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With the advent of EMRs that allow you to fill in the blanks for exams, clinic is on its way out...to some extent. It is not as easy to find jobs in clinic work as it was.
Acute care is another matter. You have a couple of regional companies who have shut down their VR departments and let all their MEs (medical editors) go. The company I work for ramped up the use of VR over the spring from about 30% on many accounts to 90% on many accounts...then back down to around 50% of the work on the same accounts. The reason is that MEs DO NOT do a very good job, they edit in every way imaginable other than how they are supposed to do it. You are to listen WORD FOR WORD and edit the text in front of you. The programs are not at the point with accuracy where they need to be. Unless we go to faster computer processors and we have pretty well maxed out the current computer chip technology, and unless or until we can write programs that learn better as they go along, the quality of VR is not going to get much better than it is currently. I don't care what the VR software companies say.
The need for VR is something we have created ourselves, as MTs. There is more and more need for our services every year. The problem is that there are relatively few of us who have the necessary skill sets, who will actually show up to work when we said we would be there and get our minimum lines or better. Most of the platforms out there are NOT conducive to higher levels of production, no matter what recruiters say about them. There are just not enough of us to go around. What else can be done? This business takes years to learn properly and to get to where you make a living with it.
I do QA and I MT. The work I QA from so-called trained graduates of programs is horrendous. Even MTs who seem to have experience are often not much better. They don't care about the quality of their work, only the lines they produce. They either don't know or don't care about their accuracy.
A QA person can help teach an MT...if they even know what they are doing...if they have the time and moreover, if the MT is willing to learn. I am the one who recommends that someone be released from QA and I have input into firing MTs who don't make the grade. It is my call as to whether an MT is willing to learn or if they should be let go. We have a small staff and in the last 6 months, I have recommended that one MT be retained and worked with (it turned out very well) and suggested 4 other MTs for being let go and they all were, because not one of them would take constructive criticism. I have about the driest feedback style I have ever seen because I don't want anyone to feel personally attacked, but they still would not listen.
My biggest gripe about MT training right now, since I have your ear, is that no one is trained to use an expander! If you want to see less VR you have to see bigger production numbers with traditional MTs. An Expander is the only way to do that. It is critical to making a decent income sooner, critical to accuracy, critical to job satisfaction and therefore critical to this industry. The best way would be to teach by system (body system and specialty) and include expansions for that system while you are at it. |
I'll give you sm - My opinion
