A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Cant Seem To Make A Living - Tenyeartypist

Posted: Feb 22, 2010

I have worked as a radiology transcriptionist for over ten years . My pay has been cut in half and jobs are hard to find. I take tests and no one calls back. I usually only have their email anyway. I am now learning acute care because it seems for last few years it has been the only game in town. However, I cannot believe how hard it is and I am getting paid the same as radiology. It's becoming impossible to afford to live on this income, but I dont want to have to get a job outside the home, because I still have school age children at home and I would not be able to make any more money. I used to work 6 hours a day and have more free time and money. Now I feel very defeated and am getting older to where I cannot easily re-invent myself and jump into the job market anyway. Okay, well, just had to put in out there . Thanks for listening.

Perspective - BTDT

[ In Reply To ..]
If you can't make any MORE money out of the house, then you are still at an advantage. Our salaries have steadily decreased since around 2001 or so. Healthcare in this country is expensive and cuts have to be made somewhere. We're the "somewhere."

You could consider taking kids in to babysit yourself or be creative with other ways to make extra money.

I know you feel defeated but you're never too old to "reinvent" yourself. Sometimes it takes a huge push like waving goodbye to your salary :(

I understand - TiredMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I totally understand where you are coming from. I'm in the same boat. I'm working more hours for less money and have a school age child at home so I'm looking for other legitimate ways to make money from home, like something in direct sales and eventually real estate (when the market improves). Good luck.

same thing here - bapinmich

[ In Reply To ..]
I feel your frustration, same in acute care, cant find anything over 9 cpl IC status with over 10 years experience. I have changed jobs 3 times in 4 months. Was with the same company for 8 years and phased out due to hospital cut backs and them taking all the work in-house. Starting yet another new job tomorrow that is full of promises of guaranteed work, $$ to be made..we will see. Good luck to you.

I too am a Radiology transcriptionist - tiredoftyping

[ In Reply To ..]
and have been for 20 years and am finding that I have to learn acute care in order to make a living,to supplement my radiology work, because there just doesn't seem to be enough work anymore. I am constantly running out of work on my account and they can't seem to find any more Rad accounts to take on. Would like to tell you a happy story but there just isn't one. I know learning acute care is hard, but if you want to stay in the field and you have a company willing to teach you acute care (because not all of them will) take advantage of that and stick with it. At least you will have that to fall back on.

I cannot see the point in learning acute care now - 3rd rad transcriptionist

[ In Reply To ..]
It sounds like most acute care transcriptionists are as miserable as any MT - they can't get hired or get hired to no work jobs too, and are also being offered less and less money and replaced by VR. I really can't justify going to the effort of learning acute care when I know that the grass is no greener there! Why beat a dead horse? If I go to the effort and expense to retrain, wouldn't it make more sense to pick a different field entirely - one that isn't dying, isn't cutting wages, gives raises and treats its workers like people with value?

DOESN'T OUR KNOWLEDGE ACCOUNT FOR ANYTHING? - glitrgrammi

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been an MT for 26 years. My wages have gone from 55,000 with benefits down to 28-33,000 a year and having to meet a quota to KEEP benefits, and they keep running out of work. How fair is that! I work 50-60 hours a week and still can barely meet the quota for benefits. If I were younger (I'm almost 60) I definitely would go to school to do something else.

Good luck to all ;-)

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