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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

because it still takes too much time to train

Posted By: Plus on 2006-09-12
In Reply to: I have asked for unpaid internships - OP

it may be that they don't see potential in your work, i.e. poor grammar, accounts have too much ESL, etc.


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Maybe they will. Give it time. It takes time to set up links.
OSI, Precyse, etc tell us more.
Yes, you can train as an MT and only work part time. sm
But the training period on average is 2-4 years, depending on how you go about it and what you want to do. If you have excellent spelling, grammar and listening skills, you have a chance. In order to do acute-care work, you would probably be wisest to train through one of the on-line schools recommended by AAMT (whatever the initials), since they are recognized by the national companies and you can get a job, if your grades are good.

If you just want to try for a clinic job and you have some background in medical terminology, you MIGHT find someone willing to work with you as a trainee, but that is difficult.

Any way you look at it, it will be several years before you can expect much if any income. In my experience, most MTs make between $12-$20 an hour, depending on their speed and luck finding the right job, and years of training.
It takes time
It probably seems like it is not worth it because you are new.  No other account will be easier and probably harder.  So you have to stick with it, get a good Expander as since you have the same doctor you should only be actually typing about 2/3 of what he says and probably more like 50%.  Use your autocorrect if you don't have an expander.   You don't say how long are your lines -- what side margins and what font are you using?   I have helped get newbies started and always paid between 7 and 9 depending on how much clean up work I had to do.  Again, it will take time and practice.  Don't give up.  Though 6 cpl is a little low, if it is still  65 character line, in time you should be able to get 200 to 300 lines per hour which is not bad and once you get him down good, ask for a raise.  But you have to get your speed up.  You have an advantage of having the same doctor and so listen for his common phrases and put them at least into autocorrect so you don't have to retype them.  If he doesd any x-rays or procedures, make templates.  Anything to save him time.  His exams, put into autocorrect, etc.   Are you an IC or an employee???   Good luck. 
IT TAKES TIME to get a trial going.

Here is a link regarding the lawsuit from FEBRUARY, 2005 for which you will need Acrobat reader.


http://deflaw.com/medquist_add.pdf


Here is MQ e-mail which was followed up by hard copy in US mail regarding MT lawsuit. 


July 14, 2005



VIA Electronic and U.S. Mail



Dear Statutory Medical Transcriptionists:



We would like to thank you for your continued service and support. We know that the key to our success is the people who work so hard for our customers everyday.



At MedQuist, we are determined to become the medical transcription provider of choice for statutory employees. Over the past several months, with your help and input, we have been working on developing a pay plan and comprehensive benefit program that will enable us to set the standard in the industry. We recently announced significant changes to our benefits program for full time employee transcriptionists and within the next few months, MedQuist will be announcing a new pay plan that will address the feedback we received from medical transcriptionists in response to our survey on pay issues.



As you may also know, MedQuist is currently responding to a lawsuit brought by three medical transcriptionists that was filed in response to certain publicity surrounding MedQuist's billing practices involving the AAMT billing unit of measure. MedQuist takes all allegations concerning its pay practices very seriously and will seek to address any concerns raised by the lawsuit. While we believe that the claims raised by the three transcriptionists appear to lack merit, we are diligently working on addressing this matter in order to best serve all of our valued medical transcriptionists.



To enable us to fully and appropriately respond to this, as well as other lawsuits currently pending against the company and governmental investigations, our lawyers from Winston & Strawn are required to collect documents. To ensure that you are completely informed about the materials they are seeking, we have attached a memorandum below regarding MedQuist's document retention and collections policy. Please review this document as soon as possible.



Once again, we would like to express our deep appreciation for your continued patience, cooperation and service to the company.
















