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Info on Acusis - jt

Posted: Feb 12, 2010

Can anyone give me any information at all on the company Acusis, good, bad, whatever. I would appreciate any information I can get.

Acusis - Nick

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When a good friend and I both left MQ at the same time, she went with Acusis and I went with a smaller company. She was a very experienced MT, really knew her stuff, but she couldn't make much money at Acusis and came to really hate it. I realize that this is secondhand info and each person is different, but I was surprised. I do not think I would ever want to work for them, but other folks may think they are fine.

scroll down to 02-04-2010 - someone else asked recently - see inside . . - betty

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also if you do a "search archives" on company board there are several comments there - there are some who disllike them and some who are happy there. Not much different from other MTSOs.

Transcription software a disaster. - s/msg

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Acusis is just your typical, cookie-cutter giant MTSO that offshores most of its work to India. Some good things about it are pay is on time (auto-deposit), supervisors are approachable and friendly. They don't seem to run out of work as often as other companies do. But most of it is fairly difficult transcription. Interesting work, but no way are you going to be able to cruise through it and rack up the lines.

Bad things: QA is the most anal and nitpicky on earth. There is NO pleasing them, and long ago I gave up trying.

The software started out okay. But with each passing year/month/week (choose one!), it has had more and more s___ added to it that makes the report typing process slower and slower. Your screen will freeze repeatedly during the day, necessitating logging completely out of the system and then back on again to try to jumpstart it. You'll spend more time logging in and out than you do actually typing. Demographics are a nightmare, and small print makes it difficult to read. MD lists and account instructions are often not up to date, and are long, rambling and disorganized.

I cannot find those comments. Why were they deleted? - ?

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nm

Check company archives - RLee

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I just checked out archives for "company" board for Jan - there is a lot of info posted there.

test: and on top of it, their testing audios are timed - acusis

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One is only allowed to log in once, so it is not possible to type it in Word and then copy/paste it back in. It has to be typed in their specific software platform, using a USB pedal. Since I have a serial port foot pedal and no adapter, I just logged out.

Testing for Acusis - RLee

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You are allowed to login only once, but you can type in Word and then copy and paste your document into their program. I know this as a few weeks ago I did a test for them. As far as the timed audio test - it gives you 2 1/2 hours to complete it. In my case there were only 3 audio files and the time allotted was more than enough. The test only involved the audio portion and the testing site is very user friendly. Good Luck.

if you log out to type the test in Word, - smsg

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then you cannot log in again. You have to ask for a new password, and this would rather look suspicious.

If they give 2-1/2 hours for transcribing the audios, why do they time it at all?
This scares away a lot of people since they do not say how much time is given. Not a smart move form Acusis' side.
Also, I could not slow down the dictation, the bottons assigned for it did not work and neither did the 3 assigned hot keys.

typing in word - RLee

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I typed my test in Word and then copied and pasted info into the Acusis site. I did not have to login or log out. In fact, in their directions it encouraged testing to be done that way because in their program there is no way to spellcheck, but they also stated they were not testing for spellling - which I thought was weird. I do not know why it is a timed test as well because they do give you more than enough time to complete it, and it makes you ANXIOUS before you even start testing knowing you are being timed. I had no problems completing the testing or any problems with the audio functions; however,I did not use the hot keys.

true, I found it equally weird that they stated that they - me again

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do not grade the spelling, isn't this strange, whereas correct spelling is the most important aspect in MTing.
It might be a "trap?"

Thanks for all our input, maybe I buy an adapter and try again!

They mustve meant spelling of NAMES, because their - QA goes into apoplexy if you put a -sm

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punctuation mark in what they deem to be the incorrect place. (On that particular day. It changes back and forth constantly. Whether or not something is correct depends on who QA's it.)

It used to be more tester-friendly. You could take - all the time you needed, and since -sm

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the files had no info. on them, they were emailed when completed. The focus was on knowledge, and ability to research rather than just speed. Which was a good thing, because the 5 files I tested on were long, extremely technical, and took tons of research to complete. My 1-year-old (at the time) reference books were already out of date for lots of the newer terms their teaching hospital accounts have, so thank goodness we have the internet to aid in researching terms.

At the time I took the test (years ago) I had no foot pedal yet, and using the keyboard to start and stop also slowed me down. Each report I typed for the test was long, about 15 to 30 minutes of dictation. As I recall, I spent the better part of an entire night on that test, and didn't turn it in until the next morning.

Even once you've settled in with a company, you know that when you get a new account, there's a learning process, and even the good dictators say things that you have trouble understanding. Each hospital seems to develop its own jargon and dictating style. So believe it isn't very fair to time a difficult transcription test like that. Two and a half hours just ISN'T enough time. If it must timed, if they're still sending multiple, long files for the test, the time should be closer to 5 hours.

You're right. It's not a smart move on their part. But it's only one of many dumb moves they've made lately, believe me.

Audio testing - RLee

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Maybe their system had a malfunction when I tested - lol - I only had 3 audio files and they were only about 5 minute dictations and had 2 1/2 hours to do them in - which was ample time - and the dictators were surprisingly clear except on the last audio, which I found difficult due to no experience in that speciality and quality of that particular audio.

One of those five I did was an extremely fast talker, - and I had no speed-control! sm

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I had to back up so many times to get that report finished! It was really shaking my confidence, too, even though I had years and years of experience.

The difficulty of these MT tests often far exceeds what they're paying their MTs. You end up typing a report that most nurses and even some doctors probably couldn't transcribe (difficult teaching hospital files), and then they want to pay you 8-8.5 cpl. When I started there they paid more, but then of course they hacked a big chunk out of our pay. It seems like Acusis aspires to be another Medquist.

sorry, I agree with this comment... - timed

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One of those five I did was an extremely fast talker, - and I had no speed-control! sm (Views: 6, 2010-02-14, 2:27 pm)

typing in Word - Why in the heck

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would you need to log out to type in Word? Just minimize it. I tested with them in November, and I believe I typed in their platform and then copied it into Word to spellcheck it. They weren't very long dictations, so the time limit was no problem.

Can't remember what I did with the foot pedal issue...usually I can find a way to use my pedal and Express Scribe, by downloading the audio file to my desktop.

reply to "why in the heck"...see inside - timed

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I want to explain to you why I tried to type the test in Word:

Not because I need spellcheck, but because they only said that the audio transcription is timed, but they did not say how much time was given. They mentioned that when the "time was out," the screen will go blank and the lines that were transcribed would be counted.
IMO a very annoying way to test.

My goal of typing in Word was to avoid the test to be timed. I explained already all the difficulties I had with the password: It is useless if I minimize their testing site, since it would be the same, their clock would be ticking.

But, as I already explained, I could not log in and out - to avoid the test being timed - since I could only log in once, and not back in with the same password.

I could not use my serial com foot pedal, the F-keys did not work, and I could not slow down the audio with the given minus and plus buttons.

It would be very helpful if people read the comments entirely before replying with "why in the heck" and similar patronizing remarks.

yes, I agree with your comment... - timed

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nm

Why in the heck... - I was not trying

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to be condescending, but I can see how it might have come across that way. Unless I am mistaken, you didn't explain that you were trying to avoid being timed by typing in Word, so the fact that I read your entire post didn't make any difference. I assumed it must have been for the spellcheck/familiarity aspect of using Word versus their platform.

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