see how American corporations are motivated to send work offshore and not deal with US regulations and laws that cost the company money. Yes, exploitation at its finest. However, I saw a documentary recently by Lisa Ling on TV where it showed that many women in third world countries are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with working conditions. The documentary followed different women and what they must do to have a job in the city. Many women leave their children far away in another city at home with the grandparents. These women travel and live in the city to work for a few dollars a day. They must work weekends, holidays, and may travel back home once a month to give the money they make to their families. These women were interviewed and were questioning whether having a job far away from a rural town was worth it with no time off for the holidays, and missing their children and families. So you see, these people are getting restless too, and want time off on their holidays and family time just as much as we do. I have no doubt in time there were be a rising in advocacy for labor laws in these countries.
That's ridiculous. You won't shop at Walmart for something that you think you heard
that may or may not be true. You know I'm not a regular Walmart shopper but this is just plain stupid trying to smear a company that employs thousands of older and unfortunate Americans who may not have a job without Walmart. What's your beef with Walmart that you would post junk like this?
Rumor, truth, whatever, I'll still shop
at Wal-Mart because that's where I can afford to go.
Shop for a "USB to game port adapter".
Staples, Radio Shack or Office Max should have them.  ebay should have them.  If not, Google for a seller.
Did anyone watch Frontline last night? I will NEVER shop in Wal-Mart again.
Cheap prices will not mean a thing if the middle class U.S. population is out of work.  I'd rather see my neighbors with a job and pay Target prices
I read in McCalls once that you don't tip for hair if it is owner of shop.
nm
My friends with large families shop at Walmart. I don't. I can't compare
prices or taste. These are not ignorant poor folk who don't know better shopping at Walmart. Walmart has definitely cut into the supermarkets business. Bottom line here folks, people are making Walmart successful and they keep growing. Not for nothing are people shopping at Walmart. They have to be offering something to the shopper.
Any tattoo shop mostly, hot topic, sally's beauty supply...SM

Any place that pierces, head shop, etc. Hope that helps.


Awesome! Here, a local computer repair shop has a similar commercial. Its really funny. nm
xxx
just try to help him be sure its for the right reasons
You have to let kids this age make some decisions, even wrong ones, and live with the consequences. But i would just try to get the dialog going, find out why it isn't 'fun'...personally, i feel if the desire is gone -- he won't play well anyway. Ultimately, his is one decision i'd let him have.
Many many many reasons
Too many to type...just believe me...
My 2 reasons...

I love my husband because:


1.  He's thougtful...calls or emails me several times a day.


2.  After almost 20 years together, he still gives me chills when he walks in the door after work.


There are so many more reasons why, but you said 2...


 


my reasons
1. He knows me better than anyone else on the planet after knowing me for 27 years and being married for 23 and SILL loves and accepts me! :-)

2. I always feel that "everything will work out" if he tells me so.
there are many reasons - sm
I know of two hospitals that had decided to completely outsource their transcription to a well known large national service. Their reason was that they could not find transcriptionists in their area. Two years later, both hospitals let the service go and decided to go back with in house transcription. There were many reasons behind that decision.

I have a friend that works at a hospital in the midwest and says that the outsource service is costing the hospital more than if they had kept their staff. She had said that her hospital is in the process of hiring people to come back to work either at the hospital or, hopefully, at home.

The hospital I worked at could not find transcriptionists in the area, so they decided to outsource as well. Our boss didn't make it a secret that the service was charging them $45,000 MONTH. That was more than if our whole staff was working 10 hours of overtime a week/per transcriptionist. So our boss is looking into hiring transcriptionists that live within a 2 hour driving radius to work from home after a week of training in our hospital and paying for them to stay in a hotel.

Sometimes it is not cost effective to outsource. Sometimes the service is really bad and the hospital does not want to continue to pay for the errors. There could be other reasons, but those are ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
Which, among other reasons, is why I would -
;)
My reasons...
Well, Pattie, I have been doing this for 25 years. I am 50 years old. I am good at it. I want to work at home. I am reluctant to leave my chosen field at this stage in my life.

I could not have predicted, when I obtained my MT training, that this field would take such a nosedive in pay. Obviously I would have chosen another field had I known.

As you get older, you are more reluctant to train in a new field.
My reasons...

for stick with MT and even coming back after a couple of absences:


1. I love the work. It satisfies my need to be in the medical field (quit nursing school way back when - bonehead move on my part!) without having to go back to school or actually deal with people too much.
2. My husband is disabled and my boys are teenagers. If I worked outside the home in another field, I'd be spending everything I made on paying someone to take care of things at home.
3. I really like the company I'm with. Been with 'em now for about 4 years and have loved nearly every minute of it.
4. I'm too old (44) and set in my ways to retrain in a new field and get used to dealing with office politics again.
5. The money that maybe I'm NOT making, I'm also not spending on gas, clothes, lunches, etc. that are part of working outside the home.
6. Did I already say I love the field?