Very truly yours,


Frank Lavelle


President



Enclosure


 


The lawsuit is VERY MUCH ALIVE AND WELL and as some of the more sophisticated posters realize, it takes time for DISCOVERY allowing both sides to attack and defend their position.  And MQ stock is STILL delisted as not even MQ can figure out cooked books based on illegal billing for which ANOTHER lawsuit is STILL pending against MQ by the clients.  And as the MQ stock remains delisted for cooked books and illegal billing the shareholders in MQ stock have YET ANOTHER lawsuit still pending. 


 


I agree with you. It takes time to get the

kind of help in there. They have one road open. Everything is flooded. There is no airport to land at. Gas is scarce. 90% of the gas that came from that area is no longer functioning. Cars are being stolen from places just to get out. Thugs are shooting at helicopters trying to evacuate critically ill patients. You've got groups of thugs shooting everything up and steeling anything and everything, but they don't realize mostly everything they take will have to be left behind.  Everyone wants help now but it takes time to put together a plan of these proportions. Nobody was prepared for this because they didn't think it would happen. You have people commandering vehicles with guns for their own use that are being brought in to help evacuate. The only boats you see are very small ones because the big ones can't come in and work. The water is not deep enough.


 A lot of people stuck there are making the situation worse for everyone else because they are helping to put off rescues that can happen by shooting at vehicles, shooting at police officers, setting intentional fires just to get the police over to the fire so they don't come chase them for looting or terrorizing others. You have idiots walking around with AK-47s down Canal Street.


Shephard Smith described itbest the other day. Made me think too since I live in Fla. The day after a hurricane you hear chain saws going, you have people cleaning up, you get out there and assess the damage. They could not do that because for them in NO it was not over. The floods were getting worse and rising. There were no people assessing damage, no chain saws cutting down trees, no power trucks checking out downed power lines just because they couldn't get into the city. Everything is blocked. The closest city to them that has power is 90 miles away. That means no gas for them. Yes, they're bringing buses and stuff but it's very slow going. Trying to figure out how to do everything and coordinate everything w/o communication to others is very hard.


One of the guys in the news conferences said yesterday that he spent 18 months at ground zero. They are looking at being in NO much longer because that is much more damage than what he saw at ground zero.


I do it the same as you...takes a little bit of time but worth it. nm
t
Honestly, it takes time.
It took me almost 6 months to completely adjust to 3rd shift.  I have been on 3rd shift now for 7 years and could not imagine ever working any other shift.  Just a few suggestions that took me a bit to figure out.  Call your family and friends and tell them not to call you during the daytime.  If you have a cell phone, use that as an emergency number for emergencies only, i.e. kids, family, etc.  Turn off the ringer on the home phone completely or turn on music and a fan or whatever to drown out the noise.  Room darkening blinds will also help filter out the light.  Good luck.
Time it takes to type...
Approximately how long does it take to type, say, 5 minutes of dictation?  Or 10, or whatever?  Just trying to get a feel for if I'm in the ballpark.  Thanks!
It takes a lonnngggg time to get paid.

You get paid for work you did a month ago.  Paychecks were short.  No answer when questioned about how they arrived at their line counts.  Advertise holiday bonus and $1500 bonus for acute care - do not know of anyone who got one.  Probably just management cronies.  They have great accounts but it is difficult to get lines.  All the work is straight type with lots of looking up because they have teaching facility accounts, so it is difficult to set up templates.  All the better work I am sure goes to preferred MTs or farmed out elsewhere.  The platform is not transcription friendly, lots of looking up and spreadsheets, and they do not pay for headers and footers.  They also micro management big time. 


You have no idea how much time it takes to run this board! (SM)
Hindsight is always clearer!

You are right - they will get the message sooner or later!

Goldbird
time it takes to hear back

General question for you all. I recently applied with a company that took a month getting me through their hiring process only to be told that one of their accounts dropped them so they could not hire any more MTs. Now I've applied somewhere else and interviewed, a company that sounds like a great company, but it's been about 7 days since the interview and have yet to hear back. I interviewed with them last Wednesday and was told that I would hear back one way or another by the end of last week. I sent a follow up email yesterday and have not heard anything. How long do these companies typically make you wait before hearing something back? How long before I should give up and apply somewhere else? Thanks.


