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

Please talk me down from self-destruction - me

Posted: Apr 28, 2011

To make a long story short, I don't agree with QA scores I was given at my job. I received an e-mail about it and need to reply nicely and suck it up, not unleash and possibly get fired. lol. I have to keep this job and need the money. Please talk me down.

It's sad how medical transcription companies expect you to be 100% perfect. It seems like the MT is always wrong. Not QA, not the supervisors, not the presidents of the company. Whenever things go wrong, the MT always gets the blame. And we're never given room to make mistakes in whatever we do. And we make the least amonut of money out of anyone in the company too.

these are medical-legal documents, and patient's lives is a wrong dose is given. - errors need to be called out IMHO. George

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has to be help to a minimum, surely you can understand that. And QA is another way to get it to a minimum.

part of the territory.

exactly - noni

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We all need those quality coaches to keep us humble. Who knows how many patients' lives I've negatively affected by typing Ms. Jones instead of Ms Jones. Oh, and how many "readers" of reports have looked at a report and asked themselves, "Did she mean a small disease of a vessel or a disease of a small vessel" because I left the hyphen out? Yep, have to stay on our toes.

This IS just that kind of fussy work. Within our limitations, - our job is to provide another safety net. NM

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x

Noni...You hit the nail on the head....Thumbs up. (NM) - MT 44

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nm

If our job means life-and-death to a patient, then - why are we paid & treated like less-than-nothing?

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They can't have it both ways. They want 99-100% scores on QA. 24-7 MT availability. Medical knowledge that many doctors & nurses must have, and English & word-processing knowledge that most nurses & doctors DON'T have. They want "certification" (albeit bogus, but whatever), they want us to be able to just sit down and do their toughest accounts without so much as a single blank, or one report out of TAT, but then of course, they also want us to have all those attributes, and MORE, and basically GIVE it to them for 7 or 8 cpl. What is wrong with this picture?

because they keep bidding lower to get the client to sign up. - hae no idea why they treat you poorly.

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We should be paid accordingly and respected for what we do, I agree. But how good we are (or are not) has nothing to do with low pay - that falls with the MTSO who is underbidding 10 other MTSOs to get the contract with the client. That sets your rate, we get a percentage of what the account pays per line.

that's why 'pay is based on experience' is pretty much a flat out in-your-face joke on us.

to noni-another thumbs up! - MT

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You said it so perfectly.

If I receive feedback from QA - (sm)

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which is rare and usually something that goes to the entire team, but even if it is directed to me only, unless it is required, I do not reply. I read the feedback and if it applies to me (as in something I have been doing incorrectly, not that something that applies to everyone else wouldn't apply to me for any other reason), I make note of it and try my best to do it the way they state. If it is something I am doing correctly already, I continue doing what I am doing. If they say something I consider snide, I ignore it and move on with my day. I know that I am not perfect, and neither are they. While I do save all work-related e-mails, I seriously doubt I would ever reply to QA on anything unless they are requiring me to respond or I have proof of inconsistencies in QA, in which case I would politely ask which way they really want it done and supply them with the inconsistent feedback that I have received. It just seems like the best policy to me, what with us being faceless to them and me not wanting to rock the boat and wind up without one. Not to mention that I do not get paid to engage in back and forth e-mailing with them, or even to read the ones they send. I try to waste as little time as possible on anything that is not increasing my paycheck. I do consider it important, just not important enough to waste time trying to get them to see it my way.

I have to reply - me

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I don't want to get into the whole thing, but I have to reply to them. So it's definitely not a waste of time.

Just say, "Thank you for taking the time to do this for me." - Hayseed

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and that you'll take it under advisement, and then sign your name to it and move on. No need to get personal or let it get to ya. They have a job to do. You have a job to do.

:)

Replying to QA - mt2

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You've likely already replied but my advice would be that unless you have specific documentation to back up something you disagree with (and I mean MAJOR documentation), then reply with, Thank you for your feedback. It's been duly noted and taken on board.