Well, 2 reasons. 3 really.

1)  That seemed to be what everyone was hiring for.


2)  I hoped to make more money that way.


3)  After being an MT for 14+ years, I had a lot of confidence in my abilities as a transcriptionist.  Honestly, I didn't realize how much I didn't know.  I feel like a dang newb again


Several reasons ... sm
1) May be checking to see if you have previous employment history with them under different name.

2) May be doing some type of credit/background check.

reasons
You know I will definitely pass these along. Some people just think you are being racist because you state the obvious and because you show such bitterness towards these people. Look at what they cost our country. Do you know how much crime these people bring here? The diseases? Do some research. They don't have proper vaccines over there. I mean think about it these are poor 3rd word people from an uncililized culture apparently. How can 3rd world culture merge into 1st world culture smoothly. It can't and it won't. They will never smoothly transition to the American culture because they do not want to.
And people can say well what about all the European immigrants many years ago? Well guess what? They wanted to be American so bad that they learned the English language and worked hard. They wanted to be AMERICAN. They did not expect Americans to transition for them they were willing to transition to our culture. These uncivilized vultures basically come here and they come here for one reason only: money and all they can get for nothing. They come here to work but they also abuse our social services to the utmost degree. I have seen on news programs where they will come over here and fly their Mexican flags. And you know how they fly the American flag? Upside down. Oh yes I have seen it on TV. I have seen them trying to burn the American flag. I don't care if it cost a trillion dollars this country needs to send every one of these people back to Mexico. Our country would be a whole lot better for it. We don't need this filth and crime in our nation. We are better than that. I am sorry if this offends some poeple but it is so true and sometimes the truth just hurts. That is what is wrong with our country today. Poeple tiptoe around the truth. Lets dont offend anyone! Well hey I say state the obvious. Tell it like it is.
Reasons

I answered your question above where you posted it as well.  I must have misunderstood your post, as it seemed that you were challenging me.  But, I was just trying to say that I don't want to debate the fact as to whether or not the queue is shuffled, cause I see it happen.  I don't know their reasons, but this new shuffling maneuver only happens on one account that I work on there, and it just began about 5 weeks ago.  It is really difficult for me to get a decent line count now, as all of the reports that I get are laborious since the reports that I find to be easiest are always being shuffled to the bottom of the pool.  I understand that it is not a prison and that my only option is to get out the kitchen if I can't stand the heat.


I would think that those reasons
are given as opposed to unexplained weight loss, disease process, etc. 
Three reasons...
1. It's good for a company to provide upward pathways for their people.

2. Some accounts can be very complex and require the QA to have prior experience with different special worktypes and/or exposure to certain dictators, etc.

3. There are many things you learn about an MT over the course of their employment that you will never learn from interviewing and even testing a new applicant, however experienced they may be. Unfortunately, our litigious society has rendered reference-checking practically useless, and you will never be able to test any applicant across the full range of dictation that you see coming in from your MT's every day.
There could be several reasons.

1.  A lot of companies are hiring and do overhire to get their backlog down.  Once their backlog is caught up, they weed out. They don't have to let people go, they can manipulate their queue until they quit.   And please don't say this isn't true because one of my ex-friends who was a production manager actually told me this.


2.  Benefits are based on production.  If management can hire a lot of people, they can produce a lot for their clients, they still get the same bottom dollar.  Yet, if the queues or servers are controlled, they can avoid overhead on benefits if production quotas are not met. 


3.  Why pay domestic employees 7 or 8 cpl when they can pay offshore MTs 3 or 4 cpl?  They still have the same amount of production and still make the bottom dollar, yet they can control where the reports are going and who is getting them. 


It all comes down to bottom dollar to management and owners.  They can control whatever and whomever to achieve their goals.  Not all companies are like this, but it is becoming more and more common.


Not working out for a lot of reasons...
The platform they have me on is not user-friendly at all.

It seems simple enough. You have to enter the job # and date, and then press enter to get the template to download with the patient's name, etc.

But if the doc hasn't entered the patient ID correctly, you'll have to look it up.

This can take a minute or several minutes, depending on if the patient exists in the system, among other things.

You'll come out ok if the note is long, but they average about 30 seconds.

Also, the doc may not have entered the correct clinic note ID, or the correct dictator ID, so that's another story.

If all goes well, you'll download a template. If there's something typed in the template, you don't get paid for it...but, if the doc makes changes (which of course they do), you have to delete.

I know what I'm capable of doing, but for some reason, I just can't make any lines working for Spheris.

