More silly union talk - no1joe

Before responding, please read this post carefully. Yes, I’m talking union here, but NOT an MT union which would be pointless. Unfortunately we’ve missed that opportunity. Also, this post is intended for experienced professional MTs and include my thoughts on several topics that started down below. And hold onto your hats; this is a long one.

I’ve chimed in on this subject before, but I wanted to make an official post to put it out there and get valuable feedback from my colleagues (and when I say valuable I mean carefully thought-out opinions on the subject whether or not you agree with my POV). I will use this information as part of my decision-making process as to whether or not I am going to dedicate the next several years of my life going back to school and be thrown out into the real world in my 40s to pursue a new career. I really don’t want to be a broke student and most likely lose most of what I still own in the process (umm…. I already went to school when the time was appropriate out of high school), but this MT ship is sinking FAST. However, IMO, I see a potential life boat that could possibly help save the career that I actually enjoy doing and that I am extremely good at (and paid lots of money to learn how to do several years ago).

Let’s face facts. The “golden years” of MT are OVER, done, bye-bye. Take a moment, mourn the loss, take a deep breath, and accept it (I‘m not going to get into the specifics. We all know why with all the offshoring, VR, and such). Let’s regroup and take a look at what we’re left with. What do we have to offer?

1. We are fluent English-speaking individuals. Won’t find this offshore.

2. We have excellent grammar skills (or well above average to say the least) and adhere to a standard that takes years to memorize so you don‘t have to stop to reference a book. Won’t find this offshore or with new MTs.

3. We have extensive knowledge of medical terminology. We’ve been there, done that, and have this knowledge based on years of experience that can only be gained by being in the field (and even worse being in the cesspool of the field where you never know what you’re going to come across). Won’t find this with new MTs or with some offshore.

4. If we don’t know it, we know how to find it QUICKLY! Won’t find this with newbs.

Now, the way the MT field is or is quickly heading, we have offshore/newbies producing junk, and we also have VR producing junk (I will address front-end later). Some of this junk doesn’t even make sense! We’ve seen examples of it. Companies cannot provide a final product that is so botched up that it’s shameful even if the savings for the client are astronomical (and if they keep doing this, clients might as well go to front end… MTSOs know this). Therefore, what is going to be in demand? Skilled medical editors (fluent English speakers with excellent grammar skills and extensive medical terminology experience who know the BOS like the back of their hand and how to research effectively). Hello…. THAT’S US! Let offshore, the new, and the robots have the transcription end of it… let us fix it and pay us reasonably to do it!

Now, on the editing side of things, I believe most of us were “tricked,” for lack of a better word, into accepting editing positions when they were first coming around. How many of us heard the good old “Yes, you’ll be taking a line rate cut, but you’ll be able to increase your productivity so much that you’ll be making more!”? Well, it worked, and most of us are now sitting and making peanuts fixing reports full of mistakes produced by VR. If we knew how bad this was going to be, would we have accepted such miserable line compensation to do it? Now we’re stuck because this low line rate has become the standard offer. We need to - ACROSS THE BOARD - start demanding more money for medical editing. Bottom line: We deserve to be making more money for the skills we have - the skills the companies need. If this means that the going rate for medical documentation is going to increase to the client… fine. (Believe me, the client will find a way to fit it in the budget… even if that means ultimately raising costs to the patient, and although I feel that patient care is a priority, we are NOT volunteers). If this means that the MTSOs will start skimming from other areas to make up the difference… fine. I don’t care where it comes from. It needs to come from somewhere.

Now… I know what some of you are thinking: “This will just push everything to front-end!” Really? Think about it. Do you know any doctor, PA, nurse practitioner, etc., who enjoys having to dedicate hours of their day to dictate? Now they have to dictate and edit? I don’t see that going over very well. How about some of those accents? I don’t see the potential overtime being paid out by the facility to have someone qualified to dictate the report and edit it at the same time going over very well either. This is just my crystal ball here, and I would really like to know your thoughts on this. The way I see it, front-end is our biggest threat here. However, with the mentality of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” guess who just became our BFFs… the MTSOs. They are the last ones who want to see facilities go front end. If they keep charging facilities $$ for junk, facilities might as well go front-end and leave the MTSO behind. If they don’t have us to fix the junk, what do they have to offer the client? With that being said, we have leverage at this point. If we all walked if they weren‘t willing to work with us, what would they do? Now, here’s the biggie: Would you be willing to collectively walk to ensure decent compensation as a medical editor? I would. Unfortunately, I don’t think that I would get the same answer from many out there.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I really look forward to hearing your opinions. I wish I was a better organizer and could get the ball rolling on something to make things better for everyone and make this a wonderful career as it was a few years ago. Unfortunately, I am not. However, at this point, even though there would be a lot of kinks to work out if an ME union were to ever be formed (please comment on them), I would be the first in line to stand by it… even if it failed. At least I would fail with some pride left.