You don't want to record, takes a long time and unless you

are making big $$ you won't make any money.  Also, if you forget to rerecord header info you're out of luck.


You can get an adapter from Radio Shack for about $15 and rerecord to a cassette player, in which case you'll need a transcriber, or record to your computer and I'm not sure how that is done.


As I stated last week when you asked this question, you need to look into digital phone service, something like Vonage, or most high-speed internet services also offer it. 


You could also buy prepaid phone cards at Sam's Club, where they are fairly cheap, but you're still talking about $100+/mo.   My digital phone is $34.95/month and you can keep your landline or switch it to digital, which is what I did. 


 


 


No, not really. Do you realize how much time feedback takes. nm
x
It takes a long time to become familiar with
all of the surgical instruments and equipment in operative reports. Most of the time if you do operative reports you usually do all specialties, and each specialty has certain equipment that they use. It just takes time to learn.
Oh it is a lot of extra typing that takes time which I don't get paid for! nm
nm
In the time it takes her to ask you if it's urgent, she could have just answered your question! n
x
Do you ever feel as though this job takes over your life and you have to work all the time in case
there wont be work and you just keeping working and you cant get away from it and it gets to be no fun anymore. I am having a problem with that. Is it from working at home or just getting obsessed or what. I hate this. I feel like I am losing my life to it.
Tell him you have reviewed the time and expertise it takes to do his work, versus ... - sm
... the amount of revenue his practice generates, and being a prudent businessperson you don't wish to undervalue your services.
And then sometimes they want us to delete unused headers, which takes extra time, which we don't
X
The FUNNY thing is that in the amount of time it takes for them to post a message
x
SO the little one takes up your time yet you have time?
LOL
They train online, right? That means they train
x
Agree! I hate Daylight Savings Time. It takes me a good two weeks
to get myself and everybody in the household adjusted to the time change every six months. If the farmers need to get up earlier, let 'em! That doesn't mean I should have to, also! DST has definitely outlived its usefulness. I stay up later and get up earlier in the summer, but go to bed earlier and sleep later in the winter. It's like my mind and body are tied to the sun, not the clock. I never got an extra hour of sleep last night anyways because the neighbor's stupid dog barked from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.
train

I have done "Chicago" on the train.  From here, MS, its an all night ride but has sleeper cars.  Nothing interesting to see on the way.  But as corny as it sounds, Chicago is a great place to visit.  Zillions of Museums, fountains, outdoor art, great music, great transit system, ghettos, SUUPPPER shopping, fantastic restaurants........We did they family thing when I was 9, 11, 12, 14 and I did it bymyself when I was 21 going into my senion year of college.  Coming back with on the train with the college crew was a hoot.  Spirit of New Orleans is pretty cool, however, N/O is really not children friendly - a lot to see and do in the daytime, but the kiddies need to be in by dark.....AhhhheeeeeeeO TA


To train VR

That is pretty scary.  I have been curious about VR - wondering how it really works.  If the doctor is doing the dictating, how can the Transcriptionist ever get it really trained? Doesn't the doctor actually have to train the program?  I do one doctor as a side line from my full-time transcription job and was wondering if that is something I would want to use for his work.  When I saw Dragon Program at Best Buy, the box said it would type it at about 160 lph.  Is that true?  If so, not so hot as I type faster than that.  However, in the future, I may want to save my arms/carpals and use it.  So am curious to know more from someone who has used the programs.  If adviseable, what programs are the best ones?


TIA


about to train soon
so I don't know any hot keys for this program yet, I worked on Meditech before this and DocQScribe before that. I'll give it a little while to get it down, hopefully it won't take that long
Had to train my male (sm)
Started by keeping the box really clean with that nice scooping sand that they like. Then I would walk over to the box and say, here kitty, and invite him to go in.
After his pee pee in the box, he gets a treat!
We still have an occasional problem, but only when the box is dirty. The pee pee in the corner means he doesn't like that dirty box!