I gave it a shot, but I'm ready to move on...maybe even change careers.
First, be very sure of the reasons that you want to homeschool.

It is tougher beginning at such a late grade, but it can be done.  I started my son in 9th grade 9 years ago, so obviously I know a little bit about it.  I also had a great friend who homeschooled her high school kids, so she could get me started with a lot of support and encouragement.  Be sure you're ready to be with this child 24/7, because that's pretty much how it will feel.  We did have problems with the school but tried every avenue to solve them before saying, "We don't need to put up with this, we do have a choice," when the school counselor said that we didn't have a choice.  They thought they ruled my son's world;  they were WRONG.  I AM HIS PARENT, I believe I do have his best interests in mind when making choices for him.  We are a Christian family, so it was easy to start by investigating Abeka Books for materials;  bear in mind you'll have to buy all your own materials, nobody helps with that.  My son now has his degree and is IT manager at a bank, looking to make VP. 


You'll need to check out the homeschooling laws for your state, they vary.  Just do an internet search for homeschooling laws for your state.  Check around for homeschool groups, there are several out there.  But, the biggest thing is just to make sure that you and your child are committed to working together to do this.  It does take a lot of commitment and communication to do this and do it right.  BEST of luck to you whatever your choice.


So, PFFFT to the person who says kids need to be in school.  I know better and obvious hundreds or thousands of others do too.


QA can be very tedious for these reasons:
1. You get all the garbage someone else either could not or did not take the time to hear and understand.
2. You often have to fix all kinds of little errors that the MT had no idea they even missed.
3. If you also have to provide feedback, then you will type your fingers to the bone.

I decided after 5 years to go back to being just an MT! :-)
I like your idea for 2 reasons
The MT knows what they need to be taught.. and it would give MTs losing jobs to outsourcing something to do!  Great idea!
2 other reasons i've seen are
using the transcription area of the hospital for other things and not having to pay benefits.
There could be any of a number of reasons.
Some physicians have a God complex and freak at the slightest mistake. I have seen that happen many times even if it was something the MT could not control. You should have been given better instructions regarding format, but the powers that be may not have realized you were not. If the physician freaked, the office staff was not going to admit that they did not do their part.
I agree it's one of the reasons
I do this work...hard to get the work done with a baby or preschooler in the house but great once they go to school...no latchkey kid problem.  Now if I only had a separate room for my own office...
What are the reasons you want to do MTing?
NM
No, for all the reasons you mentioned.
for those same reasons, i refuse to be a member, though i too was originally. AKA AAMT is like congress today, self-serving, not representing "the people."
a couple of reasons
Canada has 2.1 physicians and 8.8 nurses for 1000 people in their population. Plus they are paid by the government. Approximately 12% of the Canadian physicians practice in the US because they are compensated better.

This was taken from a publication called "Health Care News."

In recent years, patients treated by the Canadian health care system have increasingly experienced lengthy waits to see providers. Treatment waiting times are now part of the public policy debate on the quality of the Canadian health care system.

In its 16th annual installment, the report titled "Waiting Your Turn" tracks how waiting times vary across Canadian provinces depending on the type of treatment needed. The report also documents waiting times for referral to specialists and the subsequent amount of time spent waiting for actual treatment from the specialist.

"Despite all of the promises made by Canada's provincial and federal governments, and despite the fact that Canadians are spending more on health care than ever before, the total wait time in Canada continues to hover near the 18-week mark as it has since 2003," coauthor Nadeen Esmail said in an interview for this article. "Equally troubling is the reality that the total wait time in 2006 is 91 percent longer than it was in 1993."

These findings should give pause to proponents of universal coverage, who often cite Canada as an example of a country where health care costs less than care in the United States and everyone has free health care at the point of service.

"While many proclaim Canada's Medicare program to be one of the best in the world, or suggest it should be the model for reform in the United States," Esmail said, "the reality is that health spending in Canada outpaces that in most other developed nations that, like Canada, guarantee access to care regardless of ability to pay, and yet access to health care in this country lags that available in most of these other nations."

The average amount of time spent waiting to receive treatment after referral by a general practitioner averaged 17.8 weeks across Canada. At 14.9 weeks, Ontario had the shortest waits. Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick had average waits of 25.8 weeks, 28.5 weeks, and 31.9 weeks, respectively.

Patients referred to a neurosurgeon waited an average of 21 weeks just to see a specialist. Getting treatment required an additional 10.7 weeks.

Patients waited an average of 16.2 weeks to see an orthopedic surgeon, and another 24.2 weeks for treatment to be performed after the initial visit.