That's my standard reply (and if my mgr is reading she knows who I am! LOL!)

replying - qmxbpg

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I did have major documentation regarding a critical error and got an apology. My paycheck, however, was still miniscule so the only satisfaction I got was that my first ever critical error was invalid. I didn't even get the deducted points added back into my audit score.

I do have a question. Does anyone know how MMEs and QAs are paid? Oftentimes I have corrections with my words replaced by the exact words. In the beginning, I would put my glasses on and lean into the monitor and check letter by letter with absolutely no difference between them. When I asked about it, I was told someone simply hit a wrong key. Is someone getting paid for a line by deleting correct words and substituting the same ones?

I dont even read my feedback anymore. I delete - it the moment I check my inbox.

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Deleting feedback - Nell

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You are just the kind of MT I don't want to QA for. We are required to give feedback, which many QA editors find a waste of time and we would rather spend time doing other work. The whole idea behind feedback is not to point out your mistakes but to hopefully teach you something. Your attitude says "I have nothing to learn, I know it all." If you feel that feedback is not sufficient or appropriate, you should contact your QA editor or operations manager. What you are doing is a slap in the face for the ones of us who spend a lot of time giving feedback only to have you delete it without even looking at it. If I had my say you would be fired for that!

Feedback - MnK

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I know why QA is important but when you have 1 telling you to do this and then another QA says no do it this way...well it just gets old and frustrating. Shouldn't QA have it together? What's up with all the contraindications? Makes me just say screw it and do it my way.

''teach you something'' - ranvic

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This is ''just the kind of QA'' that oozes an undeserved attitude of superiority, a legend in her own mind. QA feedback often involves petty nit-picking and personal preferences presented as fact. Obviously, if one is paid hourly, then one has a lot more time to catch typos---QA does not mean ''teacher''. If you fancy yourself a ''teacher'', go to school, get the degree, pay your dues in a classroom, and then we'll talk. In the meantime, try not to injure yourself falling off that high horse you are riding.

Why I prefer no feedback - Alice

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In my case, QA's "feedback" emails usually are only sent to followup on blanks. Though I am getting more used to it as time goes by, a couple of the QAs where I work seem to have the main goal of insulting me, hurting me, not helping. So, instead of receiving direct feedback from QA, I prefer to look up a completed report myself in the database, which we CAN do, and see whatever was filled in for the blank.

Of about six QAs at the company, three of them are actually polite and helpful. The other three are downright rude and hurtful in their emails, at least that is the way that they come across. Whenever I have responded with a question, I often get a very rude response from those three, like, "You just have to have the last word, don't you?", when all I wanted was clarification, not a fight. It is ridiculous.

It is only my observation, but it seems to me that the most "offensive" QA are those who seem to think of the client or the client's account as a personal "child", and are very possessive and protective of "it." At one point, if I hadn't known better, I would have thought that the one QA was responding as if I had injured her child when all I did was leave blanks in a report for a doc who slurred so much that there must have been 10 blanks in it. This was an interesting lesson in sociology/psychology, as I have never had the feeling of thinking about a job or a client or "account" as MY personal baby. UGH.

as a QA Manager - nn

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At the company that I do QA management for, we do not ding for punctation errors per se; however, we do expect the MT to read through the report and have it make sense. When I have pulled up documents, (maybe just even to confirm a patient name, for example), I do a quick read through of the report and I do find mistakes that would GROSSLY affect patient care. I have actually IMd "some of the more senior members of our staff" because of things that I questioned. The company that I work for is a smaller company and I have commented on the fact that if for some reason, people decide to move to a different company, they may be raked over the coals by other QA personnel in other companies. Bottom line, and I am speaking as QA for one company and an MT for another company is that our job is to produce a quality document because yes, a patient's life could be at stake. In my regular MT job, where I transcribe, I have my share of "dictators from Hades" -- I leave a blank, I don't try to guess nor have I ever in my 30 years of experience tried to guess. I leave a blank -- I too, am going through personal financial issues, and yes, with this industry and what it has become, that is a large part of the problem, but sometimes you have to let things go. I noticed another poster mentioning that taking a day or so off may help. So very true.

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