Been married 29 yrs, get more now than ever but I say it took me 18 yrs to train to where he knows
:O
I know they are in NJ. You have to train for a long
times - weeks?? - in the office. They have super long testing, and I remember one person, the owner, I believe, was very nice to deal with, while the testing person was horrible. In this day and age, I certainly don't have time to drive 4 hours round trip for a week or 2 to train! Told them "no thanks"!!
WOW, look at your train of thought. All sm
evil wrongdoers ----------------- right? Why don't you throw in the adulter, the priest pedophile ---------- and the bigamist, the serial killer. Do you know any gays? I would hazard a guess and say no. I hope I am wrong. But then again you probably know some and just don't KNOW that they are gay-they are too busy HIDING from judgemental dogoders like yourself who demand gays live the lie to suit the society that worships the almighty dollar and war instead of each other. Are you against violence films depicting killing or only films which depicting loving individuals and their problems? Please respond, I am really interested in this. I used to think like you a lifetime ago but having a gay relative opened my eyes to a lot of stuff hopefully you will never see-having a loved one lie for 25 years about who he really is and die from a horrid disease alone because people couldn't handle the truth. A death most robber, thieves, serial killers and rapists deserve but don't get as they get fat in prison on my money.
Again, its because you did not properly train him!!
nm
Train in one day the Dr. Phil way.
http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/264
Thomas the train is there sometimes too
We went a couple of years back and my 4 yo loved it! 
The best husband is the one YOU train!
x
There were train bombings in
and I do not feel India is secure at all, let alone for medical records.  But I have noticed a lot of bashing of American MTs here lately.  I don't understand why.  Just because one MT is not reliable, that doesn't mean we all are.  It just seems to be the thing to do.  Also, it said as low as 9 CPL.  Well I would transcribe for and do at 9 cpl with over 20 years experience.  We are not necessarily more expensive, just the service overhead jacks up the price so much for their big CEO salaries and benefits, they don't want to pay the MT much.
Why are companies willing to train
offshore MTs but refuse to hire American entry level/new grad MTs?

Hold the train, here!
You actually feel justified to stoop to this level of vile hatred against Tinks personally?

Not nice, not nice at all.
Don't have to train them - they've already taken it
Editing their work is nothing like transcribing it from scratch. I just do the bare bones basics (look up patient info, correct obvious grammar errors, spell check, etc.). I work for a large department in a large medical college, and if they don't care, why should I? I'm in it for the 26+ years of benefits I've accrued, and I'm not leaving until they force me out. On the other hand, I have a second part-time REAL transcription job that keeps me very happy. It doesn't pay nearly as well, but I get a huge amount of satisfaction from this job.
Working? Where did you train?

I'll be training with CS through EvCC.  Just wondered where everyone trained and if your working.


Thanks so much!


Christy


1. Train at home. 2. I don't do that.

3. Wonderful.


4. Yes.


5. Yes.


6. Sometimes.


7. Yes


8. Yes.


9. Yes


Contact through the board only, please. 


It is much easier to train a new QA
to break the bad habits of an old QA that believes they are infallible.
Gravy train?

I wouldn't call it ever being a gravy train.  We are highly trained professionals who work hard at what we do and we do it darn good, thank you very much.  It's not like we sat here eating our bon bons and getting upset because the banging away at the keyboard ruined our new manicure!  To say it was a gravy train is downright insulting, IMO. 