The number of people routinely waiting for services is staggering, according to the report. Approximately 1.1 million people had trouble accessing care on a timely basis.
About 201,000 had problems obtaining non-emergency services. An additional 607,000 had problems getting in to see a specialist, and about 301,000 patients experienced problems obtaining diagnostic procedures.
"So much for the myth of government-run health care being compassionate and fair," said David Gratzer, a Canadian doctor and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "Canadians wait and wait and wait."

In Canada, waiting lists are considered a way of rationing medical care and holding down health care spending. Because health care in Canada is largely free at the point of service, demand is likely to exceed supply. In a typical market system, the price would adjust to the point where the quantity of services provided is equal to the amount patients are willing to buy. But in a system devoid of a market mechanism, scarce resources are rationed through means other than price.

"The long waits for needed care in Canada show the danger of abandoning markets in favor of central planning," explained Sean Parnell, vice president of external relations at The Heartland Institute, an Illinois-based think tank. "Just as there were long lines for food and other basic necessities in the old Soviet Union because planners couldn't accurately match supply with demand, the politicians and bureaucrats who run health care in Canada can't provide enough health care to meet the citizens' needs."
"It's like the old Soviet system," Gratzer said. "Everything is free, but nothing is readily available. Except that we're not talking about lining up for toilet paper in Russia in 1976, but queuing for surgery in Canada in 2006."

Economists generally agree such "non-price" rationing of resources is less efficient than a system that uses prices. One reason is that productivity is lost when people are unable to work due to treatment delays. Also, the risk of death while waiting is higher for serious conditions such as cardiac care.

Waiting lists are consequences of the way the Canadian health care system is structured, not a lack of money, critics say.

"The fact that this is the 16th annual report on wait lists for needed care should be enough to prove that the problem isn't a temporary one that can be fixed with just a little more money, as defenders of Canada's government-run system have claimed for years," Parnell said. "Long waits and widespread denial of needed care are a permanent and necessary part of government-run systems," Parnell noted.

According to the study, Canadian provinces with higher spending per capita did not experience shorter wait times than provinces that spent less. In fact, increased spending was associated with longer waits, unless the increased spending was targeted to physicians and pharmaceuticals.

"The current health care model simply does not deliver to Canadians the access to care they should expect for the amount of money their governments are spending," Esmail said.

Oh please! Now its all about the $$ again. He lives in France for several reasons,
the obvious of which is his wife wants to stay in her homeland, and, secondly, he has said that the Parisians treat him like a regular guy - we all know that celebs living in the USA are stalked and their lives are chaotic trying to avoid stalkers, paparazzi, etc. He feels his children are safe there, and they are his #1 priority.  Even a lesser known actor like Gary Oldman, who has NEVER stated anything politically incorrect, had to leave the LA area in the USA because some nut case "fan" keeps threatening to kill his 2 little boys. While Gary Oldman has been quoted as saying he LOVES living in the USA compared to Britain, he's had to return to Europe because the climate for celebreties is not as crazy as it is in the USA.  Its INSANE.  They do live some of the year in the USA by his family, but he has chosen not to disclose the location or times of year. He is like one of the BIGGEST stars in the world right now - and still nuts hate him. Hmm....I saw BOTH interviews, and read the original "USA hatred" article, and he never said that. While eccentric, the man is brilliant - do you think he'd be stupid enough to say he hated the USA?  He NEVER said it, but its just the perfect example of how media manipulates things, and how some of us are naieve enough to believe it.  Boycott him all you want - its your loss, not his!
there are reasons for part timers
I have a medical condition and cannot always do a full two weeks, due to exhaustion and pain from my blood dyscrasia. That is why I am not a full time employee.  I was but had to cut back and when I did MQ canceled my insurance.  I would gladly go back to a hospital and work in-house but the two hospitals out here have outsourced all transcription.  When I did work in-house, I was able to work part time and the hospital offered insurance coverage to part timers.  I only had to pay $70/pay period for insurance.  Im astonished that most trans services will not cover part timers..I cant figure that out.  If the part timer is willing to pay the extra amount, why not?  I also have lost faith in American private insurance, as how can you trust private companies making decisions about whether you can get chemo, MRI's, etc?  Back a few years ago, whatever the doctor said you needed, you got.  Not anymore.  Now American HMOs and insurance companies pay people to check over your medical history and decide whether you can get this or that done.  How can you trust companies when their only concern is profit and making as much for the stockholders as possible.  Give me a universal health plan throughout the country any day.
I always turn mine off - for several reasons...

mainly because my computer guy told me it's better for the machine to cool off (I think of it as "resting").  Also, we have LOTS of thunder storms here, so I completely unplug it, including the DSL phone line and router, as well as the cord to the surge protector.  I've learned surge protectors don't help with near lightning strikes...fried my computer about 3-4 years ago when lightning hit a pole near our house.


As far as the cat hair (4 cats here), I blow out everything every few weeks or so with compressed air.