That said, I don't have 30+ years in this profession but I do have 15+ years including working in-house and remotely from home.  My first at-home was around 1997 for a small company doing straight transcription, none of this VR stuff, which lasted only about 4 months until the work dried up.  The pay was good while it lasted though and there was 24 TAT, no punching a time clock and sticking to a strict schedule. As long as the work got down within 24 hours it was fine.  That same company is still around today as a national but not huge like others out there.  I ended up having to go back in-house and was there until about 4 years ago when I signed on with a very well known national that screws people to the Q, if you get my drift.  I don't know when the MT biz as a whole went into the toilet, but up until 2 years ago I had no problem.  I was working hard all the time as work was available basically 24/7.  Never did I get NJA except for an occasional week or two around the holidays but very quickly the workload would start to pick up.  I had a GREAT supervisor who made working fun and made us feel like we were a real team.  The company always had bonus incentives with quirky little games.  It may sound corny but it actually made us feel valued and brought some fun into it while making good money at the same time.  Then about 2 years ago, things started changing for the worst and it's been going downhill FAST every since.  Maybe the offshoring and technological advances have something to do with it, I really don't know.  One thing I do know, I DO NOT advise anybody new starting in this profession now.  What once was a professional and lucrative career has basically been made into a sweat shop scam for the so called "training programs" and large nationals to make a nice profit at the expense of the MTs.  It is such a cut throat business with accounts going to the lowest bidder just to save a few bucks.  I only hope that things will turn around some day soon and MT can be the professional career it once used to be.


Please don't say it was a gravy train.  Thank you.


just cuz the crazy train always stops at your
now pick a personality already and stick with it.  Maybe up the meds or take a nap or something.
Train? you really think those folks get your feedback?
x
probably train MDs in private practice to use VR
(only kidding)


Anybody else have what I call Freight Train Flu?

I call it  FTF (Freight Train Flu) because it hits you all of a sudden like a Freight Train. Not to worry it's definitely an "Express."  Whew!


It's intestinel. I started feeling really tired and just plain yucky at 4:00 p..m. yesterday.I'm thinking "okay, Christmas stress, right?"  By 5:00 my temp was 101. Chills fever, stomach cramps, aches and pains. 


The good news is, I put myself to bed at 5:00 p.m. and though I was a little wobbly this morning, I'm feeling almost normal. I managed to work my shift and I'm headed out for the old "last minute" items.


Choo choo.


28 years - OJT. That was the only way to train way back then. nm
x
Are there any other companies that will train on Escription? (sm)
Thank you for your information.  If there are any other companies that are willing to train a "very seasoned" Transcriptionist on the Escription platform please let us know!
your mentor was paid to train, im not
so there

how much work do you do for free?
Im sure you are a peach to edit but I don't train, sorry
Im sure you are a peach
I had to train hubby 1st that working FT is (sm)

working FT, even when at home, so just like we balance household chores when I'm out working FT, we do when I'm working at home, too.  Not saying it's 50/50 -- ooh!, not at all - but I refuse to be a superwoman just a super woman!   Then I had to train all of our friends and family.  Took 'em a while to get it, but once I stopped answering my phones and knocks on the door, they got it.  And didn't lose any friends in the process.  Just explained it later...nothing personal, etc. 


Also, I keep the home office door closed when anyone is visiting during my work time and even when hubby is home; with his job, he is home between service call to local customers.  Love that he comes home during the day, but really puts me behind some time.  This is not as much of a problem with me working 3rd shift, but still a balancing act.  How can I shut up a hubby that wants to talk about his day and cook  


We don't have any kids (yet), but lots of family and close friends in the neighborhood.  I started working 3rd shift, and put of a sign that says, basically, Day Sleeper, and unless you have an appointment, don't knock or ring the doorbell, have a great day!  Also, I learned how to say no, no, no, and delegate.  I follow a fairly strict schedule, to allow for social time, etc.  So far, so good. 


BTW, at one point hubby big-time slacked off on his part of the house work (vacuuming, mopping hardwood floors, and dishes [we have a dishwasher]), so I hired a housekeeper and told him I would take it out of his part of the spending money.  Not much $ because our house if fairly small, but still $  Needless to say, Ms. Housekeeper was disappointed when I didn't call her back.